Photo credit: Ty Alexander Photography
A sampling of the CBD oil options in varying concentrations, sizes and formulations available at Beyond Full Spectrum.
CBD has gone mainstream. You don’t need to search out an intrepid entrepreneur willing to test out the law in Wisconsin anymore to buy it. Wisconsin residents have a variety of CBD dispensaries, online sellers, and other local retailers dabbling in CBD products ready to meet your needs. So how do you compare your options?
It’s simple. Look at the labels, compare your options and choose the best product for the best value. “That can be a bit more challenging than you would expect,” says Michelle La Count of Beyond Full Spectrum. “CBD labeling is not regulated—the Food and Drug Administration and Federal Trade Commission just haven’t caught up with the rapid growth of this industry and it makes it hard for consumers to do their due diligence when labeling can vary so widely across similar products.”
As a founder of Beyond Full Spectrum, La Count and her partner, Aleks Gerasyuta, have been educating consumers about CBD since they opened their first dispensary in downtown Waukesha last year.
“To say our industry could improve its labeling is an understatement,” said La Count. “The packaging for CBD references total milligrams (mg) of CBD. Consumers are used to seeing how many milligrams per dose or pill on the labeling for vitamins and supplements and many mistakenly assume CBD is labeled the same way, but it can’t be—given that there is no recommended dosage of CBD from the FDA.” She went on to say, “The other major source of confusion is product size. A 60ml bottle of CBD oil is bigger than a 30ml bottle, but if both bottles contain 1,000mg of CBD, you are getting more carrier oil, not more CBD, in the larger bottle. It’s not a CBD value, it’s more oil.”
La Count believes federal and state regulators will eventually standardize this industry. However, in the meantime, how does a consumer wade through this sea of confusion surrounding CBD products? La Count’s responds: “When we educate people, especially those who have tried a product they bought elsewhere who haven’t experienced any sort of result from it, and teach them about the product they have chosen and the anecdotal information we can provide about its use many have come back enthusiastically sharing their testimonial of how it ‘actually does work for me!’” Getting people to understand the basics is key.
First, establish a personal dosage through microdosing. Second, learn to compare products. Lesson one in comparisons is understanding that if a product is $29.99 for 250mg of CBD in 30ml of oil that is not comparable to 1,000mg of CBD in the same size bottle. With that basic knowledge, we can add in variables like carrier type—water, sugar, or oil—and the inclusion of terpenes in the formulation, which affect performance factors like absorption and duration. That is a lot to consider as a consumer – we think it is important to take the time to give our patrons all of the information we have available.”
La Count noted, “I believe in the ability of CBD to be life changing for some people; it won’t work for everyone, but that is true of all options out there. By working with consumers along with their physicians and pharmacists we can help people capture the potential CBD offers for pain relief, reduction in inflammation, control of stress/anxiety/PTSD symptoms, and more while the regulators work things out on their side, but education has to be the foundation.”
La Count and Gerasyuta will celebrate the grand opening of their new Beyond Full Spectrum location on May 11, 2019, at 509 E. Silver Spring Drive in Whitefish Bay. They recently opted to rename their CBD dispensaries Beyond Full Spectrum, formerly Full Spectrum Holistic Healing, as they will be offering more than just CBD, but also items such as locally sourced honey. A sports and fitness product line is also in development.
