UK-based CBD brands say the BBC 2 programme Trust Me I’m a Doctor used “inappropriate” testing methodologies when it investigated cannabidiol and THC levels in popular CBD oil products. One company claimed this produced results that didn’t “come close” to tests by its own in-house laboratory. Another said the BBC-commissioned tests had produced “aberrant results”.
The BBC investigation formed a segment of a recent Trust Me I’m a Doctor episode in which Dr Javid Abdelmneim set out to answer the question “what is really in cannabis-based health product?”.
The programme said that cannabis-based health products were now used by 250,000 people in Britain “attracted by claims that they can calm stress and anxiety, help you sleep, and may alleviate the symptoms of epilepsy, autism and even cancer”.
Trust Me I’m a Doctor pointed out that while people buy CBD products to self-treat health problems, such products are classed as food and subject only to food safety legislation and therefore don’t undergo specific safety, efficacy and quality testing required for medicines.
Dr Arno Hazekamp, a Dutch expert on cannabis products, told the BBC’s Abdelmoneim: “We have done studies in other countries and they are not always what they seem – they don’t have the amount of CBD that’s claimed, no-one is checking what’s actually in them.”
Abdelmoneim said he wanted to see if the same was true for products sold in the UK and so the programme-makers selected 12 “popular” CBD oil products available online and over the counter and sent them for testing to the ICCI – International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute – collaborating with the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague in the Czech Republic.
The results of BBC’s tests showed that three of the products contained less CBD than was indicated on the label. One, the Jacob Hooy CBD+ Hemp Oil which according to its label contains 2.75% CBD, was shown by the ICCI test to contain 1.7%. Another, the 5% Hemp Drops product from KØD, was found by the ICCI test to contain 2.9%. A third product, Celtic Wind CBD Multi-Complex Hemp Oil Concentrate, whose labelling indicates it contains 500 milligrams of CBD was found to show “barely detectable amounts (0.00075%)”.
ICCI also tested the products for THC (the psychoactive component of cannabis). Here, the ICCI test showed two products – CannabiGold and Love CBD – “significantly exceeded” the maximum daily dosage of THC of 70 microgrammes recommended by the European Food Standards Agency (EFSA).
All the companies named by Trust Me I’m a Doctor have robustly challenged the BBC over the testing methods used in the programme. They also question the logic of submitting products to a single laboratory in full knowledge, as the programme pointed out, that “a key issue is the lack of internationally recognised, standardised laboratory tests to determine these levels, so results can vary from lab to lab”.
Jacob Hooy called the BBC results “aberrant for CBD content, and perhaps for other parameters”. It said that its products had been “tested by several European laboratories and were found to be ready for market”.
Celtic Wind said it was “currently in conversation with the BBC regarding the inappropriate testing methodologies. It added that its CBD Multi-Complex Hemp Oil was the only one of the 12 products that was a “totally natural cold-pressed product”. Comparing it to products made using Co2 extraction was like “comparing apples with oranges”, it said.
Love CBD said it had conducted 100 laboratory tests on its Entourage products, and none had “come back with THC anywhere near this level”. KØD pointed out that the 5% CBD in its product was composed of “two different types of CBD, namely CBDA (2.4%) and CBD (3.2%) giving a total of 5.6%”. As clarification, the company said it was “looking to modify packaging and will definitely consider adding extra information to help our customers”.
Trust Me I’m a Doctor also questioned the effectiveness of any of the products tested, with presenter Javid Abdelmneim claiming that a consumer would need to “swallow an entire bottle of 5% CBD oil to achieve a therapeutic effect”.
Picture: A scene from the Trust Me I’m a Doctor episode
• Links to the full statements from each of the companies concerned is included in a BBC article about the Trust Me I’m a Doctor episode.