Hemp derived products are now separated from the Controlled Substance Act [1] thanks to the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill. This is a major win for the cannabis community, but leaves us with deeper issues that need to be addressed to keep us moving forward toward the legalization movement. There’s traceability and standardization within the CBD market. If these components are left abandoned there could possibly be injury to clients, customers, even our community as a whole.
The lack of regulation in the Hemp CBD market has left huge holes for those with ill-intentions to sell unknowing customers “snake oil” or worse. What makes those of us in this space cringe is when a consumer purchases a product in hopes of helping themselves but instead receives a false product. Their mindset about CBD in general then becomes tainted because of a bad source. It’s the whole theory of, “One bad apple spoils the bunch.” This has left passionate advocates, such as myself, fighting to reverse the damage caused by those doing harm….this on top of the already constant struggle to change the stigma of cannabis in our society. Let me just give you an example.
There’s a product that claimed to have “Pure CBD”. It was not derived from Hemp or Cannabis. It was supposedly derived from a terpene in the orange peel, which was then remade in a lab to have a “bioequivalent molecular weight and structure to CBD”. No matter what argument you may have in how a phytoterpene can be restructured to become a phytocannabinoid like CBD, IT IS NOT CBD. Synthetic cannabis has been the bane of our community and referenced many times on the complications that have occurred when used [2].
This is a great example of marketing, and whether we are farmers, processors, manufacturers, brokers, or retailers (as I am); we need to do our part to keep consumers safe in this industry market. CBD is not a household item that is well known and it is not safe to rely on a customer or consumer to know what is right or wrong for them. The buck starts and stops with us, the educated and informed leaders of the Hemp, CBD, and Cannabis space. It is our mission here at The Herbal Alternative to be as educated as possible on products so that we can share that education with our customers, our consumers, and to see that those with ill-intentions plaguing the industry see their way out! If we all pitch in, the mountain won’t be that hard to climb. So I encourage you to: know what you are buying, know how to use what you are buying and know where you are buying it from. Can the person on the other side of the counter answer your questions without hesitation? Do they know the basic facts of Hemp and CBD? Are they transparent? If your gut says, “No”, maybe you should too!!!! I once heard Dave Ramsey say, “If you have to confuse your customer, you don’t have a good product.” That made so much sense to me. I follow this rule every time I’m thrown a pitch. Sometimes I swing, but most of the time I don’t.
If you have questions about Hemp and CBD products, please do not hesitate to stop in or give us a call. We believe in what we do, and what we do is Work to Help YOU Become the Champion of Your Life!!!
[1] https://the cannabisindustry.org/the2018-farm-bill-and-the-return-of-hemp-to-american-farms/ [2] https://www.webmd.com/a-t-z-guides/news/20180720/fda-warns-of-deaths-tied-to-tainted-synthetic-pot