Despite many countries across the world adopting pro-marijuana laws enabling recreational users to grow their own weed or legally purchase cannabis-derived products online, many prospective canna-consumers are still in the dark on the legality of the subject. International travel can be a concern for many who are unsure on the legal status of the products they increasingly use on a day-to-day basis. For them, interrupting the dosage will be a setback on the health condition that is being treated or can even provoke undesired side effects.

Even though many countries and states have changed their policy towards accepting CBD-based products as legal, figuring out if it is legal to arrive to a specific destination with a cannabidiol product it still can be very confusing.

On the one hand, regulation changes from border to border and is constantly being updated, making it hard to keep track on what is currently legal in a specific destination. On the other hand, there are many CBD oil buy products available with different compositions that are subjected to different regulations. For example, at Sarah’s Blessing online store you can buy CBD oil 3%, 6%, 9% that are full spectrum. Each one of these products may be subjected to different restrictions in each jurisdiction.

In this article, we will provide some key information that may be helpful for CBD users who want to travel safely carrying their CBD-based products.

Main concepts and definitions

Let’s start by introducing what CBD-oil based products are and why many people are using them. CBD stands for Cannabidiol, a compound of a plant named cannabis sativa. This plant has many other compounds, among which is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a chemical known for its intoxicating effects. 

CBD and THC come from the same plant and they both have an effect on the central nervous system, meaning that they are both psychoactive substances. But there’s a huge difference regarding what kind of effect each compound has on our body. 

While THC produces an intoxication that can be associated with euphoria or being “high”, CBD is not intoxicating at all. Instead, through clinical trials it has been proved that it has therapeutic benefits to treat epilepsy, cancer side effects treatment and also can improve anxiety, pain, nausea, insomnia and many other conditions or common health issues without relevant side-effects.

Public awareness regarding CBD healing properties has prompted its popularity among a significant amount of people and a huge global market has developed since in a global scale, prompting regulation changes.

The fact that most of CBD-based products use CBD extracted from hemp, a variant from the cannabis sativa plant, has helped legalization. Hemp is a fast-growing plant that has many industrial uses. It can be refined into fiber to produce paper, clothing, bioplastics and other products and its plantation is legal in may countries because it has a very low concentration of THC and has a boosting market that provides incomes to domestic economies.

WHO report on cannabidiol states that it “exhibits no effects indicative of any abuse overdependence potential”, so there’s no chance of overdosing or getting addicted to this substance, even though CBD is not recommended for people who is under medication. Also, CBD is not recommended for people in vulnerable groups, unless under medical direction. These include pregnant and breastfeeding women.

The UK Food Standard Agency (FSA) confirmed CBD status as a novel food in 2019 and the product has already been incorporated into the European Commission’s Novel Foods Catalogue. Thus, CBD-based products are legal in the UK but they must be labelled as food supplements and must not contain more than 0,2% THC, in order to prevent undesired side-effects on consumers.

Label information

CBD-based oil from trusted stores is labelled with all the information consumers needs in order to avoid health and legal issues. There are two pieces of information travelers need to pay attention to in order to know if they can take that product across a border. 

The percentage of CBD in the product. Most of CBD-based oil include different amounts of the substance that are indicated by a percentage. A 10ml bottle of oil containing 200mg of CBD, for example, will be labelled as CBD 2%. There are many dosages available, the most common are 3% (for mild conditions), 6% (for moderate conditions) and 9% (for chronic conditions).

UK FSA recommends that healthy adults do not take more than 70mg a day. This is about 28 drops of 5% CBD oil. Although, doctor’s evaluation is recommended.

Another very important information that should be present in the label is the spectrum of the product. It refers to the range of cannabinoids included in the product. Cannabis Sativa plant has hundreds of cannabinoids and extraction can be done selecting all or some of them. Products labelled as “full-spectrum” are infused with all the cannabinoids, terpenes and oils in the plant, providing it full healing and nutritional properties. Thus, full-spectrum products may contain THC. The percentage in which it can be available must be included in the label.

Broad-spectrum CBD oil has all the compounds of the plant, except for THC and it provides a great alternative for people who don’t want to experiment with THC properties or just prefer to avoid legal issues. While CBD isolate oil products are infused with pure CBD and no other compound.

Travelling safe

As we said before, CBD is legal in many countries. Hemp and its derived products are legal in the United States, but they must contain less than 0.03% THC. Even though, in some states is conditionally legal and, for that reason, it’s recommended to travel with isolate CBD products  across the United States.

In Canada anyone can legally buy and possess CBD, even if it’s extracted from cannabis sativa plant. There is no limit for the amount of THC in the product at all.

Across Europe, CBD extracted from Hemp is legal in every country, except for Slovakia and, even though most countries accept products that contain less than 0.02% THC, some states has set different limits. For example, in Austria, Czech Republic and Luxembourg is 0.03%; while in Italy is 0.06% and in Liechtenstein and Switzerland is 1%.