As a CBD dispensary, we of course encourage people to buy CBD from a reputable seller—but It’s also important to explain why you should buy CBD from a dispensary.
Now that you can buy CBD products at supermarkets, gas stations and health food stores, some consumers might assume all CBD is created alike, but that is decidedly not the case. Here’s why:
1. CBD products vary greatly in quality and content. Like all supplements and vitamins, CBD is unregulated, which means that bad actors can put poor-quality oil in bottles, slap a label on the side and sell it at the gas station. It’s less expensive because the seller didn’t do proper lab testing—but when it comes to buying CBD products, you really do get what you pay for.
A recent study by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers showed that CBD products are frequently mislabeled as to their contents.
After testing 105 topical cannabidiol products that they purchased both online and at retail storefronts, the researchers found that only 21 were accurately labeled—just 24 percent of the total.
A group called CBD Awareness Project actually tested the quality of CBD products that they found at gas stations. They found that on average, CBD products purchased at a gas station contained only 40 percent of the amount of cannabidiol they claimed—and three of the gas station CBD drinks they tested didn’t contain any CBD at all.
Yet another study found that a whopping 60% of the CBD products they tested were mislabeled, meaning that the CBD content listed on the label did not match what was actually in the bottle. Even worse, the study found that “Low-level heavy metal and phthalate contamination of edible CBD was pervasive.” This disturbing finding brings us to our next point:
2. Don’t buy CBD products unless they’ve been lab-tested by a third party. When you buy CBD at East Tree (or any other product for that matter) everything we sell comes with what’s called a Certificate of Analysis (COA), which means it’s been lab-tested by a neutral third party to ensure it contains the amount of cannabinoids stated on the label, AND that it doesn’t contain any harmful or toxic ingredients.
Why would there be heavy metals in a bottle of CBD? Because hemp plants are bioaccumulators, meaning their roots absorb and accumulate metals and any other toxins that are present in soil they’re grown in, at far higher concentrations than other plants.
This property is actually one of hemp’s many super powers: Hemp plants have actually been used to pull contamination and pollutants out of soil, most famously at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. But it also means that you have to be very careful about the soil in which hemp is grown, especially if the end products are going to be used for human or animal consumption.
The aforementioned study detected lead in 42 percent of the 121 edible CBD products they tested, as well as mercury in 37 percent and arsenic in 28 percent. So buying CBD that’s untested can actually contain harmful chemicals.
All the CBD and products at East Tree CBD have been tested for heavy metals and other harmful pollutants harmful to human health. But wherever you decide to buy CBD, make sure the seller is reputable and provides COAs and testing documentation on their website. Any ethical sellers will be more than happy to provide that information for you.
Now that you know exactly how to buy CBD, check out our lab-tested full spectrum CBD products here!
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