By Siam 
Walk into any wellness store, and you’ll get overwhelmed with the sheer number of CBD products to choose from. Shops are loaded with CBD creams, CBD softgels, and even CBD-infused snacks and beverages.
Brands like to throw around words like “pure,” “premium,” or high strength,” but the reality in most cases is far from that. Price surges with just word additions, and consumers are left wondering what exactly we are paying a premium for when all CBD comes from the industrial hemp plant.
The truth is, the CBD industry seriously lags when it comes to quality and being true to the label. Most brands make big claims but fail in random lab tests. Most of the time, the exact amount of cannabinoids and other hemp constituents found in these products is quite less or more than what’s mentioned on the label.
Only a rare few brands like Colorado Botanicals invest heavily in clean sourcing, testing, and advanced purification processes. Otherwise, most new entrants cut corners to sell at a low price, rank for a few days, fool customers, and then move on to the next big trend.
This article will help you to understand the difference between clean and cheap CBD so that you can make informed purchasing decisions.
What is “Cheap CBD”?
Have you ever come across no-name CBD gummies in city-side gas stations? Well, that’s the perfect example of cheap CBD. Cheap CBD means products where the manufacturer cuts corners at every stage of production. This involves the use of low-grade hemp to extract the CBD oil.
Such hemp is often heavily contaminated due to being grown with high pesticide use and in low-fertility soil that is full of metals, microbes, and heavy toxins. Hemp is a natural bioaccumulator, so it absorbs all the elements of the soil it’s grown in. So when companies skip proper sourcing and use non-US Hemp Authority-certified hemp plants, these contaminants often end up in the final product.
One way to somewhat control this is to use the right extraction process. But cheap CBD brands don’t like to invest in the machinery required for the gold standard extraction method, commonly known as CO₂ extraction. Instead, they end up using harsh chemical solvents like butane or propane.
These methods are quick, cheap, and catastrophic for the end consumer because they leave behind harmful residue. Some manufacturers make things even worse by using high heat during the extraction process, which severely degrades cannabinoid effectiveness.
As a result, these cheap CBD products end up failing in lab tests. That’s why most skip the testing part completely and don’t provide any certification for their product at all. There’s almost a 100% chance that such products have the wrong cannabinoid concentration mentioned on the label.
There are plenty of studies done in the last few years to highlight this, and yet regulations remain a big hurdle in the industry. In many instances, such products are found with dangerous levels of pesticides and heavy metals like lead and mercury.
What is Clean CBD?
Clean CBD means the products are made from organically grown hemp under careful monitoring. Reputable companies use only certified hemp plants that are growing in toxin-free soils without any genetically modified seeds, growth hormones, or pesticides. The farms from which such hemp is sourced follow sustainable and ethical agricultural practices.
For example, hemp growing in Colorado farms is subject to the state’s strict agricultural regulations and ideal growing conditions. From the soil and the surrounding temperature to the moisture level, everything is carefully regulated.
To get clean CBD, methods like CO₂ extraction are used. This involves the use of carbon dioxide in a supercritical fluid instead of harsh chemicals to extract cannabinoids from hemp plants.
This approach pulls all hemp compounds like terpenes, cannabinoids, and flavonoids without leaving toxic residues. Every batch of clean CBD products goes through strict lab testing procedures by independent organizations to ensure that it’s free from fillers, heavy metals, and microbes and has the right amount of cannabinoids as mentioned on the label.
After this testing, a certificate of analysis is generated, and companies usually make it available on the product page itself.
How Colorado Botanicals Leads the Industry with High-Quality “Clean” Extracts
Colorado Botanicals is a rare gem in the CBD industry. The company has a diverse product portfolio of clean CBD products for all use cases. They use a proprietary purification process. While most CBD companies stop at basic distillation, which uses high heat that burns off crucial cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids, Colorado Botanicals employs advanced pharmaceutical separation technology.
Their process involves seven or more purification steps, including two proprietary methods that other manufacturers don’t use. This sophisticated purification approach allows Colorado Botanicals to remove all impurities, toxic solvents, and unwanted compounds while preserving the beneficial plant materials.
The result is a CBD extract that contains up to 25 active cannabinoids compared to just 11-18 in conventional distillates, with up to five times more minor cannabinoids preserved in the process.
As a result, their products create a much stronger entourage effect than other brands in the market. Also, their filtration methods can achieve THC levels below 0.001%. This is far lower than the “non-detect” threshold that most companies aim for, which makes their broad-spectrum CBD oils ideal for people who need to avoid any trace of THC.
Conclusion
As a consumer, you should know how to differentiate between cheap and clean CBD products. Make sure to buy only from brands like Colorado Botanicals that provide the latest lab test reports for all their products easily available.
Don’t chase bold claims and cheap pricing; learn to read the label and how to prioritize becoming an informed consumer. Buying cheap CBD may save you money in the short run, but over time, it can lead to severe health complications.
Clean products are made using organic ingredients under the right conditions with the help of science-based extraction processes, so paying a slight premium for them is always worth it. Your body and mind deserve clean CBD, not cheap alternatives.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: The Growing Popularity of THCA in Modern Wellness