“Hemp Oil” is often used synonymously with “CBD Oil” in the hemp industry. Hemp seed oil, which contains no CBD, is also sometimes referred to by the name Hemp Oil, and can cause questions to be raised on how a product is being marketed and the CBD content of a product.
This confusion can be a way to mislead the uneducated consumer. In fact, products labeled as hemp oil may not contain any CBD at all. It’s important to look for products with clear labels showing the overall quantity of CBD—and the mg per dose—as well as other ingredients. In a study of CBD products from 2017, almost 70% of the analyzed samples were mislabeled.
Prior to the 2018 Farm Bill being signed by President Trump in December 2018, CBD was treated as a Schedule I controlled substance, and considered federally illegal. It was, however, already legal in 46 states at that time. Because of the federal limitations on CBD, large retailers such as Amazon, EBay, etc. did not allow CBD products to be sold on their platforms. In order for a product to be considered “federally legal,” it was labeled as “Hemp Oil,” while CBD was called “Hemp Extract”. This allowed manufacturers to ship and distribute to states where CBD was legal, prior to December 2018.
