The Importance of Lab Testing

The Importance of CBD Lab Testing 

 Given the range of health benefits associated with taking hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) products, many individuals have been rushing down to their local dispensary to get their hands on this recently legalized chemical compound to improve their health and well-being. However, this is not always a good idea since sometimes the products available on the shelves of local stores are not always of the best quality due the fact that the industry is still largely unregulated.

The CBD and Hemp Product Market Is Almost Entirely Unregulated

And that is changing.

 The flourishing CBD market is still in its infancy, which means there’s currently a lack of regulation as federal and state bodies do their best to catch up with the Farm Bill of 2018 which made industrial cultivation of hemp legal. Despite the fact that US Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of CBD for epilepsy treatment, it’s still assessing and reviewing evidence regarding the many claimed health benefits of CBD. It still maintains that adding CBD to a food substance is illegal, but this has proved impossible to enforce.  With the FDA already having its hands full, there is very little regulatory oversight with regard to quality control. Problems have started to arise, namely that levels of ingredients such as THC – responsible for the “high” sensation associated with Cannabis– are often much higher than stated on labels of CBD products.

Why Does It Matter?

Would you eat a new food product without knowing what any of the ingredients were? If the answer to that question is “no”, then you should put some effort into understanding what is going into your body when you ingest a CBD product. Firstly, by buying CBD products off the shelf, you may not be able to guarantee how much CBD is in the product itself. CBD content is often wildly overstated by unscrupulous suppliers and you can end up paying good money for a product that is little more than a placebo. Of course, if you consume higher levels of THC than stated on the product label, it could also lead to grave consequences if you are regularly submitted to drug screenings. Employers may wrongly accuse you of Cannabis use, leading to the loss of your job and income. Therefore, by not independently verifying the amounts of ingredients within CBD products, you are taking a huge risk.