Caveat Emptor, CBD

 

Caveat Emptor, CBD

CBD

According to Richard Cleland, who is the Assistant Director of the Federal Trade Commission, “The need for consumer protection exploded with the boom of CBD products that burst on the market. Claims against CBD products, therefore, range from disease treatment claims by manufacturers to quality of ingredients and actual CBD quantities.”

I had Mr. Cleland on my radio show Americas Cannabis Conversation, and during that interview, he was focused on the curative claims by product sellers being able to cure dementia, cancer, and many more illnesses. They have been joined by the FDA in investigating these companies who are making these false and misleading claims.

Marketing Claims

Many millions of Americans look for the magic bullet to cure their pain, and charlatans prey upon the elderly. If you have had conic pain most of your life and you still have the pain, you will try almost anything. The explosion of CBD sales in the last year has been incredible. According to Statista, CBD sales went from $512 million in 2018 and are expected to reach close to $850 million in 2019 up almost 60%. Industry experts suggest that CBD sales in the USA will be $20 billion by 2015.

I want to talk to you about what is happening in the industry that up until now nobody is writing or  talking about misleading selling practices. If you are like me, you are getting deluged by offers for CBD. Sometimes it is positioned as a special offer, and other times it is a free offer. This is where the headline of this commentary comes into play.

Gimics

You see a special limited-time offer, or they only have a few bottles left; they are creating a sense of urgency to make you rush to buy. You see pages and pages of testimonials and all the things CBD can cure or treat. They feature older people looking as if they are pain-free or have gotten the best sleep of their lives. You scroll through all the pages, and you get excited because you want to feel better when you see other people looking better from XYZ CBD oil.

The offer says it’s free, so you decide to click the order here button and can’t wait for the UPS driver to drop it off. Here is the real question, how much did you pay for the free offer? You think nothing it was free. You need to find out how much will you pay for the next bottle? While it may be true that the first bottle is free but the second and other bottles are not free.

Be Aware

You know very little about CBD most of what you see on the web, do you really know how much a 1 oz bottle of CBD oil with 300 MG of Hemp oil should cost? So, you are going to have to take a deep dive to find out what the price is for the next bottle. You will have to search the entire web site to find Terms. The following is a direct lift of the terms to a recent ad I received for a CBD bottle. Read the offer carefully:

“By placing your order today, you’ll be shipped a 30-day supply of Blank for only $6.96. This gives you the opportunity to try this remarkable product so you can come to a decision for yourself if this is the right product for you. If you are dissatisfied with the product, you must call (877) 227-XXXX within 14 days trial plus 3 days   (total of 17 days) from today to cancel your membership and avoid being charged of $95.13, which is the full price of the product. ”

Did you see it the price is $95.13? If you don’t cancel the order, then each month, they will send you a new bottle and charge you $95.13. I think the FTC must stop these deceptive practices and demand that consumers get transparent pricing.

Perkins Twist

If you have been taken advantage of with this pricing scam, then write to the FTC at https://www.ftc.gov/faq/consumer-protection/submit-consumer-complaint-ftc give them your pricing story and perhaps we can bring about honest pricing. In the meantime, shop around for pricing. Things to look for, how many ounces of CBD in the bottle? How much liquid is in the bottle? If you want a 1 oz bottle of CBD with 250 MG of CBD, then look for that product. On the last point, look to the number of doses to a bottle. If one dose is one drop, and the bottle has 100 doses, then each drop is 2.5 MG per dose. You may have to take more than one dose to get enough CBD to make a difference.

Until the pricing is transparent the Buyer Be Ware.

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