By Project CBD on July 31, 2018 (Updated on May 10, 2019)
Select products with quality ingredients that are lab tested. Look for products with clear labels showing the quantity and ratio of CBD and THC per dose, a manufacturing date, and a batch number.
In June 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave its blessing to “Epidiolex,” a purfied CBD pharmaceutical, for treating severe pediatric epilepsy. Six months later, Congress passed the Farm Bill, which legalized the cultivation of industrial hemp for many uses, including the production of biomass for CBD oil extraction. The 2018 Farm Bill defined hemp as cannabis with 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or less.
In theory, these momentous developments should make it easier to access CBD products. But many issues remain unresolved. How will the FDA regulate nonpharmaceutical, hemp-derived CBD? Will the FDA contiunue to privelege CBD isolates, while discriminating against artisanal, full spectrum, CBD-rich oil that may actually be more effecive than single-molecule pharmaceuticals? What policies should be implemented to ensure wide and easy access to high quality, lab-verified, artisanal CBD-rich products in addition to pharmaceutical options?
Project CBD encourages consumers to seek out products made from the unfertilized female flower tops of high-resin CBD-rich cannabis, which is much better suited for medicinal oil extraction than low-resin fiber hemp or industrial hemp grown for seed oil and protein. But the debate over sourcing cannabidiol from “marijuana” (any cannabis with more than 0.3 percent THC), rather than hemp is quickly becoming moot, as plant breeders have succeeded in developing high-resin cannabis varietals that satisfy the Farm Bill’s criteria for hemp – with CBDlevels exceeding 10% by dry weight and THC measuring less than 0.3%. If grown, extracted, and processed well, such plants qualify as decent starter material for producing CBD-rich oil concentrates.