Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture sent a letter warning to more than 250,000 retailers that participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that accepting welfare benefits “for foods and drinks containing controlled substances such as cannabis/marijuana” could result in “monetary penalties, fines and/or criminal prosecution.”
In the letter, USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) Administrator James Miller said on June 5th the department is “committed to fighting waste, fraud, and abuse,” which includes “taking swift action to eliminate fraud occurring in the SNAP retailer community and rooting out fraudsters who take advantage of the taxpayer’s generosity.”
“Your participation as a SNAP authorized retailer serves an important purpose. Retailers connect American families to nutritious food each day,” Miller said. “More than 41 million low-income people redeem their SNAP benefits at stores nationwide each month. SNAP is funded by American taxpayers and must be operated with integrity and accountability. All participating retailers must follow the SNAP rules to protect taxpayer dollars.”
According to Marijuana Moment, the USDA didn’t exactly specify why they felt the need to update the rules around cannabis, but it also comes amid a series of changes to the department’s FAQ page that similarly reiterates the policy. In the past week, the FAQ’s cannabis language was added and revised at least three times.
As originally updated, it said SNAP benefits can’t go to cannabis-related or CBD food and drink products. Then it was changed to list marijuana and cannabis, without mentioning CBD. Now, in the latest update posted on June 4th, it says that “food and drinks containing controlled substances such as cannabis/marijuana and CBD” are ineligible.
