Cannabidiol is widely available and popular. In spite of that, those who work for the US Department of Defense cannot use it, said the Army Substance Abuse Program’s manager Katina Oates. That is because of the DOD CBD policy.
Oates was referring to CBD items, which have become more popular due to civilian ads that touted their advantages as stress busters, painkillers, antidepressant-like items and more.
The latest catchphrase in the cannabis industry is this: “Cannabidiol is everywhere”. That is another way of saying a wide range of products include cannabidiol. The other CBD-related thing that comes close to its popularity is the debate around its legality. Just search for the keyword ‘CBD military 2020’, and you may come across many resources that discuss its legal aspects for military service people.
Oates told military members not to mistake the quality of such items being prevalent for its state of being legal. Soldiers are banned from utilizing any form of hemp item, whether some jurisdictions have legalized it or not.
Cannabidiol is not regulated, whereas every hemp CBD product contains small quantities of tetrahydrocannabinol. For those reasons, the Department of Defense regards it as an illegal drug. Therefore, its utilization is not authorized for not just service members but also government civilians.
That classification is a touch surprising because of the following reasons.
- The US Food and Drug Administration allows the trade, possession and use of low THC CBD products. For your information, those are the same hemp derivatives that the US DOD considers illicit.
- The Drug Enforcement Administration removed cannabidiol from its list of controlled substances.
Another interesting thing is that it is the same factor, i.e., THC content, that causes the FDA to deem hemp CBD goods legal. That is because research has shown that 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol could not make the user to be stoned out.
It appears that the negative association around marijuana, especially THC, is causing the DOD to take a cautious stance on hemp CBD items. For one fact, THC is associated with marijuana’s high-inducing effects. While those effects are likely only in higher than 0.3% doses, just that mere fact itself seems to have factored into the DOD’s policy on CBD.
That is not to put the DOD in a bad light, though. Many other private and government organizations in the US and elsewhere treat hemp CBD in the same way as the DOD does.
