CBD and the Law: The Facts

Here at CBD.co.uk, we get lots of questions about our products. Many of them ask about the benefits of CBD supplements, and we’ve published a huge deep-dive post about the debate around medicinal CBD to cover that side of things. But after asking what CBD can be used for, the next most popular questions are about the legality of CBD.

It’s not surprising. Like you, we all grew up in a time when schools and doctors offices and TV soaps were full of scare stories about marijuana, cannabis, weed. And CBD – cannabidiol – comes from the cannabis plant. So of course when we all first heard about CBD supplements, we wondered if this was all above board.

Then we saw the first CBD supplements available in high street health shops and pharmacies and realised it was probably OK.

But probably isn’t good enough. You want the facts. And in this post, we’ll give them to you.

Before we begin, we need to explain a few things about CBD.co.uk, and the facts we share in this blog post:

• We’re a UK business. What we say only applies in the UK. If you’re in Ireland, continental Europe, the USA or anywhere else, you’ll need to check your own laws.
• We’re not lawyers. Everything on this blog is based on our research into publicly available guidelines and rules.
• Laws can change. This post was published in October 2019, and while we there aren’t any sweeping law changes in the works that we know of, the situation can change.

Now that’s covered, let’s look at your questions.

Is CBD Legal?

Yes.

Cannabidiol products are legal to buy and sell in the UK. With a few caveats.

1. It can’t contain more than 0.02% THC – the psychoactive element of the cannabis plant. None of our supplements do.
2. You can’t make medical claims about what THC does. We don’t. We just explain what other people are researching.
3. You need to be up front about your ingredients. We are. You’ll find ingredients on our labels.

The CBD products you’ll find here and on the high street are legal. They’ve passed these tests. Homemade CBD products you might find on the markets might not, so make sure you’re dealing with a reputable distributor.

Can I Take a CBD Supplement and Drive?

Yes.

Provided that the CBD supplement you use is legal and contains less than 0.02% of that psychoactive agent THC.

CBD supplements don’t get you high, so they won’t impair your driving the same way taking recreational (illegal) cannabis or alcohol would.

Effects that have been observed in CBD users include a feeling of calmness or wellbeing, and a sense of being in control. These are things that you’d like drivers to feel, as anxious, out-of-control drivers tend to be dangerous to themselves and to others!

As long as you’re buying legal CBD supplements like those you’d find here at CBD.co.uk, you’re fine to drive.

Will CBD Supplements Show Up on a Drugs Test?

As we’ve mentioned, CBD itself is completely legal, so it’s unlikely that a drugs test would be searching for any CBD in your system to begin with.

The issue here would be any THC. As you’ve already learned, a CBD oil contains only a minute trace amount of THC. So you’d need to take a lot of CBD to have enough THC in your system to trigger an alert on a drugs test.

But if you are worried, we’d recommend that you choose products with CBD isolate. These products have a “purer” form of cannabidiol with far less than the 0.02% maximum level of THC.

Sticking to isolate supplements makes the tiny chance of your CBD supplements showing up on a drugs test even smaller, meaning you should be fine.

Any Questions?

These are the three most common questions we receive about CBD and the law, but you may have more. If you do, simply drop a comment in the comments section or find us on social media. We’ll answer to the best of our abilities.