Marijuana, hemp, cultivation – illustration photo
Prague – The planned ban on the sale of food and dietary supplements containing cannabidiol CBD and other similar substances obtained from hemp will lead to that manufacturers just rename their products and start labeling them, for example, as a collector's item or raw material for further processing. This was told to ČTK by the owner of Konoteka Jan Šimr, which sells products containing CBD and other hemp products. ČTK investigates the statement of the Ministry of Agriculture, which informed about the upcoming ban.
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Foods with CBD cannot be marketed in any country of the Union because their effects on human health have not been sufficiently scientifically investigated, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Tuesday. On the Czech market, these products are most often sold in the form of oils, tinctures, jellies, candies, candies or capsules. ČTK is investigating the current statement of the Ministry of Agriculture.
According to the EU Regulation on Novel Foods, products containing CBD are considered so-called novel foods because they were not consumed on a significant scale in member states before May 1997. They may therefore not be placed on the market until their safety has been assessed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).< /p>
The ban is being prepared in the Czech Republic by the State Agricultural and Food Inspection (SZPI). The ministry did not say when it will start paying.
Šimr called the planned ban absurd, according to him, CBD has proven to help people. According to his words, he has already gotten used to the fact that this segment of the business is complex and there are often meaningless prohibitions in it. “Cannabis helps and is worth paying attention to. And we will continue despite another absurd ban. We have thousands of customers behind us,” he added. If the substance CBD were to be outlawed directly, it would only lead to sales on the black market, he believes.
According to Šimr, the market for CBD and hemp products in the Czech Republic is huge, in the order of hundreds of millions of crowns and it grows every year. “We have hundreds of customers for whom CBD helps with sleep problems, stress management or regeneration after sports performances,” he said.
He also considers it strange that a ban on this substance is being prepared at a time when the legalization of cannabis is being discussed. He also points out that it may be the lobby of pharmaceutical companies. “CBD is a substance that clearly helps people, and large pharmaceutical companies do not have control over it and take away their profits,” he added.
Jiří Stabla, the founder of the Stabla brand, which produces hemp products, considers the position of the Ministry of Agriculture and the EU to be hostile to all serious producers. “There are other organizations, such as the WHO, which, on the other hand, do not doubt the safety of hemp CBD extracts with a very low THC content,” he said. According to him, the Food Inspection Agency wants to mask the failure in supervising the sale of the so-called HHC, which has significant psychotropic effects almost comparable to marijuana, by proceeding against CBD. It appears, for example, in the form of candies, drops or products for smoking.
Currently, the status of the herbal stimulant kratom from the leaves of a tropical tree is also being discussed at the government level. It is freely available in the Czech Republic, although its excessive use can lead to addiction. It is not an approved nutritional supplement or food, and is therefore sold as a collector's item.
Health Minister Vlastimil Válek (TOP 09) said in mid-February that if another legislative regulation cannot be prepared within two months, he wants to include kratom on the list of addictive substances. However, according to him, it would be better to adopt legislative rules for the regulation of kratom and other addictive substances of plant origin, which is being prepared by the national anti-drug coordinator Jindřich Vobořil.
