Health Department Cracks Down on CBD Food Products at Sidewalk Wellness SF | Eater SF

"I learned that Sidewalk Wellness, a newly opened CBD-focused offshoot run by the owners of the Sidewalk Juice juice, smoothie, and acai bowl chain, closed suddenly last week after the San Francisco Department of Public Health told operators they could no longer sell ingestible hemp-derived CBD products; the store — which reopened on Friday at 3186 21st street — now no longer offers edibles such as gummies, chocolates, olive oils, or CBD-infused coffee and instead sells only non-ingestible topicals like ointments. Inspectors red-tagged the ingestible items after responding to a complaint, and owner Gus Daibis says those packaged products are currently in his trunk; Daibis and his partner Jason Nazzal had opened a separate Sidewalk location to keep their CBD and food brands separate, but that precaution did not prevent enforcement. While hemp-derived CBD is federally legal, it is not FDA-approved for ingestion, and Daibis says he will wait to see whether California bill AB 228 becomes law — Canna Law Blog notes AB 228 would undercut a major argument used against hemp CBD foods, though it would not change the FDA’s position and state regulators’ response could remain uncertain; Daibis’s lawyer estimates the legislative outcome could take six months to two years." - Caleb Pershan