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Cannabidiol (CBD) is a cannabinoid, which is derived from the cannabis plant, and it has been increasingly used in products over the years for its various health benefits, especially since the legalization of hemp and/or cannabis in a lot of states and countries. This has allowed safer, higher-quality CBD products to be sold and used by people who can benefit from the medicinal properties that CBD can offer. But it’s important to know what to look for when you’re searching for and planning to use CBD products.
Types Of CBD Products
There are a variety of different types of products you can use, not just smoking and vaping as you might classically think. In Orange County CBD products can come in all shapes and sizes including lotions, consumable oils, bath bombs, lubricants, capsules, and edibles. Whichever method you choose, you should research the product and brand thoroughly to ensure the quality is good.
Why Is High-Quality Important?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the standards of drugs, biological products, food, and more works to protect public health. Epidiolex is currently the only approved drug that contains CBD and it is used for the treatment of rare epileptic conditions. Apart from Epidiolex, the FDA does not regulate any other CBD products, which can lead to mislabelling of products and myths about CBD on product websites. But this lack of standardization can lead to poor-quality products making their way into today’s market. These kinds of products can contain contaminants that can be toxic to humans.
Finding Quality Products
So now you understand why looking for high-quality CBD products is important and you know some red flags to look for, we can discuss how you can go about researching CBD products.
Certificate of Analysis (COA)
One of the most useful things you can look at is the COA of the product. This will show you how it performed when it underwent tests to check things such as the THC, CBD, and contaminant levels. A CBD product should always have a COA so if a store or company will not show you one, then you should stay well clear of it. Reputable brands will have tested for the final CBD level, even though this is not legally required, which shows that they have internally tested for this because they care about standardization and safety. You can also look to see the source of the hemp plants, and if the lab where the product was made meets ISO 17025 standards.
The last thing to look for is who carried out the testing of the product; it’s a good assurance of quality if one of the following organizations were involved: the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (AOAC), the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP), or the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP).
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Is It Organic?
Certified organic plants are approved by The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and have certain standards, such as only certain pesticides can be used and the plants can’t be genetically modified. This can be a sign of a high-quality CBD product.
So now you know some of the most important things to look for when you are researching CBD products. Checking the COA is one of the easiest ways to find out the quality of the product; you can check who tested the product, where the plants were sourced from, and whether it is organic or not.