Legal sale of CBD products begins in Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - On Monday, June 24, the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control (ATC) issued its first permits to allow the legal sale of hemp-derived CBD products.

RELATED: Lawmakers approve industrial hemp, CBD product regulations

This comes three weeks after lawmakers approved a bill during the regular session to legalize and regulate the products. Governor John Bel Edwards signed the bill into law June 6. It allows hemp-derived CBD products with a THC concentration of less than 0.3% to be legally sold in the state. It also prohibits the sale or processing of hemp for inhalation, as well as the sale of alcoholic beverages containing CBD. Food and beverage products containing CBD are also banned unless the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves CBD as a food additive.

“ATC employees have worked diligently to process the influx of CBD applications in just a short amount of time. The agency is ready to provide the necessary support for this new industry in Louisiana,” said ATC Commissioner Juana Marine-Lombard.

The office says the temporary permits expire Feb. 29, 2020. Permanent permits will be issued after ATC gets certification from the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) that applicants’ products comply with state law.

"This is not a trend medicine, Grace Apothecary CBD shop owner James Wolfe said. “It’s something that will revolutionize the future.”

Wolfe said he feels the new permits validate his business. He designed the interior to look like a coffee shop, part of a broad push to make customers feel comfortable for the remedy that’s beginning to shed its status as a taboo.

“The way we built the shop was to target grandmothers, soccer moms, and people who aren’t going to a head shop," he said.

The permit application is available online here. The full list of businesses with completed permits as of June 24 is below:

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