You asked.

Short for cannabidiol, CBD is one of the many chemical compounds present in cannabis known as a cannabinoid. Along with THC, it is one of the most abundant cannabinoids found in the plant.

The FDA has only approved one prescription CBD-based medicine for two rare forms of seizures. The administration is not regulating CBD in any other form. Many people are under the assumption that CBD is regulated to ensure quality and safety but that is false right now.

The FDA has acknowledged they have more work to do and are working to advance their CBD protocols. For now, though, the burden is on the manufacturers and consumers to ensure their products are tested by ISO-accredited labs and labeled accurately.

The best way to get a quality CBD product is to research the brand thoroughly and look through the COA provided for each product. If there is no COA available, you should be cautious.

Companies should always provide test results and those results should come from an ISO-accredited lab for added transparency.

ISO accreditation is the formal recognition that an establishment can meet specific standards for a specific process. Laboratory accreditation comes as an independent, third-party endorsement of a laboratory certification.

For laboratory testing, ISO 17025 is the standard. Laboratories with ISO 17025 accreditation have gone through the process of accreditation and have proven that they are compliant with industry standards.

CBD companies are not required to test their products or share the results. But for quality assurance and consumer safety, they should.

Some companies will test in-house. This can involve deceptive testing methods or biased results. There is also a risk of companies editing their results or being dishonest somewhere in their process.

ISO accredited labs take out the guesswork to ensure that CBD actually contains what the label says.

Purity is a crucial factor to consider when purchasing CBD products. When checking CBD purity, you should be looking to make sure there are no solvents or substances in the product other than CBD. Tests can identify residual solvents, microbials, heavy metals, fungi, and other unwanted substances that may be present.

CBD potency is an important consideration when choosing the right product. Tests will look at cannabinoid content for all cannabinoids present in the sample. This will confirm the CBD listed on the label is accurate, prove that the THC level is within the legal limit, and provide information regarding the other compounds present in the product.

To verify the purity and potency of CBD, consumers should check the product’s COA.

COA means Certificate of Analysis. It is a document that ascertains the product has met its specifications by providing the list of ingredients, the batch number, method of analysis used, and the conclusion of the report, among other aspects.

You will not get high from taking CBD. Both THC and CBD interact with cannabinoid receptors in our bodies, but the way they interact is different. Unlike THC, CBD is non-intoxicating. The only way you can get high from taking CBD is if the product you use contains more than the legal amount of THC.

Yes, they can. CBD isolate contains no THC, but full-spectrum CBD contains low amounts. Again, you will only get high if the product has more than 0.3% THC which is the legal requirement. Unless your CBD is coming from a dispensary in a legal state, it should not contain more than 0.3% THC.

You can confirm that the product indeed has 0.3% or less THC by checking lab results for purity and potency.

CBD should not cause users to fail a drug test. However, if the product has small amounts of THC in it, there is a slight possibility you could fail a drug test after taking CBD. Many CBD products have 0.3% THC or less which should not appear on a drug test. If the product is mislabeled and contains more, you may risk failing a drug test.

CBD is legal in the United States, federally, assuming it meets certain requirements, including containing a THC percentage at or below 0.3% and following governmental regulations for growing and harvesting.

Some states have placed their own restrictions on CBD, ranging from “illegal in every form” to “CBD tea not allowed” and some bizarre restrictions in between. However, CBD is easily accessible in the majority of states and is only growing in popularity as more people tune in to its potential therapeutic effects.