Today marks the launch of the new regulatory body for CBD products in the UK.
The new CBD regulation body, the Association for the Cannabinoid Industry (ACI), brings together leading businesses and experts and will be setting gold standards for the industry worldwide, aiming to nurture a safe, legal and well-regulated CBD market in the UK.
The trade association – which launches today at the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis conference – states that its vision is to ‘create an innovative, sustainable sector that meets the highest standards in product quality, consumer satisfaction and environmental stewardship.’
The regulatory foundation body for the ACI will be the new CBD Quality Charter that will determine whether a company’s product can qualify for a kitemark or not. The charter is based on seven pillars which comprise: legal frameworks; testing; labelling; manufacturing; controlled drugs; marketing ethics; and sustainability and social impact.
CBD companies looking to ensure they are legally compliant, and who would like to carry a quality kitemark on their products, are now able to sign up to become a member.
Creating a regulatory framework
Steve Moore, strategic director for the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis, said: “CBD at the moment is unregulated in the UK. The CBD industry regulation is currently overseen by the Department of Health, the Home Office, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) – it is a complicated business.
“Currently a total of 45% of the public have no confidence that the label of CBD products are consistent with what is actually in the products, and 47% of people are more likely to buy products if they knew that they were regulated.
“This charter is the first attempt to create a regulatory framework built upon legal compliance and the new classification agreed by the European Union.
“Phase one involves researching the market, measuring public opinion policy reports product testing, which we have done – now we are in phase two. As part of this phase we want to get people to commit to the charter, and phase three will be taking audits of the companies. Phase four will be the production of a kitemark once we know these companies are able to meet the quality standards.
“The public can then be clear the products they are buying are compliant with all laws in the UK and the EU, that the products have been properly tested.
“The ACI is currently dealing with policy makers and regulators from the position of having credibility based on three things – quality of members, expertise as a team and commitment to full legal compliance. It is going to be a complex and expensive process, but regulation is a good thing for products that people are using to manage stress, deal with anxiety and in some cases cope with chronic pain.
“At the moment there is no standardisation of analytical testing. Once we have built common protocols and analytical testing this is the foundation that consumers can be confident that products contain what they say.”
Become a member
Companies that hope to carry a kitemark will have to undergo an audit by the ACI and maintain legal compliance throughout their membership.
Click here if you would like to register your CBD company to become a member of the UK’s new CBD regulation body.
It’s not a regulatory body, it’s a private company setting itself up as a trade association in an effort to charge absolutely colossal membership fees to do exactly that same as the existing trade associations are already doing at far lower fees.
Probably more sensible to stick with the trade bodies that already have years of experience in this market – Cannabis Professionals or the Cannabis Trades Association
So far, it seems the U.K. FSA only does one thing, defer to the E.U. Commission which has placed a PROHIBITION model onto CBDs. Requiring a 14-18 month set of regulatory approval quite essentially in the manner the U.S. FDA approach….. no one knows if a approval from the E.U. Commission will happen over the >< 20,000 specific…. while ignoring the 65 million general seizure victims worldwide. It was found 40% of said 65 million get some benefit from consuming CBDs…. but the framework to assure "34,000$" for '20,000' is going to be applied universally/Big Pharma wins… about 65 million people lose.
While I am glad there are activist groups constantly fighting to get a natural solution at low cost.. it is becoming more apparent every day that only Big Business will be allowed into the sector, not only to protect the Big Businesses but to protect the Commission's power to chose which business, which Big Businesses can profit from, what is very essentially, a seed and pail of water and plot of land with sunlight.
This isn't protecting the public, this is denying the public, from solutions. We had 'Pot Prohibition' for almost 80 years, now we see another Prohibition… 80 years have passed and still to this day apparently government is up for sale to the highest bidder- Pharmaceutical companies and government is not for the people or by the people.