Things You Need To Know Before You Buy CBD Oil
News reports on CBD oil have increased as of late, and this may have intrigued you enough to consider its use. However, it’s important to get your facts straight before you can make an informed decision before you buy CBD oil from a specific source.
CBD is also known as cannabidiol, and it’s one of the chemical compounds called cannabinoids that can be found in the cannabis sativa plant. This can be extracted from marijuana, though it can also come from hemp. When CBD is extracted from hemp, it’s entirely legal to buy and sell in the US. It can be sold as oil or as a powder, and it can be taken orally or rubbed into the skin.
Since it’s possible to get CBD from marijuana, some people assume that it’s illegal or that you can get intoxicated from taking it. That’s not true at all. CBD is distinct from THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the cannabinoid in marijuana that causes the psychoactive effects. CBD does not have any mind-altering properties, so it won’t get you intoxicated. CBD oil has also been purified from any THC content.
There have been numerous claims regarding CBD effectiveness for various ailments, and claims have been made that it can keep you healthy when you take it as a supplement. While it may be easier to decide to buy CBD oil, it may be a bit more difficult to decide on which brand and product to buy.
So in order to decide properly, you need to ask yourself the following questions about the CBD oil you’re considering to buy.
How Much Does It Cost?
The most basic rule in the consumer market for any industry is that you get what you pay for. If you want the best, you will need to shoulder the expense. It’s a basic rule of consumer economics and the CBD oil market isn’t exempted from this rule.
You have to be very careful about what kind of CBD oil you get. You’re risking your health if you pick the wrong choice simply because you opted for a more affordable product. A company can cut down on costs regarding the proper extraction and processing of CBD, and that can then result in lower prices for their products.
But that may mean that they’ve avoided exercising proper care regarding the CBD oil, and as a result their products are not as powerful and effective as their advertisements may claim. They may even be contaminated, and using these products can make you feel ill.
A company trying to reduce manufacturing expenses may refrain from using the expensive specialized equipment needed to extract the proper dosage of CBD. They may also not have the highly paid workers with the proper expertise who make sure that the CBD oil is produced correctly.
It is also possible that they obtained their hemp sources from questionable farmlands abroad at a cheaper price. The problem is that their CBD source may have been grown in soil filled with heavy metals, so that the hemp may have absorbed the mercury and lead that are toxic to humans.
All these mean that lower CBD oil prices are not necessarily your best or safest option. You have to prioritize your safety over the few dollars you save. To be safe and sure, you need a premium brand with more expensive CBD oil.
Is The Manufacturer Making Unwarranted Claims?
It’s true that an increasing amount of evidence is piling up regarding how CBD oil can help with a wide variety of medical conditions. But it’s also a fact that CBD oil studies are only in their initial stages.
This is the reason why the FDA is very strict when it forbids CBD oil manufacturers from making direct claims regarding how their products can treat various symptoms or medical conditions. The guidelines on supplement advertisements are quite clear for manufacturers: they must not claim to be a type of medicine.
The legitimate CBD oil companies all comply with these guidelines. The more brazen manufacturers may ignore the rules, and this means you should stay away from their products. If they’re willing to break such a simple rule, then the possibility exists they are also breaking other rules regarding the proper processing of CBD oil. It is simply not worth the risk.
Is The Label Info Accurate?
These CBD oil manufacturers may not be able to claim that their product can cure particular ailments. But they can make claims about how much CBD oil their products contain. However, a number of these manufacturers are not entirely truthful regarding those claims.
The FDA regularly tests various CBD oil products available in the market regarding the chemical content of their products. The results of their findings are very disheartening, as many of these products do not contain the level of CBD that they’re supposed to have as stated in the product label. Some may not even contain any CBD at all.
From 2015 to 2017, the FDA has sent warning letters to the errant CBD oil manufacturers about their violations. You may check the companies that the FDA has sent warning to in the FDA website. It is a prudent measure to avoid the products of these manufacturers until they’ve complied with the FDA regulations.
Can You Reach The Manufacturer?
A legitimate CBD oil manufacturer will have a website as well as a phone number you can contact to get to their customer service department. When you send them an email, they respond promptly.
The scam artists and sellers of low quality products won’t bother such things as a website, and you can’t hope to contact their customer service department at all. That’s because they probably don’t have one, since that will cost them money.
The general rule is that a company that cares enough to set up a customer service department to help their customers is also more likely to also care enough to manufacture high quality CBD oil products.
Conversely, CBD manufacturers which do not have customer support departments are less likely to care about the proper quality of their CBD products.
