Richard Blau Featured in Naples Daily News

TAMPA, FL – December 11, 2019 – GrayRobinson's cannabis industry practice group leader, Richard M. Blau, is featured in the Naples Daily News article "FDA Warns 15 Companies About CBD Products, Including Tampa Company." The article examines warnings given by the Food and Drug Administration to 15 companies across the U.S. about selling products that are not approved for humans or pets. One of the companies that received a warning letter was Tampa-based Sunflora Inc., which does business as "Your CBD Store."

A consumer update was also revised, detailing concerns about products made with CBD, or cannabidiol, and the lack of scientific evidence that it is generally recognized as safe in human or animal food. The FDA said it will continue to monitor the marketplace as it works to develop regulations for products that contain cannabis and cannabis-derived compounds.

According to the warning, some of the company’s products don’t meet the definition of dietary supplements while others are "new drugs" that have not gotten the agency’s approval and cannot be marketed across state lines.

The FDA is walking a tightrope because it does not have safety and dosing standards for CBD products, and it lacks scientific data on benefits or harm to humans, proclaims Mr. Blau in the article. "The agency is in a tough spot because it doesn’t have standards and they are in a deregulatory environment," he said.

Mr. Blau explains that federal lawmakers have been providing funding for CBD research yet the federal Drug Enforcement Agency has been slow to issue permits for the research. He estimates it will be a few years before the FDA issues standards for CBD that address human safety, labeling and dosing.

"There is a lot of pressure from the industry for the FDA to hurry up and get it done," he said. "But there are conscientious people in the FDA, to their credit, (who want) to make sure it protects the public."

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