UK CBD Oil Law
What does current UK law have to say regarding CBD oil, hemp and cannabis? What is legal, what is illegal and what lies in the grey area between?
The reason for the complexity and confusion is the classification of “hemp” and “cannabis”. Quite simply, hemp is cannabis – the Latin name of what we call hemp is cannabis sativa. So as far as nature is concerned, hemp is just one type of cannabis. It is generally a particularly tall version, up to about 20 feet tall. It is generally much thinner, and often times has smaller and fewer attention-grabbing flowers.
While the differences between hemp and cannabis are quite vague and borderline non-existent in nature, in relation to cbd oil uk law and cannabis laws in Europe the differences are quite clear. (Fortunately.) Cannabis is considered to be strains of cannabis sativa with THC content regularly over 0.2%, while hemp is strains with THC content regularly below 0.2%. That’s it… couldn’t be simpler.
The lawmakers don’t care about how tall the plant is, or even how many flowers it produces. They care whether the public can get high from smoking it, and they made sure the only strains legally produced can not get the public high.
This decision not to restrict the growing of hemp flowers is critical for the CBD oil industry. Had the EU mandated that the plant must be cut down before the flowers develop it would signal the end of our industry, or at least limit it to the least useful parts of the plant. And when you consider that hemp being grown for its flowers was practically unheard of until a couple of years ago, that hypothesis isn’t so far-fetched.
But as things stand, hemp flowers are allowed to be grown, and so the cannabinoids within those flowers – and the most prevalent cannabinoid in hemp flowers is CBD – can now be harvested to make CBD oil.
However, the growing of the hemp flowers and manufacturing process has to undertaken outside the UK. This is ridiculous as we are able to sell the finished product in the UK, but not grow and process the raw materials. The UK government is stifling this growing industry as a result of politics at a time when they should be encouraging business opportunities.
Thus, UK CBD oil law permit the sale of the finished products, as long as the CBD oil is made using an approved strain. There are roughly 50 of these approved strains, which have been chosen according to their low THC content.
CBD Oil: Legal In The UK
The other UK CBD oil law requirement, is that they do not contain in total, more than 1mg of controlled substances. This includes THC, CBN and THCV.
If you are unsure how much controlled substances are within your CBD oil and it is a 10ml bottle, then the maximum amount would be 0.01%. Love CBD oils contain 20ml of CBD oil and as a result the limit for our CBD oils is 0.005%.
CBD oil is legal in the UK because hemp is legal in the UK. After all, I can walk into my local Tesco and buy hemp seed oil, so why shouldn’t I be able to buy CBD oil from an online store?
Hemp is one of the strangest “controversies” imaginable. It is a plant that risks no intoxication and offers literally thousands of positive uses. It is environmentally friendly; it could entirely fill our need for paper, enabling us to stop cutting down trees. It can be used as fuel, as clothing, and, yes, as medicine.
It should never have been made illegal. It should never be made illegal in the future… and there should be no grey area or legal shadow hanging over the buying and selling of CBD oil. If you are unsure then why not try our Love CBD Sample Pack
We hope you liked our UK CBD oil law blog. If you would like to read similar blogs about CBD to our UK CBD oil law blog, please see the link.
