CBD Oil in South Africa
CBD Sales and Imports in South Africa have been impacted by new scheduling requirements announced by SAHPRA.
Types of CBD products impacted will include CBD extracts such as CBD Oil tinctures and other products made with CBD oil, CBD distillate or CBD isolate.
Until recently, CBD was not specifically mentioned in legislation or regulations, and while the sale and import of cannabis products was legal but highly regulated, CBD remained in a grey zone.
The news comes shortly after announcement of the first Medicinal Cannabis License in South Africa being awarded to Afriplex and House of Hemp.
South African CBD legality now in line with other medicinal cannabis nations
South Africa and SAHPRA have now fallen into line with most nations which are part of PIC/S GMP or medicinal cannabis programs to specify that CBD products are now Schedule 4… if they are based on a registered product. Unregistered products fall into Schedule 7 along with heroin and other drugs without medicinal value. (Note that drug schedules vary widely between nations – with Schedule 7 in South Africa being equivalent to Schedule I in the USA or Schedule 9 in Australia).
South African CBD Boom to be short lived
Reported by the Traditional and Natural Health Alliance the announcement will have the effect of blocking imports and banning the sale of CBD products in South Africa.
The announcement will crush the hopes of many patients, health professionals and businesses who welcomed the lack of regulation as it allowed access to CBD oil when other cannabis is legally inaccessible.
While disappointing to these groups and cannabis activists, this response is predictable and coherent when viewed in the current international cannabis and pharmaceutical regulatory environment.
