For years, CBD and other non-psychoactive plant medicines have been accessible to consumers through direct sales, online retailers, and wellness-focused brands—a model that allowed customers to educate themselves, find tested products, and choose plant-based medicine on their own terms.
That era is ending.
Through a coordinated push by regulators and industry players, CBD and its lesser-known counterparts—CBDa, CBGa, and CBN—are being forced into dispensary-only sales. And this shift is not about safety or consumer protection—it’s about removing non-psychoactive medicine from the market altogether.
CBD isn’t going away because people don’t want it. It’s being eliminated through a system designed to ensure it fails.
The Laws That Are Forcing CBD into Dispensaries
Across the country, new laws are redefining CBD and minor cannabinoids as “intoxicating”—even when they are not. These laws are being pushed not just by regulators, but by the cannabis industry itself, which benefits from forcing CBD into dispensaries where it competes poorly against high-THC products.
Here are just a few of the most recent laws and initiatives threatening non-psychoactive cannabis access:
Iowa HF 105
- Redefines medical cannabidiol to include oral, topical, and inhaled forms, which could force all hemp-derived CBD products into the state’s medical cannabis program.
- This could mean CBD would require a doctor’s prescription, rather than remaining available for direct consumer purchase.
Nebraska LB 316
- Disguised as a pro-hemp bill, but in reality, it bans hemp-derived CBD from traditional retail by requiring compliance with the Nebraska Pure Food Act and the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
- Uses the FDA’s non-binding stance that CBD should not be added to food or marketed as a dietary ingredient as a justification for criminalizing hemp-derived CBD products.
- Pushes all hemp wellness products into dispensaries, where they are rarely stocked or promoted.
Ohio SB 86
- Moves CBD and minor cannabinoids into dispensary control, despite them being non-intoxicating.
- Bans direct-to-consumer e-commerce sales for these compounds, further limiting access.
Texas HB 2155
- Would ban the sale of all consumable hemp products in retail stores and online.
- Would force CBD and minor cannabinoid products into dispensaries, even though dispensaries have no interest in selling them.
These laws are part of a larger strategy:
- Redefine CBD and minor cannabinoids as “marijuana products.”
- Force them into dispensaries, despite the industry’s focus on THC.
- Dispensaries deprioritize CBD, claiming there’s “no demand.”
- CBD disappears from dispensary shelves due to “lack of sales.”
- The public loses access to non-psychoactive plant medicine.
This is not a failure of CBD—this is a manufactured extinction event.
Dispensaries: The Worst Possible Place for Non-Psychoactive Medicine
Dispensaries were created to serve high-THC cannabis consumers, and their business model reflects that:
- Budtenders are not trained on non-psychoactive cannabinoids like CBD, CBDa, CBGa, or CBN.
- Dispensary owners openly admit CBD is “less than 1% of sales”—but that’s by design.
- The industry is built around “the strongest high,” not plant-based healing.
Expecting budtenders—whose entire job revolves around selling the highest-THC strains—to suddenly become experts in non-psychoactive medicine is absurd. It’s like asking a liquor store clerk to give medical advice on herbal teas. Dispensaries are not set up to educate, market, or promote hemp-derived wellness products. If a product isn’t pushed, it isn’t sold. If it isn’t sold, it disappears.
And that’s exactly what will happen if we don’t stop this nonsense.
CBD Is Being Eliminated—Not Failing
For years, CBD has thrived outside of dispensaries because:
- Consumers could research and buy directly from trusted sources.
- Hemp companies provided lab testing and education.
- Online sales allowed easy access to diverse product lines.
Now, with CBD being forced into dispensary-only channels, that entire infrastructure is being dismantled, so that the men earning from track and trace can continue to do so and earn more.
A Broken System, A New Direction
The future of non-psychoactive plant medicine is not in dispensaries. It’s not in budtender training programs that will never exist. We will continue to fight for direct-to-consumer access to hemp products, but we will also build new paths forward and invite you to stay with us on this journey.
We shouldn’t have to tag non-psychoactive plants like they are rare animals on the brink of extinction. And we shouldn’t have to ask permission to keep our decade long healing careers as specialists in plant medicine outside the dispensary systems. But here we are.
Stay Informed & Take Action
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The war on plant medicine is not over—we must resist together.
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