The widespread use of CBD is still a new thing. There hasn’t been much research done on it in comparison to traditional medicines, and many are just beginning to discover it.
While many have felt the benefits CBD has to offer, many others have given it a try and had it do nothing for them, coming away feeling scammed.
Being an early adopter of anything is not without its risks. Because the government hasn’t approved CBD as a treatment for many diseases and conditions, it isn’t heavily regulated.
This means there’s a ton of snake oil in the CBD industry.
One study tested thousands of CBD products on the market in the U.S. and found that only 42% of them contained within 10% of the amount of CBD written on the label.
And this study didn’t include products with Delta-8 or Delta-9 THC, which are even more loosely regulated.
There’s a lot of CBD out there, and much of it is low quality. To help you find the good stuff, we’ve laid out everything you should and should not do in your quest for quality hemp.
The most important thing you can do to avoid buying low quality CBD is to only buy from reputable stores, and know what to look for in CBD products.
Let’s explore.
Why Low Quality CBD is Harmful
Before you become an expert CBD detective, let’s first explore why buying low quality CBD is a bad idea.
Product Efficacy
Obviously, the first reason you need to avoid low-quality CBD is that it just doesn’t work.
As we saw in the study above, only 42% of1000s of CBD products were as potent as their labels claimed.
If your product doesn’t contain enough CBD, you won’t benefit from the recommended dose; what you think is 10mg might just be 5mg.
If you’re not a fan of wasting money, avoiding low-quality CBD is a must.
Drug Testing Concerns
Buying a low quality product can cause your lose your job. Let us explain.
In its natural state, CBD comes blended with other cannabinoids, such as CBG, CBN, CBC, and THC, as well as terpenes. This diverse mixture is known as full spectrum CBD – it’s CBD with the full spectrum of other cannabinoids and terpenes.
While it is typically the most beneficial form of CBD, it isn’t a great option if you undergo regular drug tests. As these tests typically screen for THC (due to illegal marijuana concerns), and full spectrum CBD contains THC in small amounts, you’ll get flagged.
To avoid this problem, you’ll need a broad spectrum blend (the same as full spectrum, but with no THC), or a CBD isolate blend (just CBD, no other cannabinoids or terpenes).
However, if you buy and use a poorly-extracted broad spectrum CBD product, you might be ingesting THC without knowing it. And if your job depends on a drug test, you might be out of a job.
Kind of defeats the purpose of broad spectrum CBD, right?
Health Concerns
And last, but definitely not least, are the health concerns associated with low quality CBD.
The same study we explored earlier, which investigated CBD potency in thousands of products, also found that many of products in questions contained trace amounts of heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, and arsenic.
This is due to faulty growing practices; the hemp plant absorbs heavy metals from the soil it’s grown in. Even the best quality hemp might still have very small traces of metals, but it isn’t enough to be concerned about.
However, low quality products can contain concerning levels of heavy metals – this why buying CBD extracted from responsibly grown hemp is so important.
If you don’t want your CBD to contain half the periodic table, only buy from companies who source from a reputable manufacturer or who employ responsible growing practices themselves.
Where You Should and Shouldn’t Buy CBD
Some places are better for buying CBD than others.
Not every CBD company that looks reputable is, and not every CBD product that’s sold in a gas station is guaranteed not to work.
However, there is a pattern: generally, companies focused on CBD sell better CBD products, and companies that don’t end up selling cheaper, lower quality products.
Where You Should Buy CBD
We’ve based our choices off a few key factors for each kind of store – further into the article we provide an exhaustive list of factors to consider when buying CBD.
Generally speaking, here’s where good CBD lives.
Reputable Brick-and-Mortar CBD Stores
Your local brick-and-mortar CBD store is a good place to start.
Since their entire business is based on helping people find solutions to their problems through CBD, they’re very likely to carry high quality products.
Here are two quick “confidence checks” to see if they’re reputable:
- Are they well reviewed on Google Business?
- Are their store associates knowledgeable and friendly?
Reputable Online CBD Stores
There are also many online-only CBD retailers and brands with high-quality products. Here are two confidence checks to consider:
- Are their positive customer reviews and testimonials on and off their website?
