The U.S. CBD market depending on which research house data one uses is ballparked to be a  massive 5 billion USD  at the end of 2019 (Brightfield Group) and it is esitimated to grow perhaps to as large as 23 billion USD by 2024. Even if these numbers are off substantially, the growth is there.

What can stop your growth if you are a small to medium CBD entity?  In a word “non-compliance”.

This market growth has also brought “Bad players” to this market just like the Dietary Supplement big growth years. I know. I was in the space. I have always been in the space, evolving from the pharmaceutical sector with Hoffmann-LaRoche when they were one of the largest producers of raw material vitamins and specialty nutritional compounds as well as some pharmaceutical intermediates. These bad players are harmful to your future in this space if allowed to continue producing and distributing products that lack control through the entire process; from raw material acquisition, storage, the production process control (PPC) chain, and finally the testing of the finished product for both label claim and microbiological contamination (including heavy metal, and solvent residue.)

The FDA is starting to show its hand with regard to the regulatory path for CBD products.  First and foremost that means ensuring the safety of finished products.

This is done through rulemaking that has its roots in cGMP compliance. It will come sooner than later.  Europe has put its rules in place and GMP is part of it.

So the question becomes why wait for it and then take action?  The larger players will have an enormous advantage.