CBD products are usually mislabeled, study finds

Most CBD products sold online don’t contain the promised amount of CBD, a potential red flag for regulators deciding whether to crack down on a product commonly used for medical reasons.

A study published Tuesday in a leading medical publication, the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that less than a third of CBD products bought by researchers were correctly labeled.

The researchers bought 84 CBD products online and had them tested in Colorado labs. The findings:

  • About 43% contained more CBD than the label claimed.
  • About 26% contained less CBD than promised.
  • About 31% were within 10 percentage points of the promise.

Also alarming to researchers was that about one in five of the CBD products contained THC, even though CBD products commonly tout their lack of the psychoactive ingredient.

The study drops just as international drug regulators are considering how to regulate CBD.

The World Health Organization, a United Nations health agency, heard testimony this week about whether CBD should come under the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances.

And the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warnings last week to four CBD manufacturers about making health claims. The FDA believes that CBD has not undergone adequate scientific review for use as a drug therapy, though CBD sales are booming amid ongoing legal uncertainty about the product’s legal status.