- Do they know what they’re talking about (do they have an in depth blog or other resources)?
Where You Shouldn’t Buy CBD
There are also some places that generally tend to carry lower-quality CBD products. This is typically due to a lack of knowledge about CBD, or a need to source cheap products that invariably won’t be great.
Gas Stations
Per their name, convenience stores at gas stations aim to provide you with convenient items.
They sell cheap products aimed at providing a quick fix to spontaneous issues that come up when you’re out and about. Cheap food and drinks if you’re hungry and thirsty, cheap sunglasses if it’s sunny out and you can’t see to drive, cheap coffee if you’re tired, etc.
They also sell cheap CBD products that aren’t good quality. Better-quality, more expensive products are not affordable to source for convenience stores (nobody will buy $50 gummies at a gas station), so they won’t carry them.
If you buy cheap CBD, you may see results, but you likely won’t. And, as we discovered previously, you may also be ingesting heavy metals.
Convenience stores are for coffee or a bag of chips, not for CBD.
Smoke & Vape Shops
Smoke and vape shops won’t necessarily sell the worst quality items out there, but depending on where you go, the people in charge of the shop may not have much expertise on CBD.
After all, they’re focused on providing you with tobacco products or vapes, not CBD products.
Making or sourcing great CBD takes a lot of time and effort – it’s not easy as a “side hustle.”
You might get good CBD at a smoke or vape shop, but don’t count on it.
How to Avoid Low-Quality CBD: Important Factors to Consider
Regardless of where you choose to shop for CBD, this section outlines the critical factors to keep in mind when you’re buying CBD from any company.
Lab Reports
Third-party lab reports are the most important factor to consider when buying a product. If they have them, most companies will provide lab reports on their website whether they are online-only or a brick-and-mortar.
Some lab reports contain a lot of information, while others focus on a specific dimension of a product, such as potency. For the purpose of this article, we’ll just show you how to read the potency section on a lab report, as that’s the #1 place most products go wrong.
For this example, we’re looking at our hempseed & CBD tincture in the 1000mg strength (the amount of CBD per bottle; our bottles are 30mL).
Okay, let’s dive in.
Pull up the lab report for the product you’re interested in and navigate to the potency section (our report in this case just covers potency).
Find the row that says CBD, and look for the “mg/g” column. This is the amount of CBD (in mg) in the tincture per gram of oil. We measure our bottles in milliliters (mL), which is the same amount as a gram (g).
This tincture’s CBD potency is 36.90 mg/g.
Now, multiply that number times the amount of tincture in the bottle. In this case, 30 mL.
36.90 mg/mL x 30 mL in a bottle = 1107 mg of CBD in the bottle total. Our bottle is supposed to contain 1000mg, so our product is actually more potent than we intended!
Keep in mind that CBD extraction is not an exact science. That’s why the study we looked at earlier searched for products that contained within 10% of the CBD they were supposed to.
In our case, our product is slightly over-potent. However, this just means it will be more effective! As the discrepancy isn’t very large, it won’t cause any issues for our customers.
Final thoughts: unless a product’s lab report states that it is close to its claimed potency (preferably above), don’t buy it. And if a company has no lab reports to show… run far, far away.
Extraction Method
There are multiple CBD extraction methods, and CO2 extraction is generally accepted as the best.
We won’t go too in-depth here (click here for our full article on extraction methods), but essentially CO2 extraction uses carbon dioxide (CO2) to separate CBD and other cannabinoids from the hemp plant. It’s the superior extraction method for three main reasons:
- It doesn’t require the use of any harmful solvents, which you can end up ingesting
- It produces the purest extracts
- It’s better for the environment, because CO2, the solvent, is completely natural (other methods can disperse harmful gases into the atmosphere)
Make sure your CBD company uses the CO2 extraction method to make their products. You’ll get a better quality product, and you’ll forgo the risk of ingesting harmful solvent residue.
Company Knowledge
The next factor to consider when choosing a company is how knowledgeable they are.
Do they have a blog, where they frequently share insights about CBD and wellness? Do they write articles that answer your questions about how to use CBD and explain things to you about CBD that you might not know?
