Companies Making CBD Gummies, Vapes, and Lube Got Millions In Bailout Loans

The Trump administration has doled out millions in forgivable emergency loans to companies selling CBD gummies, oils and vape cartridges, despite blocking state-legal marijuana dispensaries from accessing those same rescue funds.

At least three specialty CBD vendors scored a total of over $4 million in federal loans in April, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings reviewed by VICE News. Marijuana companies, whose product remains illegal at the federal level, have been shut out.

The mixed result reveals yet another quirk of the federal government’s scramble to save American businesses from collapse with a $670 billion Paycheck Protection Program that’s proven both popular and controversial, as public outrage shamed big national chains into returning money that was intended to help small firms. The program was created in March by the $2 trillion CARES Act, which aims to save the US economy from entering a depression.

These public disclosures suggest that loans to companies selling CBD, a non-psychotropic chemical derived from cannabis, could be a lot more widespread than has been publicly reported. Only publicly-traded companies are required to disclose their loans — and smaller, private CBD vendors may have gotten loans but simply not announced it. [Read more at VICE]