One of the reasons why the world of herbal supplements is so mysterious to consumers is because it’s not always obvious whether a particular supplement is actually doing the thing it’s supposed to do. Suppose you take turmeric to combat inflammation, for instance. You’re not going to feel anything at all when you take it. A few weeks later, though, you might notice that your everyday aches and pains aren’t quite as acute as they used to be. Is it because you’re taking turmeric? That’s anyone’s guess.
The same is true of CBD oil. CBD is probably the hottest herbal supplement on the market today, and people are taking it for a wide variety of different reasons. The thing about CBD, though, is that you generally don’t feel anything when you use it. If it works for you, you simply notice a gradual improvement in your overall wellness as time goes by.
The fact that CBD oil doesn’t produce an overt effect when it’s used has led some unscrupulous companies to market “CBD” products that either don’t contain the amount of CBD advertised or don’t contain any CBD at all. That’s a terrible thing for consumers because you’re not going to know the difference if you buy a CBD product that turns out to be fake – you’re just going to conclude that CBD doesn’t work for you.
The goal of this article is to help prevent you from falling victim to a CBD scam. CBD isn’t some kind of cure-all that’s going to magically fix all of your health issues and make you feel like you’re 21 again, but many people have reported surprisingly great results from using it. It’s absolutely crucial, though, to buy a CBD product that actually contains the amount of CBD advertised on the package. Follow these four steps to avoid getting ripped off when you buy CBD.
Choose a Reliable CBD Brand
The most important aspect of avoiding a scam when you buy CBD is choosing a product made by a brand that’s trustworthy and reliable. Companies like Bluebird Botanicals are vigilant about sending their products to third-party labs for batch testing, and that’s important considering the lack of control that many brands have over CBD production.
The CBD industry has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years, and it’s extremely rare for any brand to have full vertical integration. There are several steps in the process of producing CBD oil. First, a farmer has to grow the hemp. CBD companies generally don’t do their own farming. Instead, farmers grow the hemp independently and sell it to hemp processors. CBD brands work with the hemp processors – which are also usually third-party companies – who extract the CBD from the hemp and produce the finished products according to the brands’ specifications.
Because there are so many steps involved in the production of CBD oil, there’s a decent chance for something to go wrong at any given stage – and that could result in a product containing unwanted contaminants or an incorrect amount of CBD. A reliable CBD brand always tests product batches and publishes the rest results so customers can view them.
Don’t Buy CBD Products from Amazon or eBay
The first rule of buying CBD is that you always want to buy from a company that specialises in selling CBD. You might be used to buying herbal supplements and other non-perishable everyday products from an online marketplace like Amazon, for instance. Websites like Amazon and eBay seem to sell just about everything under the sun, but CBD oil is one thing that you won’t find on either of those sites because neither site allows the sale of CBD products.
Although Amazon doesn’t allow CBD products, you will actually find products that look very much like CBD oil and gummies when you search for CBD. In fact, those products will seemingly have some appealingly low prices – much lower than the prices that you see when shopping at legitimate CBD websites. There’s just one difference: They’re labelled “hemp oil” products rather than CBD oil products. That’s because they contain no CBD at all.
When you search for CBD on websites like Amazon, you’re not going to find CBD products. Instead, you’re going to find things that look like CBD products but are actually made with hempseed oil rather than CBD oil. Although hempseed oil is a very healthy product in its own right, it has none of the benefits of CBD – and you can find it in the cooking oil section at any supermarket.
Don’t Buy CBD Products from a Gas Station
We need to make special mention of the fact that you should always avoid buying CBD products from a retailer such as a convenience store or a gas station. You have no idea where those sellers are getting their products – it’s most likely from a distributor that also has everything from lighters to USB cables and has little to no supply chain oversight. At a gas station or convenience store, you’re likely to find CBD products from brands that you’ve never heard of before. They may not have websites and almost definitely won’t have lab test results that you can download.
Over the years, several news agencies have purchased CBD products from various sellers and sent those products to third-party labs for analysis. Many of those products turned out to have little or no CBD content – and it’s highly likely that most of the “CBD” products containing no CBD were found at convenience stores.
Choose a High-Strength CBD Product for Maximum Effectiveness
The final thing that you should consider when buying CBD is how much CBD the product actually contains. CBD oil is a fairly expensive supplement due to the time, labour and costs associated with producing it. Some companies will try to scam you by putting hemp oil on Amazon and making you think it’s a legitimate CBD product. Other companies, however, do sell completely legitimate CBD products at surprisingly low prices. The problem, though, is that the products contain very little CBD.
When you visit the website of a reliable CBD seller, you’ll see it’s quite common for a bottle of CBD oil to contain 1,000 mg of CBD or more. If you find CBD oil at a much lower price, look closely at the package – you’ll probably find that it only contains around 30-50 mg of CBD in total. That’s an extremely small amount. Don’t try to save money by buying low-strength CBD products. A product that doesn’t have enough CBD to do anything for you simply isn’t worth the money at any price.
