Recent years brought some mixed feelings about CBD products and cannabis products. Although, the market is growing, there are many concerns in regard to legitimacy of many products. Going forward, the focus has to be misinformation and further research of the problem.
Reddit research showed that many people use cannabinoids for various health conditions, even though there are other more established treatments available. Analysis concluded, that wider public already sees CBD and other cannabinoids as a general means of treating many health conditions (even if the products are still labeled as “Potentially dangerous for public health”).
MISLEADING CONTENT
As CBD products help with or solve many people’s health problems, they at least deserve to know what exactly they include. Many cannabis (or CBD) products do not include the advertised amount of cannabinoid content. Furthermore, the study conducted by the FDA presented an even more worrying test study.
They found, that from the products tested, only 45% were within 20% of the advertised CBD content. With other words, 55% of products tested had more than 20% difference in the actual values of CBD content compared to the advertised ones.
In total, from 147 tested products, 138 had at least some CBD in them. From the 9 products with no traces of CBD, 7 were advertised as “CBD free” or CBD was not mentioned on the product label. This means that 2 products were completely misleading. 72 out of 147 products also had a higher THC level than advertised.
Some industry players marked the results as worrying and confirming at the same time. Many industry advocates encouraged the increase of industry oversight and regulatory action. They want to be protected against harmful producers and maintain a high level of quality and reputation of products and the industry.
SIMILAR STUDY
A similar study was conducted by Canalysis Laboratories of Nevada. They independently tested 37 different CBD products produced across USA. While most of the products fit the criteria of being within 10% of advertised CBD values, 10 of them did not. 10 out of 37 products (27%) fell out of the 10% limit of CBD content values compared to the advertised. One product included only 6% of the advertised CBD content.
The results were published by organization LeafReport, where they wrote:
“Although CBD industry has developed, there is still much space for improvement in terms of completeness and high quality of the products ” – LeafReport
They also addressed the consumers to find out more about the products before purchasing them.
OTHER WAYS OF IMPROVING QUALITY
Discovering such anomalies and mislabeling is only one way the cannabis industry can improve. But not the only one. UK’s Association for the Cannabinoid Industry (ACI) recruited 16 CBD companies for a new product toxicity study, which aims to test our body’s tolerance for CBD and discover potential interaction with other drugs. Also active, are the US researchers where FDA created a new draft of guidelines of CBD enforcement and sent it to the White House. They are still mostly concerned with potential safety risks of advertised CBD products. These include, mislabeling, excessive THC content, pesticides, and heavy metals. Agency also issued a warning to US companies, when they detected higher levels of lead in multiple products. (Cannabis is a very efficient remediation plant).
New legislations are also opening the door for clinical trials in the cannabis use area, where some institutions strongly support this development. However, this support is very different per country.
ROAD OF THORNS AHEAD
And so, the CBD path of thorns to full legislation compliance continues. As the safety and health of consumers is always a priority, studies and legal action will play an important supportive role in the industries development.
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G. D. C.
05. 04. 2022
