With CBD products abounding in nearly every corner store now, it’s so easy to fall for convenience and buy what’s right there. In an earlier post, we discussed why convenience makes you more prone to buying fake products—or products with false advertising—which means your experience might be compromised. It’s not about spending a fortune, but it is about spending enough to ensure that the products you’re buying are exactly what they say they are and will be the most beneficial for you and your overall health.

Let’s break this down further: what exactly are you paying for when you spend more for higher quality?

Peace of Mind

When you buy higher quality products, you buy the assurance that what you’re consuming is reliable and has gone through the wringer before it’s entered your body. That extra dollar buys…

• Third-party testing: Even though 47 states have legalized CBD from hemp and/or marijuana plants, most don’t require testing yet. So it’s up to you, consumer, to make the smarter choice! The test provides the precise ratio of THC and CBD and can even tell you how many terpenes are in your mix, when applicable. You don’t get those guarantees from products that are cheaper and don’t have the stamp of approval from a third-party lab test. In fact, the FDA has caught many a company in the last few years selling products that list wildly inaccurate amounts of CBD to induce more sales.
• Safety from committed companies: With a more expensive product from a credible company, you get what the packaging says you’re getting, and you know everything about where it’s coming from, from where it’s grown to which extraction process was used to what plant it’s derived from, etc. Think of it like the slow food movement: people are much more attuned to buying from local farmers with good farming practices for the food they eat. In the same way, or even more so, with a product like CBD that is much less known to the general consumer than fresh produce, and affects your body differently, it’s that much more important to buy from places with trusted practices and values.
• No harmful chemicals or contaminants: Because cannabis plants easily absorb whatever is in the soil, be that good things like nutrients or bad things like pesticides and heavy metals, the plants need more frequent, intensive testing throughout the growing process—and testing beyond just the level of CBD and THC. With higher quality products, your dollar pays for that testing and the promise that no contaminants or harmful chemicals have gotten into the soil or harvested flower that may change how the resulting CBD product affects your body.

The Real Deal

With a market as hot as the CBD market is now, there are plenty of companies trying to hop into the mix and get their piece of the revenue pie. As we’ve mentioned, not all of those companies are committed to good processes— and they know it. Oftentimes, the lower the price, the less likely it is actually CBD.

• Lower likelihood of false advertising: More opportunistic companies often adjust their labels to include buzzwords and falsely advertise elements of their products that are not fully true (or even whatsoever true). By spending more to buy from a legitimate company with a solid reputation, you don’t risk any unwelcome surprises after consumption.
• CBD oil, not hemp oil: Knowing that CBD comes from the hemp plant, people often confuse the label “hemp oil” or “hemp seed oil” for a CBD product. This is totally understandable—those products are designed to look like CBD products (remember false advertising?). But in fact, they are cheaper to produce and come from hemp seeds instead of hemp flower, as true CBD does.

It comes down to this: spending more in the quality department saves you big in the questions-about-your-health-and-safety department. There are so many benefits to having CBD in your life, but if you don’t buy quality products, you lessen the chance of experiencing those benefits and risk supporting companies with less integrity in their growing and production processes.

If you’re curious about which companies offer high-quality products, take a look at the list in our post about spotting fake CBD products. We indicate which companies to buy from instead. We have also started a blog series to feature our favorite CBD companies. Check out the first company profile on Frontier Jackson, and stay tuned for the next coming later this month.