Are Commercial CBD Products High-Quality Products?

Are commercial CBD products high-quality products? Answering that question isn’t easy because it depends on several production stages, but it also goes beyond, ensuring that quality is not only about producing a good product.

Traditionally, higher quality products are responsible for customer satisfaction and even lead to increased sales and profits for businesses. They also help to improve the reputation of companies and increase competitiveness.

Indeed, quality standards are essential for several industries, and for the cannabis industry it is vital to ensure that companies collaborate with consumers to achieve the trust that the industry, regulations, and consumers need while creating more awareness of the benefits of cannabis-derived products.

Many factors contribute to creating high-quality products, and implementing strict quality standards for CBD products around the globe is essential. Here are the minimum quality standards that cannabis companies should follow:

Genetics: The genetics of cannabis plants play a significant role in the quality of a product. Some strains naturally have more concentrations of specific cannabinoids than others, and this is vital to ensure in which industry a company participates. From a legal standpoint, this is the starting point for any CBD company because strains with over 0.3% of psychoactive components are considered as marijuana, a plant that is only legal in a few regions and countries. If a company wants to use these strains, they are constraining their entire market, products and recreational or in some cases, controlled substances. Instead, if a company wants to enter the CBD industry, it should select hemp, which in the US is legally defined as a cannabis plant with less than 0.3% of psychoactive components.

Harvesting and processing methods: The harvesting and processing methods can also affect the quality of cannabis-derived products, especially CBD products. Of course, plants should be harvested at the correct time and processed in a way that preserves all cannabinoids for further use. Still, all the processing methods should prioritize the extraction of those cannabinoids while leaving other plant residues to become part of the industrial process of hemp products, like producing garments or separating the seed for human consumption, and even leaving leaves and branches for animal use.

Following these minimum quality standards for growing, harvesting, and processing plants, all cannabis companies around the globe should oversee other stages related to the quality of their products. For example, at HempMeds, we were the first to include a triple testing process with independent third-party laboratories. This process is essential to ensure that we go beyond international regulations regarding cannabis-derived products. We start by ensuring that all our raw materials come from hemp, which has less than 0.3% of psychoactive components as stated in most global regulations, but our hemp also complies with strict quality standards, from growing to harvesting and processing, just as mentioned above.

The second stage is testing the cannabinoid extracts and defining the contents of CBD and other cannabinoids. This process allows us to understand the best use of its components and to invest in research to develop new products that take advantage of different cannabinoids, such as CBG and CBN, and its impact on people’s health. 

Finally, the third stage is manufacturing and testing our products to ensure that even with natural organic products, each batch and bottle of product that reaches our customers has the same number of CBD and other cannabinoids as required, thus allowing us to label each product and its components accordingly.

Ensuring the highest quality standards for each of our products is an essential part of our commitment to ensure that more people enjoy the benefits of CBD products every day, but having a great product is not enough to have a high-quality product. Ensuring that cannabis-derived products have the quality that society deserves means working together with other entities like governments and ensuring compliance with all their regulations regarding safety, labeling, and legal precedence. For the cannabis industry, it is also vital to collaborate with scientists around the globe, helping them to create new research protocols that can prove the efficiency of different cannabinoids in the treatment of several health conditions. This is why we work closely with scientists and researchers, and I’m proud to say that we are among the few cannabis companies around the globe that have sponsored pre-clinical trials in Mexico to understand the benefits of CBD in live brain tissue for traumatic brain injury. Our products were also the first to be included in a clinical trial in Argentina to understand how CBD helps adult patients with epilepsy. We have also participated in other pain management and anxiety research around the globe. 

Finally,  a high-quality product is trustworthy, and to achieve that level in the cannabis industry, it is vital to have transparency about the production process, the origin of the product, the scientific evidence behind this product, and also the legality of the product in a specific market. But cannabis companies must go beyond that as well and share every piece of information that companies require with their clients, collaborate with health professionals and educate them on how cannabinoids work. They must  also be open to address any doubt that each member of society might have, thus helping them become aware of how a product has arrived there. This is a point of weakness for several cannabis companies around the globe because of their fear of sharing their information and opening their doors. This is part of the reason people continue to cling to their unconscious bias regarding cannabis products.

As a member of the global cannabis industry, I encourage other executives in the industry to rethink their approach and market strategy and work toward delivering high-quality products, and for customers to consider if the cannabis-derived product that they receive  has the quality they deserve in every aspect of their life.