Dear Governor Newsom:
I write on behalf of 5.4 million Californians – who rely on non-intoxicating CBD (cannabidiol) products every day for managing pain, seizures, PTSD, and other debilitating conditions – to strongly and respectfully urge you to revise your September 6th executive action to ensure continued consumer access to non-intoxicating CBD that Californians have relied on for more than a decade (and which was made accessible in all 50 states in 2018 by Congress).
While your executive action is well intentioned as it relates to synthetic and intoxicating THC products that have been masqueraded to California consumers as “CBD”, the action needlessly captures non-intoxicating CBD and does violence to thousands of California parents whose children rely on CBD for seizures, autism, and other life-altering challenges that pharmaceuticals do not help.
There is absolutely no evidence that full spectrum, hemp-derived CBD is a threat to public health. To the contrary, numerous studies by prominent scientific institutions, e.g., Johns Hopkins, have long shown that natural CBD products, derived from hemp plants, contain very low, non-intoxicating levels of THC, making them safe for consumers. In contrast, intoxicating and synthetic delta-8 products can be hazardous, as they are chemically manufactured with acids and solvents that are unnatural, poorly regulated, and their long-term health implications are unknown. Due to the extremely low levels of THC in CBD products, any public health regulations should be careful to differentiate between these products.
The story of CBD in the United States began in my living room 14 years ago when my daughter Charlotte was seizing around the clock. She was suffering 1200 grand mal seizures a month. I worked together with state and local officials and a local grower that produced hemp precisely to my specifications. I fed Charlotte cannabidiol oil extracted from the hemp into her feeding tube – and a miracle happened. Her seizures all but stopped.
Our Coalition of families across America successfully led a movement over a period of years to ensure access to CBD in all 50 states, which Congress overwhelmingly ensured in the 2018 Farm Bill. However, this 14-year journey was all but wiped out in a single 30-minute press conference that threw the lives of so many families across California into chaos, and the consequences are real.
Take for example Nicole Bronough of Coronado whose 14-year-old son Brett (Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome) went from 600 seizures a month to zero on full-spectrum CBD. Or Stephanie Bohn of Los
Angeles whose 10-year-old daughter Sadie (Rett Syndrome) just celebrated being seizure free for a year thanks to CBD. Or Nazy Nouri of Northridge whose 19-year-old daughter’s (Kiana – intractable epilepsy) entire quality of life depends on the availability of CBD. Under your emergency regulations, these families will be faced with the hard choice of whether to move from their communities they love or break the law, as traveling to dispensaries is just not a realistic option for them. Not to mention, these products do not exist in California dispensaries currently and not a single CBD company has signaled that they will offer them in the state in the future.
This executive action is not supported by California law or science and should not take effect. First, there is absolutely no evidence that non-intoxicating, hemp-derived CBD poses a public health threat to California consumers; and, therefore, at a minimum, these regulations should be subject to the normal 45-day public comment period required by California regulatory procedure – rather than the mere five days being afforded to our families.
Second, this action overrides a process being pursued by the California legislature, which tabled a bill just days prior to your executive action as the legislature contemplates, among other considerations, how to thoughtfully differentiate intoxicating THC products from CBD.
Third, these ‘emergency regulations’ are overly broad and fail to consider alternative solutions that have been adopted by other states to ensure CBD access – solutions that have been presented to you and your staff by our Coalition in the recent months.
Like you, we support efforts to ensure children do not have access to harmful and intoxicating products. But your action as crafted does not differentiate between such products and safe and life-saving CBD on which our families rely. Other states have successfully accomplished your stated goal with narrowly tailored restrictions without harming the sick kids or disabled veterans who use CBD, such as Virginia. There is no reason that California cannot do the same.
If the goal is to truly promote public health and act in the best interest of children, then we ask that you pause to let a substantive and scientific process lead to sound policy. This is a matter of life or death for many children in the state. We ask that you hear our pleas and not do harm where good is the shared objective.
Sincerely,
Paige Figi
Executive Director &
CBD Pioneer Mother
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