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7 CBD-Buying Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Sophia Delphi May 30, 2022 - 8 min read
Fact Checked
Man shopping for CBD oil

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CBD is on everyone’s tongues right now. As legalization is drawing near, everybody wants to get their fair share of the green cake.

Each year, CBD sales hit a new record, and 2021 was no different. The hemp space has become an attractive market for all kinds of entrepreneurs — the dishonest ones too.

While experienced CBD consumers can usually spot the difference between high-quality and sub-standard CBD oil, new users may not be aware of the common mistakes when buying CBD online.

In this guide, we’ll help you avoid the most common mistakes made by novice customers. Once you’re done reading it, you’ll be able to make an educated decision on your next purchase.

Health Benefits of CBD and Why People Use It

CBD oil sourced from high-quality hemp and infused with the right ingredients can help you manage a wide range of health problems.

CBD has been suggested as a potential aid in the following conditions:

  • Anxiety
  • AIDS/HIV symptoms
  • Cancer
  • Crohn’s Disease
  • Depression
  • Epilepsy
  • Glaucoma
  • Sleep deprivation
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • Muscle spasticity
  • Neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s Parkinson’s)
  • PTSD

However, not all CBD products are made the same. Once you become aware of that, you’ll be able to avoid common mistakes when buying CBD oil.

Speaking of which, let’s get the corpse out of the wardrobe.

Avoid These 7 Mistakes When Buying CBD Oil

Low-quality CBD oil extracted from contaminated hemp can do more harm than good. Companies that put profits over their customers’ health know about the aforementioned mistakes — but they use it to their own advantage.

Here’s what makes people fail when buying CBD oil online:

1. Choosing Price Over Quality

Many people share this utopian vision that a company will sell premium-grade products at a loss.

There’s no such thing as “cheap CBD oil” — it’s an oxymoron.

While seasoned users may know this, beginners often fall under the false impression that the suspiciously low-priced CBD oil isn’t that suspicious at all.

In fact, buying cheap CBD oils is one of the most common mistakes by new consumers.

Whenever you come across cheap CBD oils, they probably include low-quality ingredients or their CBD potency is far lower than advertised. Sometimes, you’ll be lucky to have any CBD in the bottle at all.

High-quality CBD oils are expensive because the manufacturing process requires highly qualified professionals and high-tech laboratory equipment for extraction.

A whole extraction kit costs between $80,000 and $200,000 — not to mention the cost of hiring and maintaining a team of experts.

Third-party lab tests — the only quality proof of your product — aren’t free, either.

Therefore, high-quality CBD oils will never be cheap. They can be affordable — but not cheap.

2. Ignoring the Hemp Source

Here’s another common mistake when buying CBD oil. If you’ve ever had stomach problems after using CBD oil, this could be caused by some toxic ingredients in it, such as pesticides, heavy metals, fungus, or mold.

All of which result from poorly grown hemp.

Not paying attention to your hemp’s country of origin and farming practices can contribute to a bad experience.

The source of CBD is paramount for the quality of CBD oil because hemp is a dynamic bioaccumulator. This means that the plant absorbs every substance from its environment — accumulating them in its flowers, leaves, and stalks.

Dangerous toxins can show up in your plant material (and CBD oil) if grown in poor soil conditions. Arsenic, cadmium, lead, and other heavy metals are hazardous compounds that can accumulate in plants.

Farmers in certain countries also spray pesticides and herbicides over their plants, which are also easily absorbed by hemp.

If you don’t want to make this mistake when buying CBD oil, make sure that the hemp comes from American farms. Since the signing of the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp has been acknowledged as an agricultural crop again — so farmers can grow it without the pointless bureaucracy and dozens of institutions to gain approval. Now anybody can choose to grow hemp on their land if they see the opportunity.

You can alternatively purchase from companies who get their hemp from European farmers, but again, make sure to check the product’s purity.

Avoid hemp imported from China and other regions of Asia. These countries are known for their widespread use of pesticides and poor soil conditions.

3. Assuming All CBD Oils Are Made the Same

CBD on its own is non-intoxicating, meaning it won’t get you high. That’s the main reason for its unbelievable popularity.

