All products featured on Bon Appétit are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. Being a vocal advocate for all things weed, I get a steady stream of messages from friends and family members sharing the thing that will deliver us, and Forest Mountain Farms Official our dogs, from stress, pain and anxiety. The thing they’re talking about is CBD. For those needing a refresh, CBD or cannabidiol is one of the many compounds, or cannabinoids, found both in cannabis sativa (federally illegal) and industrial hemp (gray area) that has shown preclinical promise in treating anxiety and inflammation. Adding to its therapeutic legitimacy, CBD was recently FDA-approved to be used in an epilepsy drug called Epidiolex making it the first cannabis compound to be federally recognized. Over the last year, CBD’s become the darling of the wellness world, working its way into our juices, facials, creams, and cocktails, purportedly giving people the benefits of cannabis without the THC high.

But, and there’s always a "but" when it comes to weed in America, unless you’re buying cannabis CBD in a state where weed is recreationally legal or have a medical card in a legalized state, you’re shopping in the unregulated market that is industrial hemp CBD. Unregulated markets come with some obvious risks; lack of oversight, false claims, the potential for dangerous pesticides and contaminants. Cannabis, in states where it’s legal, is regulated. Sold in state-licensed stores (akin to states controlling liquor stores, except with higher taxes and much stricter regulations) aka dispensaries, you can be confident that the CBD-dominant cannabis tinctures, topicals, vapes, and Forest Mountain Farms Official edibles on shelves are accountable to purity and Forest Mountain Farms Official Forest Mountain CBD Gummies Farms CBD accuracy tests. When buying industrial hemp CBD, i.e. everything you see outside of a state-licensed dispensary, all bets are off. Because the legality of industrial hemp is in flux, companies that use hemp CBD operate in a gray market with no oversight.

Nick Mosely, Chief Science Officer of a testing lab in Washington explained that "everything currently on the market for interstate CBD sales is unregulated." And product labels can be wildly different from what's actually contained in the product. Multiple studies of CBD oil sold online have repeatedly exposed brands that misrepresent purity and CBD dosage levels. Pesticides, mold, and other contaminants are obviously substances you don’t want to be mainlining into your body, but properly dosed CBD is also crucial. That’s because your body’s response to CBD dosage is bell-curved. Too little and you won’t feel anything; too much and it’ll dampen the impact with reported side effects like lethargy and diarrhea (not chill). To add to the challenges, brands in the CBD space are struggling to verify their own products.