High Cost of CBD Products- Important Things Seniors Should Know Before Buying
According to research, CBD products can be helpful for seniors to deal with several complications like pain, fatigue, lack of sleep, lack of energy and weak immune among others. If you are dealing with any such issue, you might think about trying CBD to get relief. You have probably also seen some of your friends and relatives getting benefits after they have started using CBD. However, when you try to search for these products, the first thing that may surprise you is the high cost of these products. It may seem weird that a 30ml CBD oil bottle could be so expensive. However, you should also know that the less expensive products may not be original CBD. The reason is that a lot goes into the process of creating and processing CBD products. This is a labor-intensive process, which leads to high costs.
Growing Cannabis
The producers of CBD products have to breed a strain of cannabis that is rich in CBD. Breeding such high-quality CBD is difficult due to legal issues that exist around the growth of cannabis. Though in the United States, hemp-derived CBD is now legal, growing some varieties of the plant is still illegal in some states. Producers can grow CBD-rich plants only in some specific states. Still, the general growing process of hemp or cannabis is limited, which is also accompanies by heavy taxes on the legal cultivation of CBD. This results in paying a heavy licensing fee to the state governments for legally growing CBD plants, which further makes the entire process expensive.
Harvesting and Extraction
The approximate cost to harvest an acre of hemp can range from $300 to $600. This makes harvesting the crop after it has grown surprisingly costly. Even after the producers complete the harvesting process, they still need to complete the long and expensive process of extraction. The extraction of hemp is incredibly costly as it involves using costly and extensive equipment. For example, the method of using CO2 extraction is very critical, as it involves separating cannabinoids from hemp plants.
Using the CO2 extraction method can be supercritical as it gets superheated, which allows it to acts both as a liquid and gas. Thus, it can easily penetrate the hemp plants’ cellular walls and take away the cannabinoids.
After that, the filtering process like winterization is conducted and then they are readied for consumption by suspending them within food oils.
Winterization Process
After CO2 extraction, the winterization process is conducted. In this process, the resulting mixture is frozen and purified. This allows the producers to separate particular compounds before finalizing and bottling it. After the separation of the compound, the final mix gets suspended in inert oil for a certain period. This step can dramatically increase the cost depending on the choice of oil for the CBD product.
The costs of such tests are also very high, as the producers cannot trust the manufacturer. They need to get the product tested by a reliable third-party lab.
Testing in Third-Party Lab Further Increases Cost
Unlike lab-testing food and drinks, which is a quick process, testing CBD products is a little complicated. The reason is the wide variety of different compounds found in these products. This further makes the process complicated and results in increasing the price.
According to the World Health Organization, CBD is a non-addictive natural substance that is safe and comes with no adverse effects. However, it is a fact that the market is still filled with many cheap CBD products that are low-grade and may include ingredients that are questionable and potentially harmful. Being a senior, it is not wise to opt for such cheap products. Rather look for third-party lab-tested, high-quality CBD products that are naturally extracted from the hemp of a trusted source. While these products are more expensive, they might be worth it for your health.
