Blumenthal, DeLauro: FDA Needs 'Accurate' Nutrition Labels--For Pot-Laced Food

(CNSNews.com) - When asked if marijuana-infused food products should require federal labeling, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said consumers want accurate information “to make smart choices”.

Currently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t enforce federal food safety standards on marijuana-infused food products that are available in the few states where marijuana has been legalized.

During a conference call with lawmakers on FDA food labeling on Tuesday, CNSNews.com asked: “Given that the FDA currently doesn’t enforce any federal food safety standards on marijuana-infused foods and with a lot of states obviously changing their marijuana laws -do you think they should require nutritional and informational labeling?”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) replied, “My suggestion is, that what they ought to do is really deal with these definitions, to lay out what the definitions of what these foods are. So that there isn’t any confusion that surrounds them.”

Sen. Richard Blumethal (D-Conn.) added, “The key principal is accurate, readable, truthful information for consumers. They want to make smart choices and they will make healthy decisions if they’re given information that is understandable. Not only with the sugar but with the other ingredients.”

“I don’t know what regulations they are coming up with in that regard, but whatever is in the food products, we want to know what’s in the food products,” DeLauro said.

“The Food Labeling Modernization Act looks at food labeling reform in a comprehensive manner, addressing front-of-package labeling, misleading health claims, and requiring updates to the Nutrition Facts Panel and the ingredient list,” according to a press release on DeLauro’s website.

Since the FDA isn't enforcing federal food safety standards on marijuana food products, local officials in states where marijuana is legal, like Colorado, are attempting to create regulations and labeling requirements for marijuana-infused snacks.

News reports out of Colorado have linked at least one death to edibles and there are reports of a rise in children coming into the emergency room after accidentally eating marijuana-laced products.

"Currently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t enforce federal food safety standards on marijuana-infused food products that are available in the few states where marijuana has been legalized."

FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument

While I think that accurate food labeling is necessary, the major constitutional problem with federally-mandated food labeling is the following imo. While the feds do have the interstate Commerce Clause power to require such labeling when food is traded across state borders, regardless what FDR's activist justices wanted everybody to believe about the scope of Congress's Commerce Clause powers when it decided in Congress favor in Wickard v. Filburn, the states have never granted Congress the power to regulate intrastate commerce which includes agricultural production. This is evidenced by the following excerpts from the Supreme Court case opinions of justices who actually protected and defended the Constitution.

”State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress [emphases added].” —Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited. None to regulate agricultural production is given, and therefore legislation by Congress for that purpose is forbidden [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.r

"... Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said consumers want accurate information “to make smart choices”."

I wonder what Sen Blumethal's stance is on the labeling of GMO foods?

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