Bill introduced to make CBD food products legal in Maine

Those who want to make the sale of edible CBD products legal in Maine rallied at the State House on Tuesday.

Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a hemp-derived product that is not a federally approved food additive.

The state has ordered all stores that sell edible CBD products to remove them from their shelves.

"I'm interested in solutions so I just want to move forward. It doesn't matter how we got here, it matters where we go."

Representative Craig Hickman, introduced a bill to clarify that the production and sale of CBD food products be allowed under Maine law.

It has been sold in many stores and small businesses all over the state for two years now.

"I am here today to make sure that our hemp farmers and our producers and our retailers will not lose their shirts and will continue to do businesses as usual."

Hickman says a public hearing could happen as early as February 19th.

"We don't want to be putting our small business owners out of business, we don't want to be putting our hemp farmers in jeopardy. We want to make sure that people earn their incomes and pay their employees and give the people of the state of Maine what they want for their own health and well-being."

We're told CBD edibles *can* be sold in the state to patients who have a medical marijuana card.

"We just basically got shut down with them telling us we can't sell our product in edibles anymore when that's never been a problem in the past and it kind of came unforeseen. We didn't see this coming, they didn't give us any warnings."

Passage of the 2018 Farm Act triggered the change in policy.

The act legalized hemp, the cannabis crop that's the primary source of CBD, sparking questions within DHHS.

"The federal government just making industrial hemp legal and then to follow up with this is just pretty ironic."