Health authorities in New York City have placed an \u201cembargo\u201d on inventory and are threatening enforcement action against eateries, cafes and cocktail lounges that offer food and drink prepared with the fashionable cannabinoid CBD.<\/p>\n
In January, inspectors from the city\u00a0Department of Health & Mental Hygiene<\/a>\u00a0started to \u201cembargo\u201d\u00a0CBD<\/a>\u00a0comestibles and beverages, which means that restaurants and other establishments are on notice to stop offering them. So far, officials have placed five establishments on notice, according to the foodie website\u00a0Eater<\/a>, which broke the story. The first on-site embargo enforcements took place last week.<\/p>\n \u201cRestaurants in\u00a0New York City<\/a>\u00a0are not permitted to add anything to food or drink that is not approved as safe to eat. The Health Department takes seriously its responsibility to protect New Yorkers\u2019 health,\u201d the department said in a statement, adding that CBD has not been \u201cdeemed safe as a food additive.\u201d<\/p>\n The statement said the department will start issuing fines of between $200 and $650, depending on the quantity found, starting July 1.<\/p>\n On Feb. 1, a health inspector arrived at the\u00a0Fat Cat Kitchen<\/a>\u00a0on Manhattan\u2019s East 14th Street, sealing the restaurant\u2019s supply of CBD-infused baked goods in a plastic bag marked \u201cembargoed.\u201d Fat Cat proprietor CJ Holm told\u00a0Eater<\/a>\u00a0for a follow-up story that she was still in possession of the goods, but is barred from selling them. She complained that she was unable to get clear information when she had earlier called the Health Department asking how to comply.<\/p>\n The\u00a0New York Times<\/a>\u00a0noted the lack of clarity: \u00a0\u201cWhether the compound is legal has been a source of confusion. In June, the federal Food and Drug Administration approved the first CBD prescription drug to be sold in the United States. But the Drug Enforcement Administration has said CBD is illegal because it comes from cannabis, a banned Schedule 1 drug. And on its website, the FDA says products with CBD cannot be sold as dietary supplements or in food that crosses state lines.\u201d<\/p>\n But the Times ironically adds to the confusion by failing to mention the federal Farm Bill\u00a0passed in December<\/a>, which\u00a0removed hemp-derived CBD<\/a>\u00a0from the schedule system. The Times\u2019 headline is also misleading: \u201cNew York City Cracks Down on CBD Edibles, Saying the Cannabis Derivative Is Unsafe.\u201d\u00a0Actually, no. City authorities are not saying CBD is unsafe \u2014 only that it has not yet been approved for use in food and drink under the\u00a0FDA regulations<\/a>.<\/p>\n In other words, the Times is engaging in baseless fear-mongering, when what is really at issue here is that the FDA regulations have not yet caught up with federal law.<\/p>\n Also feeling the pinch is\u00a0Adriaen Block<\/a>,\u00a0an eatery in the Queens neighborhood of Astoria which bills itself as \u201cthe first CBD restaurant and bar in NYC.\u201d It opened in August, and got off to a \u201creally good start.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s what owner George Csonka, a Budapest-born longtime New York restaurateur, said when contacted by Cannabis Now. \u201cIt was a great formula, we were booming,\u201d Csonka said. \u201cNow sales are down 40 percent. This is really affecting our business.\u201d<\/p>\n Csonka was quick to add that he isn\u2019t looking for a fight. \u201cWe do want to comply and be a good citizen for New York. But before the city cracks down and begins confiscating product and imposing fines of up to $600, they should have a regulation issued and give small business a chance to comply. Simply cracking down without any written rule, that\u2019s what pisses me off.\u201d<\/p>\n Adriaen Block is still offering its full menu, but without the CBD tincture that could previously be added by request. \u201cEverything is\u00a0a la carte,\u201d<\/i>\u00a0he said. \u201cNothing is pre-made. CBD gummy bears are still available, because that\u2019s a retail item, not food, and we don\u2019t produce them.\u201d<\/p>\n Optimistically, he concluded: \u201cHopefully this will prove temporary. It\u2019s my opinion that this is going to be\u00a0resolved as soon as the Health Department and FDA find the rules and regulations for this new industry. Hopefully soon. This business is not going away. New York City should figure out how to make money from it. As soon as the city figures that out, we should be back to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n New York City isn\u2019t alone in unleashing authorities on purveyors of CBD comestibles. On Feb. 5, more than 100 people gathered for a rally outside the Maine statehouse in Augusta to protest a \u201cremoval order\u201d by the Pine Tree State\u2019s health authority. The rally drew CBD users, hemp farmers, medical marijuana caregivers and retailers of CBD products.\u00a0It was held to coincide with the introduction of a bill that would suspend the removal order, giving stakeholders some time while the legislature hashes out a solution, the\u00a0Portland Press Herald<\/a>\u00a0reports.<\/p>\n In Ohio, the state\u00a0Department of Agriculture<\/a>\u00a0is similarly working with health authorities and police agencies statewide to \u201cembargo\u201d ingestible products containing CBD.<\/p>\n Kate Zaidan, the proprietor of\u00a0Dean\u2019s Mediterranean Imports<\/a>\u00a0in Cincinnati\u2019s\u00a0Findlay Market<\/a>, said city health inspectors visited her shop Feb. 5 and told her to stop selling CBD products or risk having her inventory \u201cembargoed.\u201d<\/p>\n Zaidan told the\u00a0Cincinnati Enquirer<\/a>: \u201cThey basically came in and laid down the law and said we were no longer allowed to carry any CBD products. The saddest thing is my customers no longer have access to something that was really helping them.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US<\/b>, do you regularly eat or drink any CBD-infused products?<\/p>\n The post New York City\u2019s CBD Crackdown Worries Restaurateurs<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Health authorities in New York City have placed an \u201cembargo\u201d on inventory and are threatening enforcement action against eateries, cafes and cocktail lounges that offer food and drink prepared with the fashionable cannabinoid CBD. In January, inspectors from the city\u00a0Department of Health & Mental Hygiene\u00a0started to \u201cembargo\u201d\u00a0CBD\u00a0comestibles and beverages, whichContinue 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":[50,136,6849,7535,7536,4154,7537,1170,90,208,593,7538],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32752"}],"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=32752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32753,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32752\/revisions\/32753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Jaundiced Media Coverage\u00a0of the CBD Crackdown<\/h4>\n
A CBD Restaurateur Speaks<\/h4>\n
Maine and Ohio, Too<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: New York City\u2019s CBD Crackdown Worries Restaurateurs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"