If a company shares extensive knowledge about their products and about CBD in general, they are likely also knowledgeable about how to create or source high quality CBD products.
If it’s a brick-and-mortar store, also ensure that the store’s associates can answer any questions you may have. If a store cannot answer your questions about their products, there’s no way they can point you toward the right product for your situation.
Only buy from CBD companies who know what they’re talking about.
Customer Reviews
Now, we’re going to cover some company-focused factors that will help you avoid low quality CBD.
The first factor is customer reviews. Are the reviews for the product you’re looking at generally positive? Are reviews for the entire company positive?
Read the bad reviews. Is there a pattern of a product not giving the desired results? Is the company not very good at customer service?
If so, buyer beware.
Product-wise, look out for reviews saying that a product:
- Didn’t have an effect
- Was damaged when it came
- Had negative side effects
Company-wise, make sure no one is talking about:
- Rude associates or customer support staff
- Not receiving their order
- Only receiving part of their order
Overall, just ensure that the company’s customers are happy with them, and that reviews for the product(s) you’re looking at confirm that it’s the right fit for your needs.
Company Promises
Look out for false promises.
There hasn’t been enough research done on CBD to prove its viability as a medicine, and as a result, the FDA has not verified that it can treat conditions or diseases.
There is some research and lots of anecdotal evidence that CBD can support a healthy mind and body, and many patients of certain diseases have reported positive experiences using it.
However, nothing is conclusive. Accordingly, any CBD company that claims its products can treat illnesses isn’t being truthful (and is in violation of federal regulations).
More research will be needed before we know exactly what CBD can and cannot do.
Buzzwords
And last, but not least, look out for buzzwords (of which there are plenty).
Anybody can put “premium” or “award-winning” on their CBD products, but unless they have evidence to back it up, it means nothing.
Challenge companies. Ask them the hard questions. Do the research.
Do their lab reports really show their hemp is premium quality?
Have they actually been recognized for any awards?
If so, good on them! But if not, don’t let the buzzwords they use in their marketing convince you that their products are any better than the next company’s.
Avoiding Low-Quality CBD: Do Certifications Matter?
Certifications can sometimes matter, but they usually don’t. As you might have learned, CBD is not very strictly regulated, so the government has no certifications or special programs for companies that meet certain standards.
Many times, certifications are created by nongovernmental entities for other purposes.
For example, we don’t use or display the U.S. Hemp Authority Seal, and here are a few reasons why:
- The U.S. Hemp Authority (USHA) Seal doesn’t guarantee the quality or efficacy of a CBD product; it doesn’t require information about where the hemp was grown or even require that it comes from real plants, rather than being synthetically-derived.
- The USHA is not a governmental organization; rather, it was established by a handful of corporate hemp interests.
- The right to use the USHA Seal costs thousands per year. It’s a “pay to play” program and isn’t based on any standards that would benefit consumers.
- The USHA Seal is ultimately used to encourage customers to purchase, not to signify that what they’re purchasing is good quality.
The point we’re trying to make here is that many certifications don’t actually mean a company’s products are high quality. Rather, companies buy their way into them with the hope that you’ll be fooled into thinking they’re important.
Good try, corporate 😉
Conclusion
There are quite a few ways to tell if CBD products and companies are worth your time, and there are many tactics you can employ to help you dodge the bad-quality stuff (please, please, please don’t buy CBD from a convenience store).
Since we pulled back the curtain on the snake oil in this industry – heavy metals, bogus certifications, etc.- you might be a little discouraged about finding good CBD.
Luckily, you’ve read this article and you actually know what’s important. You’re armed with the knowledge you need to buy the best CBD that’s out there. It’s easy to find when you know what to look for.
And if you have additional questions, you can always reach out to us!
Natural Ways CBD sources and produces a wide variety of CBD and THC including tinctures, edibles, flower, drinks, snacks, topicals, bath and beauty products, and more. Every product we carry has been thoroughly vetted for quality, and we rigorously third-party test our house brand tinctures and gummies. We’re dedicated to helping people like you get off traditional medicine, which is expensive and dangerous, and onto a natural alternative that actually works. We’d love to have you as part of our family.
