Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has updated a public notice on the legal status of cannabidiol because of a provision in the farm bill that received final passage today in Congress.

The farm bill legalizes industrial hemp beyond pilot programs that Congress authorized in 2014.

Marshall’s office said that means cannabidiol derived from hemp and containing no more than than 0.3 percent THC is legal to produce, sell and possess in Alabama.

Cannabidiol, also called CBD, can also be derived from marijuana. Hemp and marijuana are related but hemp contains far less THC, the intoxicating substance in marijuana.

Marshall’s updated notice today says that CBD derived from marijuana remains illegal to produce, sell or possess in Alabama, as the earlier public notice said.

Read the updated notice.

The AG’s office said it issued the original public notice in November in response to questions about the expanding sale of CBD and products containing it across the state. The notice clarified the narrow exceptions created by the Alabama Legislature when it passed Carly’s Law in 2014 and Leni’s Law in 2016.

Carly’s Law provides an affirmative defense from prosecution for people with debilitating epilepsy who have a prescription for CBD authorized by the UAB Department of Neurology. Carly’s Law is scheduled to expire on July 1, 2019.

Leni’s Law applies the affirmative defense against prosecution for CBD possession to additional people – those who are being treated for a chronic or debilitating condition that causes seizures.

For the defenses under Carly’s Law and Leni’s Law to apply, CBD can only contain 3 percent or less of THC, the intoxicating substance in marijuana.

In October, the Alabama Department of Public Health authorized the medical use of FDA-approved drugs that contain CBD. Doctors can provide the drug Epidiolex to treat two forms of epilepsy – Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome.