Introducing CBD oil into your lifestyle may have several benefits. Its potential to treat anxiety and joint pain alone makes it an invaluable addition to your wellness regime.
But at the same time, you should also pay careful attention to the CBD oil you buy. Products without certifications may end up causing more harm than good. It is exactly for this reason that the place you buy your CBD oil is so important.
Buying CBD Oil from a Dispensary
Even though CBD containing less than 0.3% THC is federally legal in the US, many states prohibit its use. While you can buy CBD oils from dispensaries without much hassle in places like California and Oregon, the legal bodies for many states are still apprehensive about CBD oil use.
States like Florida require you to supply the dispensary attendant with a medical prescription to buy CBD oil. Such is the norm for most states despite CBD oil being completely illegal only in states like Nebraska, Idaho, and South Dakota.
As a result of such changing legalities, you are likely to have trouble accessing CBD dispensaries in most states. Other ways of acquiring CBD oil become necessary in such cases, and you may turn to online stores to get your product.
Buying CBD Oil from a Local Pharmacy
You can legally access CBD oil in 17 US states, granted that you pass the minimum age requirement. CBD usage, medicinal or recreational, is legal in places like California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Colorado, Maine, and Nevada.
In these places, you may be able to purchase CBD oil products directly from your pharmacy without much hassle. The advantage of these stores is that they allow you to get the feel of the product before you buy it. At pharmacies, you may be able to read about the product's ingredients and manufacturing in detail.
There may even be sample bottles that you can try to check whether the CBD oil is compatible. Since you get to examine things like its consistency and potency at pharmacies, they help you choose a product that perfectly meets your requirements.
Buying CBD Oil Directly from the Farms
The CBD market is saturated with bad products, and this can be frustrating if you are an ardent CBD fan. High-quality CBD oil may be hard to come by, and buying CBD oil directly from farms can be a way around it. If you are willing to take the trouble, you can buy CBD oil directly from cannabis farms.
Such a direct purchase method rewards you with complete transparency about the type of cannabis used, the extraction process, and the ingredients added to the mix. However, since the chances are you will be buying from a smaller farm, the product may not be as well filtered as those made by larger companies.
Buying CBD Oil Online
While buying CBD oil online is by far the easiest option, this is also where you need to exercise the most caution. The products could be harmless but useless edible oils masquerading as CBD oil or bad-quality CBD oil containing harmful toxins and heavy metals.
The possibility of situations like these requires you to be extra vigilant when buying the best CBD oil online. A Certificate of Analysis and Third-Party Testing is vital when selecting your product. These credentials reveal the quality and safety of the product so that you do not put your health at risk when using your CBD oil.
Can I Buy CBD Oil from Amazon?
You cannot buy reliable CBD products from an online marketplace like Amazon. Most of the products you find on the website marketed as CBD oil are just hemp seed oil.
Clever marketers use the fact that hemp oil and CBD oil are extracted from the same cannabis plant to dupe buyers. These brands splash a hemp-plant logo onto the package and market hemp oil instead of CBD oil. Though with its advantages, hemp oil does not have the characteristic relaxing benefits of CBD oil, and users who mistakenly buy these products are sure to be disappointed.
The sale of CBD oil is legally and technically not allowed on the Amazon website because, according to its rules, it is a Controlled Substance, thus a “Prohibited product.” In addition, it explicitly forbids the sale of supplements containing “controlled substances such as Cannabidiol, (CBD) a Schedule I Controlled Substance” under the “Dietary Supplements” part of its agreement policy.
The Most Trusted CBD Oil Brands
For reasons like this, you should order your CBD oils directly from trusted brands. These websites have better quality products and provide the necessary credentials to back them up.
Brands like Charlotte's Web and Joy Organics aim to be as transparent as possible about their product ingredients while ensuring oil quality is at the top of their agenda. For example, the latter brand offers premium quality CBD oils that use not US-Grown hemp but also provide cruelty-free testing. Their carbon-neutral shipping makes websites like Joy Organics some of the best places to buy CBD oil.
Depending on your needs, NuLeaf, JustCBD, and CBDfx are some of the best CBD oil brands aside from Charlotte's Web and Joy Organics.
If you are new to full-spectrum CBD oil, NuLeaf and JustCBD have well-balanced, affordable products that are great for beginners. Similarly, CBDfx boasts the best sleep-enhancing oils in the business, and products like its fast-absorbing Calming CBD Tincture are proof.
