The Conundrum of CBD Products for Medical Professionals
[Thursday, December 5, 2019]

A perspective in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) presents the unique challenge faced by medical professionals regarding use of CBD products by their patients. CBD products tread a fine line between legal and illegal products. Without any specific disease claims, CBD containing products can be sold as cosmetics or supplements. On the other hand, several companies have received warning letters from FDA for making disease-specific claims about their CBD products. The irony is that it does not matter if a given product makes or avoid medical claims on its label, an average consumer can easily find information about all kinds of medical benefits claimed for CBD containing products yielding to the rapidly expanding sales of such products. The JAMA article describes the unique situation for physicians. On one side, the medical community generally supports the use of CBD products as there is significant clinical experience to justify such use, however, at the same time, since these products are mostly unregulated, there is daunting evidence that there are several scrupulous players in this industry. A test of 20 randomly selected CBD products available in California found that only 3 products contained CBD content per their labels; 8 products (40%) contained less than 20% of CBD content as advertised, and 2 (10%) contained no CBD content at all. Additionally, high levels of solvents and dangerous gases were found in some products. The quality of the CBD products is highly questionable for both the physicians and consumers. And the one party that is supposed to clarify and regulate these products, namely the FDA, has sent mixed signals. FDA has announced that it does not consider CBD products to be legal, but it has not yet implemented any significant measures to force the CBD products off the market. Add to that the new name for CBD, “Hemp oil” which is basically the same ingredients. All these issues are creating a confusing situation for physicians, who would like to help their patients but expect more regulations at least for the quality of the products sold to their patients without prescription.