It’s been six months since CBD was legalised in the UK, back in November 2018. Dame Sally Davies, who is the Chief Medical Advisor for England, has been a key player in the UK’s decision to reschedule cannabis. She, along with countless research globally, has acknowledged “conclusive evidence of the therapeutic benefit of cannabis-based medicinal products.” The legislation had been a long time coming, particularly after Home Secretary Sajid Javid made the decision to relax previous legislation under the Misuse of Drugs Act and since William Hague literally said that the war on cannabis is over. In summary:
- CBD oils that are made from hemp (with less than 0.2% THC) are legal in the UK — as long as they are advertised and sold as “nutrition supplements” rather than medicine
- As of 2019, cannabis CBD oils with higher amounts of THC are available by prescription use only in the UK
Since November, and a little before actually because there has been a grey area in this space for sometime, I have been exploring the various options, from having a CBD infused drink at Farmacy in West London, to buying oils from Whole Foods (they’ve actually stopped selling these now randomly!). Recently, I went to Holland & Barrett to explore and bought tea bags from Jacob Hooy and their CBD infused coconut oil.
Lots of the CBD drinks entering the market are fizzy, which is cute, but I am a fan of non fizzy drinks generally so I was absolutely enamoured by Botanic Lab’s Botanical Tea Drink with hibiscus and sour cherry. The texture and overall experience of the drink was beautiful, really smooth and you feel the CBD effect almost instantly from the cannabis receptors in your mouth. Super impressive and definitely my favourite so far.
Other CBD experiences include a facial and hair treatments, which you can read about here, playing into the fact that our skin is covered in cannabinoid receptors!
I spoke briefly to the Evening Standard last week regarding cannabis and the future of the plant and have some exciting news about a platform launching in the UK that I can share with you soon, so stay tuned.