Walgreens To Sell CBD Products In 9 States, 1,500 Stores

First Barneys, then CVS and now Walgreens. The parade of major U.S. retailers daring to sell topical cannabidiol (CBD) products or marijuana accessories has grown with the addition yesterday of Walgreens, the second largest pharmacy store chain behind CVS.

Walgreens announced its decision to sell the cannabis-based products at pharmacies in Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, Kentucky, Tennessee, Vermont, South Carolina, Illinois and Indiana. It will sell CBD creams, patches and sprays in nearly 1,500 stores in these states. Walgreens refused to specify which brands it will retail.

“This product offering is in line with our efforts to provide a wider range of accessible health and wellbeing products and services to best meet the needs and preferences of our customers,” said Walgreens spokesman Brian Faith to CNBC.

Rival drugstore chain CVS began selling CBD-infused topicals (including creams and salves) to stores in eight states last week. Because it’s non-psychoactive, CBD is one of the hottest ingredients in cannabis products now finding favor with a growing number of consumers.

Consumers are becoming more curious about CBD, which promises to alleviate anxiety and pain, among other advantages, despite there being not enough evidence backing-up these claims. CBD derived from hemp is now legal in the U.S. thanks to the Farm Bill Congress passed in 2018.

Despite this, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says companies still can’t add CBD to food or sell it as a dietary supplement. This being the case, selling CBD-infused beauty and skin-care products won’t run afoul of the FDA, making it an obvious first step for retailers.

CVS is now selling topical CBD products in more than 800 of its own stores across eight states.

“These products include topicals such as creams, sprays, roll-ons, lotions and salves. We are not selling any CBD-containing supplements or food additives,” said CVS in a statement. “We have partnered with CBD product manufacturers that are complying with applicable laws and that meet CVS’s high standards for quality.”

The stores are located in Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, and Tennessee. They will now offer CBD products sourced from Canadian marijuana company Curaleaf Holdings Inc. as part of a distribution deal.