What to Look for When Shopping CBD Oil?
When you shop for CBD oil, you should always pay attention to the certifications that come with it or its lack. Since the market for these products is so unregulated, these credentials are the only proof you should rely on.
But for a CBD oil to be truly reliable, these certifications must not be confined to only cannabinoid and terpenes test results. Companies that you buy your oil from must also be willing to be transparent about the presence/absence of toxins and heavy metals in their products.
You can see this article to know what to look for in CBD oil.
Third-Party Lab Testing
Third-Party lab testing results are crucial to ensure your CBD oil quality. If you are unsure about oil quality, these tests help reveal the purity of CBD oil. But the most important quality of third-party testing is that they produce authentic, unfabricated results.
Most buyers trust this testing mode because, in third parties, the CBD samples get sent to labs that have no connections to the business. You can take these results at face value because the CBD oil company has not influenced them in any way.
Since the lab personnel aren't even aware of what company they are producing these results for, their verdict is much more unbiased and reliable than a test conducted by the CBD brand itself.
Certificate of Analysis
Many CBD oil companies are happy to show you their standard testing for cannabinoids and terpenes. But the same parties may be hesitant about revealing the results of the heavy metals tests. If you come across such products, it is best to stay away because for a CBD oil to be most reliable, its Certificate of Analysis must provide details of all the following tests.
Cannabinoid Content Test
Every good quality CBD oil will have passed a cannabinoid test. Since THC is a psychoactive cannabinoid, this test helps check its presence in CBD oil. Only CBD oil with less than 0.3% of the psychoactive component THC is federally legal in the US.
The main component of CBD oil is also another cannabinoid called cannabidiol. This test helps reveal the oil's potency by showing how much of this substance is present in the product. A higher per mg concentration of CBD signals a higher potency, while a lower concentration may mean that it is less effective.
Terpene Profile Test
Terpenes are compounds in the cannabis plant responsible for giving it that distinctive grassy flavor. The presence of terpenes won't much affect the quality of your oil. Rather this substance is related more to the taste and flavor of the product.
Their presence or absence in CBD oil completely alters the overall look and taste of the product. When an oil contains terpenes as an ingredient, it will likely retain its natural green color. This compound also lends the product a distinctive earthy, bitter flavor. These oils get usually marketed as “natural” CBD oil.
If these earthy flavors are not your preference, a terpene test result will help you avoid such products. A terpene test reveals how much and types of terpenes are present in the oil. Reading the details of such a test will signal how “bitter” the product will taste.
Heavy Metal Content Test
The sad thing about the CBD industry is that there is a rampant disregard for product quality. A major reason is that the FDA does not regulate the market. As a result, it is easy to find CBD oils that are not only sub-par, quality-wise but may also contain harmful substances.
Cannabis has an inherent ability to absorb heavy metals like cadmium, mercury, and chromium from the soil. Since their production is largely unchecked, such toxin-ridden plants may get used in making CBD oils. CBD oil is an extract of the cannabis plant, and this plant is well known to exhibit bioaccumulation properties.
This test reveals the possible presence of these substances in the oil. It is crucial to check for such heavy metals because ingesting them could cause seizures and even death in larger quantities.
US-Grown Components
A CBD oil with a USDA Certified Organic tag is important for many reasons. The cannabis crop can be certified organic when the farms only those substances that the USDA deems fit. So acquiring this certification means that the cannabis farm has passed the strict terms and inspections from the US Department of Agriculture.
US-grown products must adhere to a strict set of agricultural laws to be legally considered organic. The same rules do not apply to products grown outside the country. One variety of pesticides may be allowed in one country but be banned within the US for the risk it poses to health.
Foreign-grown products get reared under a different set of agricultural laws, not always up to the strict standards of the USDA. Therefore, to ensure the quality of your product, your CBD oil should use US-Sourced hemp.
Final Thoughts
If the best and most reliable CBD oil, you should avoid large online marketplaces altogether. Instead, try to order directly from the CBD oil company's website; this way, you will receive a product that multiple tests have verified and access exclusive deals, loyalty programs, and membership offer simultaneously.
Rather than buying your CBD oil through unreliable third-party dealers, it is best to head to sites like Joy Organics or NuLeaf and get the product yourself.
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