Global demand is growing fast for cannabidiol, or CBD, the cannabinoid believed to hold a plethora of curative properties. Despite the fact that CBD continues to be a controlled substance under U.S. federal law, plenty of companies have been engaged in what could be called a \u201cCBD arms race,\u201d trying to figure out the most efficient ways to produce the cannabinoid.<\/p>\n
So, when a corporation claimed to have derived CBD from hops, a flurry of news stories started to declaim the potential. However, most experts concur that the only way to get hops to produce cannabinoids is through genetic engineering, which means that the cannabinoids are still coming from cannabis genes.<\/p>\n
Back in November, Vancouver-based\u00a0Isodiol International<\/a>\u00a0issued a\u00a0press release<\/a>\u00a0boasting of plans to begin U.S. sales of \u201cImmunAG, the market\u2019s first non-cannabis cannabidiol (CBD) product derived from the hops plant.\u201d Then, just this month, San Diego-based\u00a0Medical Marijuana Inc<\/a>.\u00a0issued its own\u00a0press release<\/a>\u00a0announcing similar plans and making similar claims about the same product, in a partnership with\u00a0Peak Health<\/a>\u00a0of San Francisco. The two firms will market the CBD product as Real Scientific Humulus Oil (RHO-K<\/a>), as humulus is the scientific name for hops.<\/p>\n ImmunAg\u2019s website<\/a>\u00a0says the company is based in Goa, India, and boasts of being \u201cthe world\u2019s only supplier of healing extract from the patent pending \u2018Humulus kriya\u2019 plant.\u201d It describes ImmunAg as a combination of CBD with \u03b2-caryophyllene and humulene.\u00a0These last two are terpenes also found in the hop plant.<\/p>\n In its coverage of the Medical Marijuana Inc announcement, Denver-based\u00a0Westworld<\/a> called hops-derived CBD a \u201cloophole\u201d in the federal stricture on the cannabinoid. The account stated that because\u00a0humulus kriya<\/i>\u00a0\u201cis a variety of hop, not cannabis, the oil is legal in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n Industry website\u00a0Merry Jane<\/a>\u00a0similarly hyped an \u201cinteresting way around the problem\u201d of federal stricture \u2014 \u201ccreating a new CBD extract sourced from unquestionably legal plants.\u201d<\/p>\n Alas, such verbiage is misleading. It is CBD itself that is listed by the\u00a0Drug Enforcement Administration<\/a>\u00a0as a controlled substance \u2014 regardless of how it is derived. Any ambiguity about this was removed on April 30 of this year, when the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals\u00a0ruled in litigation<\/a>\u00a0that CBD was a controlled substance. In the case, the\u00a0Hemp Industries Association<\/a>\u00a0argued that since CBD is not actually listed in the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, it is not proscribed. However, the court accepted the DEA\u2019s argument that since it is found in cannabis, it is automatically covered by the law.<\/p>\n This is expected to change \u2014 the DEA is obliged to reconsider the status of CBD pursuant to the\u00a0Food & Drug Administration<\/a>\u2018s June\u00a0approval of a CBD product<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 GW Pharmaceuticals\u2019\u00a0Epidiolex<\/a>. But even if the DEA does reschedule or deschedule CBD, the plant it is derived from is not relevant.<\/p>\n And many are skeptical about the claim of hop-derived CBD altogether.\u00a0Vice Money<\/a>, in its write-up on the Isodiol announcement, flatly stated: \u201cScientists, however, are questioning the authenticity of that discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n The article quoted Isodiol\u2019s communications director Christopher Hussey saying:\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a powerful product and it\u2019s not associated with the cannabis plant, yet we have managed to proof [sic] that it has the same effect as CBD from cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n But also quoted is Jonathan Page, an adjunct professor at University of British Columbia\u2019s Botany Department who was openly skeptical: \u201cIt\u2019s really puzzling to me. As far as scientific literature goes, there has been no reported case of CBD being isolated from the hop plant.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, Page added, the hop plant is not even believed to contain CBD. \u201cTo Isodiol, I say show us the evidence. A corporate press release is not scientific evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2028Cannabiz Journal<\/a>, in a write-up this April, stated in its opening sentence that Isodiol \u201cmay have found a way around the DEA and FDA stranglehold on access to cannabidiol.\u201d<\/p>\n But dig several paragraphs deeper, and Cannabiz quotes Dr. Ethan Russo, former president of the\u00a0International Cannabinoid Research Society<\/a>\u00a0and now a senior medical advisor for\u00a0GW Pharmaceuticals<\/a>. Here\u2019s what he had to say: \u201cHops (Humulus lupulus) is also from the Cannabaceae family, and the closest plant relative of cannabis. However, hops does not contain CBD naturally. So, if there were hops that produced CBD, it would only be after it had been genetically modified artificially, a step that I certainly do not endorse. Alternatively, a hops extract might have CBD added, but that would be a marketing ploy with no real scientific, medical, or legal advantage in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n Legally and scientifically, the claims about this product are highly dubious at the very best. It would be nice if journalists would put the caveats closer to the first sentence (even at the expense of clicks), and remember Public Enemy\u2019s old adage \u2014\u00a0don\u2019t believe the hype.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/b>\u00a0do you think cannabis genes should be genetically engineered into other plants?<\/p>\n The post Hops Don\u2019t Contain Cannabinoids: Experts Push Back on Corporate Claims<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Global demand is growing fast for cannabidiol, or CBD, the cannabinoid believed to hold a plethora of curative properties. Despite the fact that CBD continues to be a controlled substance under U.S. federal law, plenty of companies have been engaged in what could be called a \u201cCBD arms race,\u201d tryingContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5547,713,605,50,136,4967,848,5548,815,3156,3157,2622,5549,5550,5551,2638,53,1305,5552,5553,5554,1598],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28791,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28790\/revisions\/28791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2026 and the Small Print Taketh Away<\/h4>\n
\n
\nRead More: Hops Don\u2019t Contain Cannabinoids: Experts Push Back on Corporate Claims<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"