Pot Luck

CBD products derived from cannabis plants are everywhere, but does this much-hyped ingredient live up to the claims? Charlotte Haigh investigates

- Charlotte Haigh

Whether you want to spark up your sex life, achieve a state of super- Zen, or have the best night’s sleep of your life, CBD could be the answer. At least, that’s the promise of a glut of new products, from chocolate and drinks to massage oils and moisturizers. This year has seen an explosion of CBD in the UK market, with companies extolling the virtue of products claiming to ease conditions such as anxiety, insomnia and back pain. Today, not only is CBD – usually in capsule form or oil in a bottle – available from health-food shops nationwide, but you can also ingest it in a range of snacks and even get a side order of it in your sexual lubricants (it claims to improve arousal by boosting blood flow).

‘CBD has become huge news off the back of some of the big medical cannabis stories that have hit headlines in recent years,’ says Professor Mike Barnes, neurologist and author of The Beginner’s Guide To Medical Cannabis (£7.65, Berrydales Publishing Ltd). ‘Companies have suddenly seen the potential of selling CBD – a legal, non-stoning component of cannabis.’ Dr. Yasmin Hurd, a neuroscientist and leading cannabis researcher at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, says, ‘The grassroots movement pushing for the legalization of medical cannabis in the US has probably triggered a swell of interest in cannabis products around the world.’ Here in the UK, last autumn’s change in the law – allowing the prescription of medicines based on full cannabis by specialist doctors for certain conditions – has also contributed to the growing interest in the plant’s potential.

But is CBD the wonder molecule people say it is? Here are some of the most common questions answered.

WHAT EXACTLY IS CBD?