5 Things to Avoid When Buying CBD Products

Or why it pays to buy Imbue!

Most people are well aware that all CBD products are not created equal. What they sometimes don’t know is what to avoid when buying these types of products to ensure they don’t get something inferior, or worse yet, ripped off all together.

U.S. Hemp Roundtable General Counsel, Jonathan Miller, testified during a historic hearing on hemp and CBD before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services that the “Lack of a federal framework has led to the proliferation of unregulated products, some of which raise significant quality, safety, and other consumer protection concerns”.

Frankly, we’re delighted to see this kind of intervention. But until this type of intervention results in new legislation, here are the 5 things to avoid when buying CBD products:

1. Steer clear of buying so-called Hemp or CBD on Amazon. Let’s be clear. Amazon specifically forbids CBD and Full Spectrum hemp oil products to be sold on its site. Hence, even though these products can be searched by “CBD”, they aren’t CBD. This can be entirely misleading to anyone buying these products and definitely leads to people saying “Yeah, I tried CBD. It didn’t work.” And that, as my grandmother used to say, is “a crying shame”. It deprives consumers of access to products that really work and a natural solution that could provide help on a number of issues. What’s worse is that many of these companies on Amazon make all sorts of claims saying that their products are great for pain, inflammation, sleep and anxiety, among other things. But when you read the ingredients, the product contains ONLY LOW COST HEMP SEED OIL. Don’t get me wrong. Hemp seed oil is a great natural oil high in Omega 3’s and 6’s, but it contains NO cannabinoids so it has no therapeutic effect on these claimed health conditions. None.

2. Don’t buy products that originate from overseas. Some of the product available today are neither organic, nor US grown. In fact, some of the CBD products, especially ones available in places like gas stations and convenience stores may utilize imported material to compound their product Stateside, or ship it in in its finished state from places like China. In addition, product that is manufactured in whole or in part overseas is not legal in the US. At Imbue, ALL of our hemp is Colorado grown and processed. We maintain strict “chain of custody” throughout the entire process all the way through to the consumer.

3. Avoid Delta 8 or other “THC-type products if you’re not looking to get high. There has been a boom in hemp-related products with a high delta-8-THC content, made from hemp-derived CBD through various chemical processes. Delta-8-THC is a cannabinoid similar to Delta-9-THC, but is generally considered less potent. Mostly sold in smoke shops and often to younger folks, it’s usually consumed as a way to experience a milder “high”.

4. Don’t buy products that contain mostly isolate CBD. So much of the competitive product contains only isolate, or refined, powdered CBD which is shown to be far less effective in laboratory studies when compared to whole plant extracts like Imbue Botanicals exclusively utilizes. Our unique low-temperature, low-pressure processing helps ensure we preserve the naturally-occurring cannabinoids and terpenes so we can deliver what we think is one of the best full spectrum product lines there is. CLUE: if the milligrams of CBD in the product seem extremely high, it’s probably isolate.

5. Don’t buy products that aren’t processed in cleanroom environments under strict control, or aren't grown in human agricultural fields. At Imbue, we grow our product only in Colorado at high altitude for maximum sun exposure in fields that grow human consumable crops, test the soils for any contaminants or pesticides prior to planting, process it in cleanroom environments, independently test our products prior to shipping and batch label for complete traceability.

Beyond all that, our premium Colorado grown hemp CBD products are organically-grown, non GMO, cruelty free, gluten free, vegan and contain no added flavorings or sugars.

So here’s the best advice we can offer to avoid those costly mistakes when buying CBD products…be in the know… SIMPLY BUY IMBUE! You’ll be glad you did.