CBD Largely Banned in NYC

New York City is nine days into a CBD prohibition. Straight from the NYC Health Department website: “As of July 1, 2019, the Health Department is embargoing food and drink products that contain CBD – the products will have to be returned to the supplier or discarded.” And beginning October 1, 2019, NYC will begin fining retailers and food service establishments that sell CBD products.

With this ban, New York joins a number of other large cities, including Los Angeles, Portland (Oregon), San Diego, and Seattle. Each of these cities is relying on the hardline position of the FDA that CBD as a food additive is illegal, period.

It should be noted that the July 1 CBD ban is the latest iteration of a months-long process in NYC where the City has taken an increasingly hardline approach to CBD. As early as last February, the City announced it was banning the sale of CBD in food service establishments. But enforcement has been lax – this newest policy promises to strengthen enforcement and expands the ban to include retailers. We will have to watch and see if this increasingly restrictive approach to CBD in NYC (and other major cities) creates a template for other jurisdictions.