One of the first questions to ask is, what is in my CBD product? In 2016, investigators tested 84 CBD products and found that only 31% were labeled correctly. Forty-three percent of products had far less CBD than specified on the label. It was far worse for vaporization liquids, where only 12.5% of products were labeled correctly. In addition, many of the products had more than 0.3% THC in them. THC is the cannabis chemical that gets you high and if the concentration is above 0.3% you can get arrested for possession of marijuana in states where marijuana is illegal. There are cases where this has happened. The FDA has also written numerous letters to CBD manufacturers for false advertisement, and in many cases tested the products for CBD and found little to no actual CBD in them.

There is also a risk for adulteration and contamination. In Utah, people thought they were buying CBD products but they turned out to also contain synthetic marijuana (like in K2 or Spice), leading to 52 cases of harm, including seizures, confusion, unconsciousness, and hallucinations. Finally, in testing of 29 CBD products, 69% of them had excessive levels of the carcinogen called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

If you are going to use CBD, avoid products that have not been verified for potency and lack of adulteration and contamination by an outside independent laboratory. There is an FDA-approved CBD product for children with seizures from Dravet’s and Lennox-Gastaut Syndromes that is only available by prescription. It has a standardized concentration, less than 0.1% THC, and no adulteration or contamination.