Written by Rita Rubin MD,https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.17361
General internist Brent Bauer, MD, sees patients at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, one of the most esteemed medical centers in the world. And yet, some of his patients have sought relief from a variety of ills with ubiquitous, unregulated products they can pick up at 7/Eleven or order online (although not from Amazon, whose selling guidelines prohibit them).
The products’ labels say they contain cannabidiol, or CBD, 1 of more than 100 identified compounds in the cannabis plant, commonly known as marijuana. Unlike tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the other well-known cannabinoid in cannabis, CBD doesn’t make users high. Bauer’s patients take CBD products to reduce pain, sleep better, and ease anxiety.
“Right now we have [CBD] popping up everywhere,” said Bauer, director of research for Mayo’s Integrative Medicine program. “I’ve heard it described as the Wild West meets Wall Street. There’s tons of money to be made.”
No question, the CBD market has exploded in recent months, with products ranging from bath salts to coffee and tea to maple bacon–flavored dog biscuits. In fact, it surpassed turmeric in 2018 as the top-selling herbal dietary supplement in US natural- and health-foods sales channels, according to a recent report from the American Botanical Council.
Sales of CBD products in those channels in 2018 totaled $52.7 million—more than triple the amount sold in 2017, according to the report. (CBD products have not yet placed in the top 40 for herbal dietary supplement sales in mass-market channels such as mainstream grocery and drug stores.)
“This idea that anybody and everybody can just go out and buy as much [CBD] as they want is very worrisome to me,” Bauer said.
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Rubin R. Cannabidiol Products Are Everywhere, but Should People Be Using Them? JAMA. Published online November 20, 2019.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.17361