(Note: This story has been updated from an earlier version to reflect a deadline extension and to clarify the FDA will forward comments but not make a recommendation.)
Producers and retailers of CBD products have a few more days to try to discourage international health regulators from classifying the substance as a psychotropic drug.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced last month it wants comments about CBD to send to the World Health Organization. The deadline for comments has been extended a week to midnight ET Sept. 20.
The FDA plans to forward the comments to the WHO without recommending an action.
The convention doesn’t currently include CBD. But a decision to add it would trigger new international restrictions on producing and selling CBD, a move that would limit opportunities for entrepreneurs.
A change by the WHO won’t directly affect how the federal government regulates CBD. But CBD producers and patients say that the WHO declining to consider CBD a psychotropic drug could send a powerful signal that the substance has therapeutic value and little potential for abuse.
The FDA didn’t say when it planned to forward the comments to the WHO about CBD and 16 other drugs.
