Science and the public have been good to CBD.  It helps with the ever popular issue of sleeping and it can help reduce anxiety.  Discreet, convenient and semi fast acting – it can be a help mate for first dates, stressful family events, or just rough days. The CBD/cannabis Epidiolex has been proven to reduce seizures and is the first cannabis-derived medicine approved by the FDA.  So lots of benefits, but since it is still a bit of a newbie on shelves…you need to be careful of what you buy.  Here are 5 key tags to check on a CBD label.

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Reading product labels is often confusing, overly technical and filled with materials no one understands. Add to the mix the fact CBD is still in FDA limbo, and you need a list like this to point you in the right direction. Here are 5 things to check when reading a CBD label.

Make sure CBD is in on the label and in the product

First thing’s first: make sure there’s actually CBD in your CBD product.  Today’s CBD landscape is filled with products that claim to contain CBD while really containing just hemp oil, or lie about the amount of CBD they contain. Look for either CBD or cannabidiol and be wary of products containing hemp seeds, cannabis sativa, hemp seed oil, etc. Although these ingredients sound weedy, they’re not the same thing as CBD.

Check the dosage and ingredients

Dosage in key in how effective it will be. Be understanding it you time the amount you need then time out when you might want to take it again.  Additionally, look for a full list of ingredients, including the carrier oil used. Check for any potential allergens or additives you want to avoid.

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Keep an eye out for COA

COAs guarantee the product you’re looking at has been tested by a third party facility that has no relationship to the maker. Their results are unbiased and thus trust worthy. Reputable companies should feature this information on their labels, which should come in the shape of a bar code and should be easily accessed via smartphone. If this isn’t the case, the COA should appear on the product’s website.

Look for the CBD oil source

One of the first red flags of fake CBD products is a label that’s vague or doesn’t state where the CBD oil was sourced. CBD can be sourced from cannabis plants or industrial hemp, and most quality products tend to be “full spectrum,” “broad spectrum,” or “CBD isolate.”

Know your cannabis state laws

This is important since CBD label requirements vary by state, with the best labels being from products sold in areas where marijuana is legal. If you’re purchasing a product from out of a legal state, these packages should at least imitate how regulated products look.

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Most traditional media, data analysts and legitimated investors and executives refer to it as the black market. Having a thriving black market hurts both the legalization process and legal businesses. Colorado and Maine are two examples of states who have done a great job to shrink the illicit market. While immediate short term there could be profits, in the long term, it chokes the growth and mainstreaming of cannabis for both recreational and medical use.

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UN laws says if country wants to produce, process and conduct sales of cannabis-related products, it must have a federal entity to deal with supply chain and ensure international compliance.  The regulatory framework of the CCRA is the organization.

The CCRA specifies the maximum level of THC in the cannabis derivative to be 0.3 percent to avoid the abuse of medicinal products and use them recreationally.  With this move, the government plans to crack down on illicit grows in order to bring them into a licensed tax paying business.