However, that doesn’t mean that all CBD products are non-intoxicating.

CBD can be extracted from hemp and selectively-bred marijuana strains. The latter contains higher levels of THC, so marijuana-derived CBD oils are capable of making you feel high.

Such products are also federally illegal. You can only purchase them if your state allows the recreational or medical use of marijuana.

CBD oils from hemp usually contain 0.3% of THC or less, so there’s no way such low amounts can get you high.

If you want to ensure the top quality of your CBD oil, choose manufacturers who use safe extraction methods, such as CO2. If a company uses cheap extraction methods, there’s a risk of cross-contamination with THC.

4. Not Learning About the Effects of CBD

Although CBD has great therapeutic potential, it also has limitations.

CBD isn’t a miracle cure to all your health issues. It won’t mend broken bones, cure cancer, or wash your pain away.

CBD produces its effects by interacting with the endocannabinoid system (ECS), our leading neuroregulatory network that manages almost all homeostatic functions in our bodies.

Once you learn about the interactions between CBD and the ECS, it will become clearer whether or not it can improve your life.

Educate yourself about cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system and start low with the dosage for optimal results before you dismiss it.

5. Expecting a Miracle Drug

This point overlaps with point number 4.

As a daily supplement, CBD is highly versatile; it can relieve many symptoms and conditions that affect millions of people in the world.

That being said, CBD isn’t a magical pill. Sometimes, the effects won’t show up right away. It may take a few weeks or months for CBD oil to level endocannabinoid deficiencies and restore homeostasis in our bodies.

Sure, relief from anxiety or temporary pain may come pretty quickly, but for chronic health problems, it’s more complicated.

People commonly use CBD to:

  • Ease anxiety
  • Support the immune system
  • Reduce pain and cramping
  • Relieve tension from the muscles
  • Help with mood swings
  • Curb inflammation

However, CBD oil won’t take away all your pain, nor will it end depression and cure you of an autoimmune disease. However, you may be able to use it to increase the efficacy of your treatment and improve your well-being in different areas.

6. Starting with High Strengths

The potency of CBD oil tells you how much CBD is in the bottle and in every milliliter of your product.

It also determines the strength of a single serving.

If you’ve never tried CBD in your life, your body may be reactive to its effects. You won’t need much CBD oil to feel the difference in how you feel unless your condition requires a high-potency CBD oil.

You need to gradually increase the dose and potency to the point where you experience the desired effects without any adverse reactions.

We’ll say it once again: it may take some time until CBD fixes the chemical imbalance in your body, so going all-in with your dosage without taking prior measurements will leave you in a complete “nowhere” when it comes to your effective dosage — not to mention it will be cost-prohibitive.

Despite being a safe and non-toxic substance, CBD may cause a few mild, dosage-dependent side effects.

Taking too much CBD oil can trigger:

  • Dryness in the mouth
  • Diarrhea
  • Dizziness
  • Lower heart rate
  • Sedation

7. Neglecting 3rd-Party Lab Reports

Third-party laboratories are testing facilities that have no affiliation with the manufacturer. They can provide unbiased results on the product’s potency, chemical profile, and purity.

A third-party lab is able to find more than 200 common contaminants in hemp that could have a negative outcome on the quality of your CBD oil.

Reputable brands send samples of their products to such laboratories for a complete analysis. Once the product passes the screening, it receives the certificate of analysis (COA). If a company has nothing to hide, it will display these certificates on its website — or send them with a product in the form of a QR code.

If you can’t access the lab reports, don’t waste your time with that vendor. It’s a big red flag.

More Things to Avoid When Buying CBD Oil

Although the CBD market has matured over the years, there are still a lot of misconceptions surrounding this compound.

This, in turn, causes many people to make mistakes when buying CBD oils — mistakes that can make them apprehensive about using CBD as part of their supplementation.

Choosing cheap CBD oils, not learning about the source of hemp, and ignoring third-party lab reports are the major mistakes. But there are also other dangers to watch out for.

Don’t fall for fancy buzzwords and unrealistic promises; if a company claims its product will cure any disease, they’re stretching the reality (at best) or lying (at worst).

Always have eyes around your head when choosing your CBD supplier.