Swansea CBD Buyers Beware

With the Swansea and West Wales CBD economy worth millions a year, (Swansea itself has a market worth around £4 million per annum), there is no surprise that there are plenty of rogue traders taking advantage of buyers.

Cannabidiol, (CBD), is big business. Many sellers are just ignorant of the products they are selling and re sell blindly regardless of quality or actual content. This means that the genuine, quality sellers end up getting tarred with the same brush as the poorer ones, whilst consumers can end up unable to tell the wood from the trees.

So What Should Consumers Look Out For?

We asked some of the guys at one of the most experienced, fastest growing, online CBD brands selling into Swansea and West Wales, ​Reactiveplus.com​, how consumers could protect themselves and make sure they are buying good quality, correctly described products. Here is the feedback we got:

● Make sure you know what kind of oil you are buying. Full Spectrum oils are either Raw, (filled with impurities as they have not been treated), or Golden oil, (filtered to remove impurities, yet leaving all Cannabinoids, Terpenes and Flavonoids). Basically Golden oils are the highest quality oils you will find on the market. Broad Spectrum oils are distilled Raw oil and tend to contain fewer Cannabinoids and other goodies. Isolate based products are simply highly processed CBD only. They have no other Cannabinoids or elements in them.

● Can your supplier show you a lab report which shows the makeup of the oil or products you are buying?

● Is your supplier a member of a trade association? If not, why not? Have they been removed? Respected trade associations like Cannapro-UK only allow members who are compliant with UK law and sell clearly defined products that contain exactly what they claim.

● Is your supplier making medical claims of CBD curing or treating particular conditions? If so, this is illegal and goes against the MHRA guidelines which only allow CBD to be sold as a food supplement. Anecdotal experience is different to specific claims or promotion of healing powers. That should be left to the doctors and anyone selling you CBD as a treatment for anything likely isn’t all that aware of what is expected from them as sellers.
● Check sell by dates. Most CBD oil products, be the tinctures, Vape Liquid or capsules, will only have a shelf life of about 1 year. Make sure your supplier is clearly labelling sell by dates on their product.

So Will The Above Advice Protect Consumers?

It will certainly stack the odds in the favour of consumers. We have all learned to be aware when buying, but new industries that grow fast will always have those hanging on that are out to make a quick buck at the expense of those who are buying from them.

If you see vendors are selling CBD oils and products that are not what they claim to be, please make sure you report them to ​Trading Standards​.