Health product still illegal in Idaho
BY DANA DUGAN
Cannabidiol, a marijuana extract, also known as CBD, is a game changer. It’s non-psychoactive, doesn’t cause a high that’s easy to produce, legal in most states, and is highly effective as an anti-seizure, anti-nausea, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer complementary medical supplement.
Hemp oil, used for cooking and for body care, is unlike cannabidiol as it is extracted from the seeds of the plant.
That has not stopped the State of Idaho from keeping it illegal despite the fact that even states that don’t allow medical marijuana have passed laws allowing the use of the marijuana extract, including Utah.
The Idaho Legislature’s State Affairs Committee voted 12-4 in April of 2015 to approve a bill that would provide a legal defense for the use of CBD to treat intractable epilepsy and other seizure disorders. However, Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter vetoed the bill, saying patient outcomes are “more speculative than scientific.”
Instead of approving the natural plant form of CBD, Otter wanted legislators to investigate access to Epidiolex, a pure pharmaceutical grade of CBD, through an FDA-approved clinical trial.
In fact, CBD has a significant advantage as a medicine, since health professionals prefer treatments with minimal side effects, and patients prefer a natural supplement, which would disqualify Epidiolex. Meanwhile, health food store merchants yearn for clarity regarding the legal status of CBD oil derived from industrial hemp with less than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis.
In July of this year, a stock of CBD was confiscated from both Big Wood Nutrition in Hailey and NourishMe in Ketchum by the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office narcotics task force.
On July 25, the Idaho State Police were notified that CBD had been purchased in the Wood River Valley.
“Our detectives from ISP, out of the Jerome office, reported that a person came in to a Gooding health clinic with a container of CBD,” said Steve Harkins, chief deputy with the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office.
“That person purchased it from Big Wood Nutrition,” said Harkins. “They (ISP) notified the sheriff’s office task force, and we tracked down Big Wood and NourishMe in Ketchum. Our detectives went there and told them it was illegal, gave them a warning and confiscated the CBD from the stores.”
Owner of Big Wood Nutrition, Kristin Charnholm, said the “older, married couple” who’d purchased the CBD were regular customers of hers. The couple also bought CBD online.
Harkins said it was clear that Julie Johnson, owner of NourishMe, was in the dark as to the legal status of the cannabidiol. The product had been ordered in a small batch from a small company who called the store with an offer. There are many items Johnson orders in similar fashion.
According to Charnholm, when the couple went to the Gooding clinic for rehab, the nurses asked the husband, who was the patient, what prescriptions and supplements he was taking. When he showed them the CBD for pain, the nurse informed them it was illegal, and then called the police.
“They tracked it back to us, and the task force detectives, Christine Clinton and Mike Abaid, came in with documents from the state,” Charnholm said. “They were here for an hour, talking. I even gave them a brochure from the company that showed the seed-to-shelf aspect. They felt bad. They said they were just told to take it. They put it in an evidence bag and I called my sales rep.”
Charnholm checked with other health food stores in Idaho, including a store in Meridian, where it had also been confiscated the same day.
Charnholm said opiate use is down in states where CBD is legal. In fact, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) did a 2013 study on the use of medical marijuana for pain management. It found that the use of “prescription drugs for which medical marijuana could serve as a clinical alternative fell significantly once a medical marijuana law was implemented.”
The confiscated goods from both NourishMe and Big Wood Nutrition were valued at nearly $1,000.