What is the difference between approaches to amending the legislation related to hemp breeding of Luxembourg officials from Ukraine
While officials in Luxembourg are forced to constantly work on improving legislation under public pressure, for some reason the Ukrainian public has not paid attention to the created corruption mechanism by “servants of the people from the bowels of the Ministry of Internal Affairs”. Attention is shifted to lobbying for the adoption of at least the first reading of a rather controversial law, losing sight of the fact that several draft resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in the field of industrial hemp breeding were buried under the informational noise. The prepared draft regulatory acts are intended not only to significantly simplify the work of hemp breeders in Ukraine, but also to create conditions for the legal use of therapeutic hemp in the country, the use of which for industrial purposes (dietary supplements, cosmetics, food) can help a huge number of patients in our country in solving their problems, including health.
Luxembourg's Ministry of Health has submitted a large note (and is reviewing legislation again in an updated version), which outlines the rules for products derived from hemp and THC-containing cannabis, which was a big “surprise” for stores specializing in selling such products (CBD) -the shops). The latter are at a loss what can be sold and which cannabis products are prohibited. The directive is devoted to various uses of hemp plants: industrial, medicinal, food, cosmetic, recreational and tobacco.
According to the adopted document, in the matter of regulating the possibility of using hemp products, it is important to consider which parts of the plant are used for production, as well as its uses, since they do not fall under the same regulatory acts of the country. The Ministry of Health clarifies that technical hemp should not be confused with cannabis. The first has a very low content of the psychoactive substance THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), and the second contains mainly non-psychoactive CBD (cannabidiol). The use of leaves, flowers, stems and seeds should be regulated in different ways.
What can be sold in CBD stores in Luxembourg?
It seems obvious that products with a THC content of less than 0.3% are allowed by analogy with other EU countries, but in reality everything is much more complicated. This indicator is not a threshold for the content of the controlled substance in the finished product, but is only the norm for the content of tetrahydrocannabinol in the crop of industrial hemp. In addition, in Luxembourg you can not find medical hemp or products made on its basis in CBD stores. Products of this kind can only be purchased in hospital pharmacies by prescription.
For the manufacture of food products in the countries of the European Union, technical hemp, seeds and products derived from them are used, in particular hemp oil. Cannabis leaves are used as tinctures, inflorescences cannot be used for this purpose, because they have not yet received the status of “New Food”. Finally, concentrated hemp extracts in the European Union are considered food products without a consumption history until 05/15/1997. These cannabinoid extracts (also called CBD extracts or CBD oils, cannabigerol extracts, etc.) are classified as “New Foods” and require permission for sale pursuant to the relevant EU Directives that entered into force in 2019. But in Luxembourg, these EU norms “do not work,” because the Ministry of Health accurately indicates that CBD oil extract or CBD itself, considered “new food”, is an unauthorized product.
It is also permitted to use the cannabis plant in smoking herbal products, provided that the product has no traces of tobacco and the hemp plant contains less than 0.3% THC. “The list of product ingredients, as well as a certificate of analysis of the level of THC, should be handed over to the leadership of the Ministry of Health of the country before the sale of the product,” state officials warn in publicly published documents.
With regard to cosmetic products, defined as “any substance or mixture intended to come in contact with the surface of the human body,” the use of cannabis derivatives (cannabis resin or extracts) is currently prohibited. In addition, any cosmetic product enriched in CBD, that is, made from concentrated extracts such as crystals or resins, is also prohibited. It is allowed to use only hemp seed oil collected from plants containing THC less than 0.3% as an ingredient in cosmetics.
Regarding cannabis for recreation, the ministry recalls that until the law governing the legal use of psychoactive hemp comes into force, the sale of cannabis, its importation, cultivation and use associated with aggravating circumstances are punished with imprisonment and very heavy fines. The production, export, import, distribution, trade, use and possession of drugs, of which cannabis is a part, should be limited solely to medical and scientific purposes.
Commentary of the Ukrainian Technical Hemp Association
The diametrically opposite norms of Luxembourg legislation for various kinds of hemp products create confusion among producers, sellers and consumers of hemp products, which has an extremely negative effect on the development of hemp breeding in the country. Cannabis growers, supported by the public, require government officials to develop simple, understandable and not inconsistent legal acts regulating the hemp market, therefore, government officials of the country work almost online with the public to improve existing legislation.
The regulatory situation in modern hemp breeding in Luxembourg is clearly exacerbated by EU directives, which introduced the concept of “New Products” to the market. The above-mentioned EU document, after its entry into force, instantly “cut off the market” of thousands of hemp products that received illegal status.
Partially, the situation on the market of modern hemp breeding in Luxembourg repeats the "relative chaos" of the regulatory framework of our country. Using the intricacies of national legislation, in pursuance of regulatory documents of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “officials in uniform” write departmental regulatory acts that directly contradict the current legislation, creating for themselves a corruption backlash regularly used in certain areas of Ukraine. And while officials in Luxembourg are forced, under pressure from the public and the relevant association, to constantly improve legislation, over the past few years, for some reason, the Ukrainian public has not paid attention to the created corruption mechanism by “servants of the people from the bowels of the Ministry of Internal Affairs”. Attention is shifted to lobbying for the adoption of a rather controversial law, losing sight of the fact that several draft resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in the field of industrial hemp breeding were buried under the informational noise.
The prepared draft regulatory acts are intended not only to significantly simplify the work of hemp breeders in Ukraine, but also to create conditions for the legal use of therapeutic hemp in the country, the use of which for industrial purposes (dietary supplements, cosmetics, food) can to help a huge number of citizens of our country in solving their problems, including those related to health.