Where Did The Hemp Come From?
The more dangerous types of CBD oil are those that were extracted from hemp that was grown in some country where agricultural practices don’t match US standards. Hemp plants tend to absorb what’s in the soil, and they can absorb toxic heavy metals like lead and mercury. They can absorb pesticides and herbicides. When the CBD oil comes from these plants, you may inadvertently consume these toxic compounds as well.
Pesticides and herbicides in crops and textiles have been linked to various medical ailments. These include various types of cancers, soft tissue sarcoma, multiple myeloma, leukemia, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
This is why you need to make sure that the CBD oil comes from organically grown hemp from the US. The US farmers operate under very strict governmental guidelines. In other countries, farmers may not be quite as conscientious about the presence of heavy metals and pesticides in their soil.
How Much THC Is In The CBD Oil?
CBD oil does not cause intoxication. It is THC which causes psychoactive effects, and this is the reason to avoid overly large amounts of THC in your CBD oil. Your resulting intoxication may end up risking your health if you’re operating heavy machinery or even just driving. You may also be intoxicated enough that you’re unable to do your job properly, and you may behave in the workplace erratically. If your company requires employee drug tests, you may end up getting fired.
The legal guideline regarding CBD oil from hemp and THC content is that the THC should not exceed 0.03% of the product. So look into the label information and check that their THC level is less than the limit.
However, this limit is not usually approached by the legitimate CBD oil manufacturers. Some CBD oil products do not even contain any amount of THC at all.
How Much Total Oil Is In The Bottle?
This is about dosage. In various studies, effective CBD dosage starts at about 600 mg. However, people’s reaction to CBD can vary, so the safer course is to first start with a lower dose.
What’s The CBD Concentration In The CBD Oil?
CBD can help with various ailments, but only in the right dose. But you also need the right concentration. Having 1000 mg per fluid once is better than having 1,000 mg in 5 ounces. That’s because if the label instructions in the 5-ounce bottle tell you to take an ounce of the CBD oil then you’re actually only getting a 200 mg dose each time.
Therefore, you need to check the concentration of the CBD in your CBD oil to make sure you can reap the full benefits of taking CBD. In this case, the higher concentration is generally better. In general, a high quality CBD oil product will have a CBD concentration of 250 mg to 1,000 mg per fluid ounce.
The problem is that some companies may try to reduce manufacturing costs by lowering the CBD concentration of their products. This is why you need to compute the concentration of the CBD. The product may have 500 mg of CBD, but if it comes in a 4-ounce container then you’re only getting 125 mg per fluid ounce. That’s not enough for you to get the health benefits that you were expecting from the CBD oil.
Some labels explicitly state the CBD concentration in their label, but you can always compute this for yourself. Just get the amount of CBD oil and then divide by the number of ounces.
How Was The CBD Oil Extracted?
An inexpensive method of extracting CBD oil from hemp involves the use of rather harsh solvents. The use of these solvents increases the chances of leaving dangerous chemical residue in the CBD oil you’re going to consume.
The safer (though more expensive) way to extract the CBD from the hemp is to use CO2 instead. The CO2 is placed under intensely high pressure during the process, and once the pressure subsides there’s no harsh solvent to worry about. The CO2 just evaporates instead, so you’re left with virtually pure CBD oil.
Admittedly, this process does require expensive equipment as well as workers with the proper expertise. But once again we stress the importance of safety over price.
If you get sick using contaminated CBD oil, you don’t just waste the money you spent on that CBD oil. You’re also going to spend more money trying to get well. In the long run, it’s actually more cost-efficient for you to buy the CBD oil extracted using the CO2 process, even if this CBD oil is more expensive.
How Do You Know That The CBD Oil Doesn’t Contain Contaminants?
As we’ve noted, CBD oil shouldn’t contain heavy metals such as lead and mercury. It shouldn’t contain herbicides and pesticides either. It should not contain any residual solvents from the extraction process, and there should be no bacteria and fungi. Basically, the CBD should be pure with no foreign matter.
But how do you know the CBD oil is pure? Advertising claims are not always trustworthy, because advertisements may be inaccurate, misleading, or even downright false. The surest way to check is look for some sort of certification from a 3rd party laboratory. This watchdog lab group can objectively check the CBD oil and can make sure that everything’s on the up and up.
While the FDA does check to see if CBD oil products contain the amount of CBD they’re supposed to have, you need to look for certification from ISO/IEC 17025:2017 Accredited Laboratories. This will make sure there’s no foreign matter or dangerous compound contained in the CBD oil.
