You know about CBD’s benefits. You know about different types of CBD products and how to use them properly. You might even know how CBD works inside your body. But, once you are finally ready to start taking advantage of this seemingly miraculous natural compound, you might not know where to get your hands on it.
Fortunately, because CBD is popular and safe, you can find it almost anywhere. Unfortunately, not all CBD is created equal. Here’s a guide to some of the places where you are likely to encounter CBD products and how to tell the differentiate the high-quality stuff from the swill.
Online
Every state has different CBD regulations, but because CBD is legal in most states, there are a number of online marketplaces where CBD products are sold. As long as the CBD sold in these online shops is sourced from industrial hemp and the THC content has been tested to be below .3 percent — and as long as the products comply with other regulations you might have in your area, like that the hemp comes from regional farms or that the product is not considered an edible — CBD bought online is totally legal.
However, there are some caveats to buying CBD online. The rampant popularity of CBD has led many an unscrupulous business to create products that aren’t exactly what they advertise. Third-party studies have found that some CBD products contain no CBD whatsoever, and some include potentially harmful ingredients, like heavy metals, pesticides and microbes like e-coli and salmonella. Unfortunately, CBD is unregulated at the federal level, meaning the FDA doesn’t make any effort to test or verify the safety of any CBD product. What’s more, state regulatory bodies tend to be relatively weak and underfunded, meaning they don’t have the capacity to test CBD products, either.
You need to be your own advocate when buying CBD products online. You should research both the store from which you are making purchases and the individual products you are interested in buying. Good signs that a web store is trustworthy include contact details, especially a physical business address, and a professional look and feel. Meanwhile, high-quality CBD products will be rated well across websites, and its manufacturer should have a professional website filled with information about how they source and produce their products. Finally, you should be careful to compare prices when buying CBD online, to ensure you aren’t paying too much or too little — both of which might indicate a shady deal.
In Stores
If you would rather venture into the real world to evaluate CBD products with your eyes and hands, there are likely plenty of stores in your area selling CBD. Here are the best places to look:
Pharmacies. Drugstores like Walgreens and CVS often carry small collections of CBD products, and you should be able to find CBD products in the pharmacy sections of grocery stores, like Walmart or Kroger. Almost exclusively, you will find topical CBD options like lotions, balms and patches. Though these products are unlikely to contain toxic ingredients, they might not have high doses of CBD, which means they might not provide the strong effects you need.
Health food stores. Grocery stores that tend to have organic or health-oriented branding often carry a wider range of CBD products than the typical grocery store. While there are likely to be plenty of topical options here, you will also likely find oils, tinctures and capsules, all of which tend to provide more holistic effects for managing symptoms like anxiety. CBD prices are likely to be higher at health food stores, but you are also likely to find higher-quality products.
Dispensaries. Some states only permit the sale of CBD within licensed dispensaries, but even if you can find CBD in regular retail stores, you might want to spend some time perusing the offerings at your local pot shop. Dispensaries tend to have a wide variety of CBD offerings, many of which have much higher CBD content than is available over-the-counter in other stores. Especially if you need CBD to manage a health condition and live in a place with medical marijuana shops like Oklahoma, you should apply for a license and visit a dispensary.
It isn’t terribly difficult to get your hands on good CBD, as long as you know where to look. If you are cognizant of the rules in your state and the threats lurking behind suspicious labels, you should be able to score some CBD in no time.
