AHPA in the News

It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our dear colleague and friend Tony Hayes. Tony was a producer and marketer of North American wildcrafted herbs for almost 50 years. He began his career in 1973 as an herb buyer for Lowe Fur and Herb of North Wilkesboro, then in 1981 went to work for Wilcox Drug Company in Boone, North Carolina. In 2000 he and his wife Sandy started their own business, Ridge Runner Trading Company.

AHPA President Michael McGuffin sent a letter to Congressional leaders in the U.S. House and Senate to request adequate federal funding be included in a fourth COVID-19 relief package to ensure the financial viability and continued operations of the United States Postal Service (USPS).

Since the first week of March, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have been issuing warning letters alleging that marketers promoted a wide variety of products with claims to prevent, treat, mitigate, diagnose or cure COVID-19. AHPA has analyzed 135 COVID-19 related warning letters issued by either FDA or FTC or by the agencies jointly between March 6, 2020, and May 11, 2020, and made available in each agency’s coronavirus information center as of May 15, 2020.

Dear AHPA members and friends in the herbal community,

I am reaching out today to let you know that all AHPA activities normally held as in-person meetings will instead be produced as virtual events, webinars or teleconferences for the balance of 2020.

The AHPA Foundation for Education and Research on Botanicals (AHPA ERB Foundation) is issuing a request for proposals to award grant funding to eligible applicants in order to enhance and promote knowledge and understanding of sustainable harvest of slippery elm (Ulmus rubra).  The grant supports research effects of varying rates of wild slippery elm bark harvest on tree population health and recovery across multiple harvest sites in order to inform sustainable harvest and management decisions for the species. The anticipated amount of funding available for a sustainable wild slippery elm bark harvest research project is up to $10,000 annually for up to 5 years.

To help the herbal products industry understand the evolving regulatory landscape for hemp and hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) products, AHPA has updated its free Hemp-CBD Status Report to include recent actions taken by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The new validation and approval will allow laboratories to evaluate hemp for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on a dry-weight basis, as described by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Interim Final Rule governing the production of hemp under the 2018 Agriculture Improvement Act, known as the Farm Bill.

This webinar provides an overview of dietary supplement current good manufacturing (cGMP) requirements for hemp-CBD products. Legal and industry experts provide strategies and resources to comply and document compliance with  federal manufacturing requirements designed to ensure supplement product quality and safety.