U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb's impending departure may push back long-awaited regulations on hemp and CBD, according to experts involved in those industries.

Rick Weissman, the president of hemp products maker High Falls Extracts, said Gottlieb, who announced Tuesday he will leave the FDA at the end of the month, supported hemp and CBD regulatory efforts.

“Scott Gottlieb was a voice of reason and someone who has respect for CBD adoption,” Weissman said, adding, “All this does with Gottlieb leaving is push back the timeline for regulations.”

While there is speculation of what those regulations could be, no one knows for sure and it will largely depend on who replaces Gottlieb as the head of the FDA. Weissman said those regulations could include independent third-party testing, which his company already does.

“We're staying ahead of the curve from a moral standpoint,” Weissman explained. “It's also smart business, I think. We're concerned about our clientele and we're also doing what we think the FDA might start asking others to do down the line.”

David Feldman, a partner and team lead of the cannabis industry group at Duane Morris in New York, said the pushback has caused confusion among clients.

“There is tremendous confusion in the marketplace right now concerning what is and isn't legal in hemp and CBD,” Feldman said. “We are comfortable as to knowing what we know is true. There is a lot of uncertainty as to what operators can and can't do.”

Feldman said he is telling clients that there will be a path for legal hemp and legal CBD products, but that path does not yet exist. He said there is a process in place already for companies seeking approval for drugs with CBD in them, however there is still a question of what the approval process will be for food and beverages containing CBD.

Thomas Zuber, managing partner at Zuber Lawler & Del Duca in Los Angeles, said he also believes the main impact is companies will just have to wait a little longer for regulations.

“I think it will not have too big of an impact as compared to what would have happened if Gottlieb stayed,” Zuber said. “That's assuming that Trump doesn't pick an extreme replacement. Trump doesn't seem to be particularly inclined. Having said that, I don't know that there is going to be too much of a difference in policy.”

Zuber said the FDA should not make those regulations too burdensome.

“What's important from the standpoint of the U.S. is that the global economy is changing dramatically because of CBD and hemp,” Zuber said. “It is in the interest of the United States to not overregulate. It could diminish our ability to compete with the rest of the world.”

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After Gottlieb's FDA departure, what's next for cannabis regulations?

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