We hear that talks held earlier this month between hemp industry representatives and the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) were “constructive.”
The meeting was arranged in the wake of some confusion caused by a recently released MHRA “review” that basically designated CBD as a medicine. Industry reps on hand for the meeting, held earlier this month following release of the MHRA review — and which rattled some UK CBD suppliers and sellers — were armed with a recent European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) position paper on CBD which was reported as favorably received. “MHRA was excited and happy about the EIHA . . . paper; that’s definitely something they can work with,” one person who attended the meeting remarked. Most uplifting was a report that MHRA had directly contacted some CBD sellers — such as the Holland & Barrett health food chain, a big UK health food distributor — to tell them they can continue CBD sales if the recommended daily dose does not exceed 200 mg. But here again, spin: Still, as in the recent misfortune in the USA (see above), expect there to be an effect on the market as this anxiety moved rather extensively media-wise in the UK, rattling the value chain down to UK CBD consumers.
