Industry concerns around compliancy, safety and misrepresentation are widespread. You may be aware of the most recent report by the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis that tested 30 CBD products in the UK. This has attracted considerable attention across the industry and the national media.

It has in fact confirmed what many of us have known for some time, that a large proportion of products on the market are not just unsafe and falsely represented, but many are also illegal which could result in sellers of such items facing a custodial sentence of up to 14 years.

Some may say it’s the Police and Trading Standards remit to address such issues, however in practice these departments do not have the resources or the knowledge to deal with these issues on such a scale.

While consumers are being misled and, in some instances facing criminal prosecutions for even purchasing some of these products, there is irrevocable damage being caused to the industry.

The biggest losers are those within the industry that operate compliantly. It must be understood that this is your industry and the only sensible way forward is an industry led proactive approach towards harmonised compliance.

Going back 4 years, the industry as small as it was, while making some fundamental errors surrounding medicinal claims at the time, was an industry that you could be confident that you were getting what you paid for. The ethical nature of the businesses that were involved at the time is something that should be recognised as a milestone the industry could reach again someday. But those early days when we could literally fit the directors of all the CBD companies around a board table are long gone and as competition has increased, unfortunately so has bad practice.

Today while we see the required standards being met by members of trade associations like the Cannabis Trade Association (CTA), the CTA can only do so much, even with the ultimate threat of the compliance team suspending members who do not comply with the basic requirements of not presenting products as medicines. 

There is little these trade associations can do about the rest of the industry who continue to act non-compliantly. They have little or no regard for the consumer and have no issue with defrauding consumers when it comes to the way they present and sell their CBD.

You may think that claims of fraud by companies in this industry is an excessive statement to make. But fraud is by definition, “wrongful deception that results in financial gain”. Anyone that purchases a product that contain less than 50% of the advertised CBD is being defrauded.

While this may be a generalisation that may feel unjust, you only have to look at eBay or Amazon these days to understand the magnitude of the problem the industry faces. The amount of money exchanging hands on just these 2 sales channels is a significant proportion of the £300 million the industry is estimated to be generating annually. We are talking millions upon millions of pounds in revenues across a range of generally non-compliant, unsafe, illegal and fraudulent product.

Every sale that goes to one of these companies who are pushing a “too good to be true” 5000mg for £9.99, is a sale that your company could be making. These are losses you are realising everyday as a result of bad practice and unlawful activity in the industry, while you spend time, money and a whole lot of love ensuring you do everything by the book.

There is a real problem that needs addressing in the industry and it’s one that the likes of Trading Standards just do not have the resources to deal with.

While the compliant companies in the industry are well aware of these fraudulent products, what is needed and is the only solution to this problem moving forwards, is a certification benchmark of standards that consumers can use to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Consumers need a mark of trust, a mark of quality, legitimacy, lawfulness and compliance.