Masterarbeit

Regulatory aspects concerning extracts from cannabis with low Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol content

Diane Kleinjohann (2017)

Summary
Language: English
Cannabis is a dangerous drug with serious potential risk for addiction. This is what most people think of hearing the terms "cannabis", "hemp", "marijuana", "hash", "weed" or "pot". That is because these terms are often and erroneously taken for synonyms, only thinking of the intoxicating, psychotropic effect caused by the cannabinoid Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Anything related to cannabis is therefore automatically linked to being harmful due to its excessive misuse as a recreational drug.
But as for many substances, it is often a matter of quantity of the respective compound which makes its effects caused either harmful or helpful: "The dose makes the poison" or in Latin "Sola dosis facit venenum" as Paracelsus said. In fact, cannabis for medicinal purposes as well as cannabis extracts as or in medicinal products gain in importance. But there is not only one sort of cannabis and there is not only THC present in the plants. Currently the second most studied cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) is in the focus of interest and many discussions arise especially in terms of its use as medicinal product or food supplement: The legal and regulatory handling of CBD is quite divergent in many countries which is the result of an immense uncertainty that has already lead to very strict regulations in some countries.
This thesis deals with the current legal and regulatory status of both industrial hemp and CBD and assesses their impact on the production of extracts made from industrial hemp in Germany as well as marketing possibilities of products containing such extracts either as medicinal products or food supplements for human use in Germany and the United States of America (USA). This thesis ends with a personal rating of the author concerning the legal and regulatory standards applied to CBD.
Pages: 63, Annexes: pages: 18