Challenges facing hemp products, and the absence of federal regulation, were spotlighted last week during a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
On April 9, during a hearing focused on restoring trust in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and rooting out illegal products, a prominent lawyer in the hemp market requested federal regulation of hemp products, concluding his opening statement with a plea: "The hemp industry may be unique in that we are coming to Congress to ask: Please regulate us."
"Hemp's policy success has always been a bipartisan hallmark, and it's no wonder: Hemp products are made in the U.S.A., harvested from crops grown by American farmers, manufactured by innovative U.S. entrepreneurs, and sold by small businesses dotting the nation," Jonathan Miller, general counsel to the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, said during the hearing. "Unfortunately, the U.S. hemp industry continues to encounter avoidable bureaucratic headwinds in the marketplace. And this turmoil is due in large part to statements, actions and indecisions of the FDA."
Nobody from FDA testified during the hearing. Those who appeared alongside Miller to testify included: Guy Bentley, director of consumer freedom with Reason Foundation; Richard Williams, senior affiliated scholar with Mercatus Center; Shabbir Imber Safdar, executive director of Partnership for Safe Medicines; and David Kessler, former FDA Commissioner under U.S. presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
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