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Marijuana politics is getting complicated in the west with more and more countries legalizing the stuff for both medicinal and personal use.

My question has less to do with Marijuana and more to do with its cousin hemp. Hemp is an industrial/agricultural plant used for a variety of things in industry.

One of the more notable things about hemp is it produces a substance called CBD which is what is typically found paired with THC (the substance that gets you high in marijuana)

CBD doesn't have psychoactive effects. It doesn't produce the high that people get when they use marijuana and it has been found to help with a variety of medical conditions from seizures to Parkinson's symptoms and so on.

My question:

Have there been any notable Rabbinical statements which attempted to differentiate CBD from Marijuana in terms of how the Rabbis define intoxicants vs medications?

Do the Rabbis typically group everything into one category or have we reached a point where Rabbis have started to differentiate as new data on CBD comes out?

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  • Medical marijuana ia considered to be medicine and is fully permitted by American and Israeli rabbis, the issue is kashrut supervision for products containing it. CBD oil should be no different. See related:judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/67027/…
    – יהושע ק
    Commented Jun 2, 2019 at 21:04
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    I don’t get it. CBD is NOT a psychoactive element; how could anybody (rabbis included) suggest it’s an intoxicant?
    – Oliver
    Commented Jun 2, 2019 at 21:12
  • @oliver gezeira atu marijuana maybe, in theory? But no I don't see the question's motivation.
    – Heshy
    Commented Jun 2, 2019 at 21:34
  • @Oliver This is another indication that G-d directs the entire universe. Literally today, I had a conversation with an individual who is using CBD (completely legally) for a medical condition. I have no personal experience with it, but took the opportunity to hear from a first hand source what the effects are. According to this person, there is a kind of very mild intoxication along with appetite stimulation and other effects.
    – Yaacov Deane
    Commented Jun 2, 2019 at 22:32
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    It’s also worth noting that in terms of Torah, all plants, as long as they are not subject to orlah and Kilayim, are permitted for use/consumption. All the normal considerations, like is it a danger to life meaning poisonous or addictive, is there any insect infestation, etc. are relevant.
    – Yaacov Deane
    Commented Jun 2, 2019 at 22:39

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