This Week in CBD: April 26, 2019

A recent report suggests that taking CBD oil on your next international flight may not be a great idea.

CBD-related confiscations and arrests have “skyrocketed” in the last six months at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, according to an investigation by local news station NBC 5.

International travelers are at risk of being detained and having their CBD seized if it tests positive for THC, even if only in trace amounts. Recent arrests included a 71-year-old woman who was jailed on felony charges after she was caught with a vial of CBD oil.

GNC is the latest national retail chain to announce that it is now carrying CBD products.

The health and wellness retailer will be offering products from the brands Physician’s Grade and Myaderm in stores in 23 states and the District of Columbia.

Iowa’s legislature sent a hemp bill to the governor’s desk on Wednesday. The bill will clear the way for the state’s farmers to grow and sell the crop under the authority of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

Several other states made progress on hemp legislation this week, including Connecticut, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Washington, and Florida.

And speaking of Florida, an article from this week’s Tampa Bay Times took a deep dive into the state’s CBD industry.

While Florida lawmakers hash out new regulations for hemp and CBD, entrepreneurs in the state aren’t waiting for permission to launch new businesses or products.

The problem is that the Florida Department of Agriculture says that cannabis derivatives like CBD can’t be sold in Florida under current law. This puts CBD business owners in a precarious position as they wait for their state to pass and implement new rules.

The CBD brand Functional Remedies has announced that they will be partnering with Lhasa OMS, a distributor of acupuncture needles.

According to Fuctional Remedies’ CEO, “We look forward to continuing to expand our presence in and break through alternative additional health markets throughout 2019.”

There is a clinically significant interaction between CBD and a common drug given after organ transplants, according to a new article in the American Journal of Transplantation.

Tacrolimus is an immunosuppressive drug that helps to prevent the body from rejecting the new organ after a transplant. In the case cited in the article, a patient who was taking both high doses of CBD and tacrolimus showed a three-fold increase in tacrolimus concentrations. The researchers urged larger studies in order to further understand the interaction.