What to Look for When Buying CBD-a Products

Buying a CBD-a Product Online: What to Look for

In the short term there will be a general lack of products available because the interest in the cannabinoid acids and CBD-a in particular, is very new.  That means be careful.

What out for “search and replace”!  CBD-a is not a replacement for CBD and a lot of online retailers have simply inserted CBD-a for CBD in a lot of their literature. 

3 things to look for when selecting a CBD-a (cannabis acid) product.

1. Determine how you want to take your CBD-a.  
   1. CBD-a cannot be consumed by smoking or vaping; the heat converts it to CBD
   2. Sublingual tinctures will provide the highest bioavailability
   3. Oral pills and capsules will be effective
   4. Edibles that do not require heat to make will be effective; but beware of ‘cooked’ products; the heat converts the CBD-a to CBD.

Conclusion:  Consider a sublingual tincture as your first choice and a pill or capsule second.

2.  Determine if you want to take a product with other cannabinoids as well.
   1. If you have already been taking a cannabis product then you will want to find a product that has those cannabinoids plus CBD-a.
   2. If you are new to cannabinoids then you may want to start with a simple product, and one containing a 1/1 ratio of CBD-a and CBD would be a good choice.

3. Read the label and product information closely.  The focus on CBD-a is new, it is going to be tricky in the short term because the language on labels and in cannabis product literature has been ‘sloppy’.  You want a product that actually has in it what is on the label, and that will be consistent and reliable to use in the future. 
   1. Units of measure… we have a mixture of imperial and metric measurements that has made things unnecessarily difficult for the consumer.  Look for products that have consistent and clear labelling.  That means you should be able to figure out easily how much stuff is in the package, how to take the product, how much to take and when to take it.
   2. Be careful reading the laboratory reports.  It may not be clear how much CBD-a is in the product, because, labs report “net available CBD and THC”, which is a calculated value converting the measured CBD-a to CBD.  This type of analysis is only relevant for vaping or smoking cannabis. (Read more here).

4. Consider the source of the CBD-a in the product. There are essentially 3 sources of CBD-a in a cannabis product.
   1. CBD-a can be extracted from the cannabis plant and purified to yield a white crystalline powder called isolate which is essentially pure.  
   2. CBD-a can be extracted from the cannabis plant and used directly.  This is referred to as a broad-spectrum extract, and can have varying amounts of CBD-a.  More importantly, the broad-spectrum extract has other cannabinoids, as well as terpenes and other natural products depending on the extraction process.
   3. CBD-a is present in the plant itself and the dried flower can be used directly.  
   4. As for which source of CBD-a is best, it is a matter of personal preference in terms of how you would like to consume your CBD-a.  Some considerations are:
      1. A clean tasting CBD-a tincture will typically be isolate based
      2. A broad-spectrum CBD-a extract-based tincture will typically be more flavorful and may provide benefits derived from other cannabinoids, terpenes, etc that may be in the extract.  
      3. An encapsulated product may have CBD-a from dried flower.