Lawmakers in Mississippi have warned the public that no CBD sold in the state is safe.
Officials from the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and the Mississippi Department of Health held a joint press conference to warn consumers that there is little oversight in the fast-growing industry.
“We have no idea what ingredients or amounts are in these products and without proper labelling, you do not know what you are consuming and that is dangerous,” Marshall Fisher, Commissioner of Public Safety, told broadcaster WTOK.
CBD products are a murky legal area in many US states and the confusion is compounded by clashing state and federal laws.
John Dowdy, director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, added: “Testing of CBD products purchased around the state have shown that the overwhelming majority of CBD products are mislabelled.
“A large number of the products contain narcotics that are illegal under both state and federal law.
“The public safety and health concerns arising from the sale and use of these products are alarming.”
Most cannabidiol products were made legal by December’s ‘Farm Bill’, which legalised the cultivation of industrial hemp, from which CBD can be derived.
Chicago-based cannabis research firm Brightfield Group reports that sales of CBD products are expected to reach $5 billion this year.
An Illinois lawmaker has put forward a bill to introduce lab testing for CBD products.
The Democrat representative for Deerfield Bob Morgan has introduced legislation to force all CBD goods sold in the state to meet testing requirements developed by the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
