Hi —
Half the gummies sold at gas stations have either zero CBD or unlabeled Delta-8 in them.
We’ve sent them to labs. It’s not most of them. It’s about half. The label says one thing and the lab finds another — sometimes a completely different compound the customer never asked for.
I built one of the first direct-to-consumer CBD brands. I’ve seen the supply chain from inside. The industry has cleaned up a lot since 2018 — most brands you can buy at major retailers are at least honestly labeled now. But the gas station shelf and Amazon are still a fraud zone.
Affiliate disclosure: Some links below are affiliate. I earn a commission if you buy. Commissions don’t pick the products. When a product is bad, I say so.
This week’s pick
cbdMD Full Spectrum CBD Tinctures.
Three reasons I keep coming back to it:
Their COAs are per-lot, not generic. You can scan the bottle and see the lab report for the bottle in your hand.
They grow their hemp on contracted US farms, not the spot market. Spot-market hemp is how heavy metals end up in your bottle.
The dose on the label matches the dose in the lab. When the bottle says 1500mg, the assay finds 1500mg. That’s not a given in this industry.
What it does for me: I fall asleep faster and wake up less in the middle of the night. That’s the whole pitch — I don’t get the “calm” or “anxiety relief” some people describe, and anyone selling CBD as a sure thing is selling you something.
Here’s the one I take: https://track.flexlinkspro.com/g.ashx?foid=156074.10393.3245597&trid=1476186.213856&foc=16&fot=9999&fos=6
The value play
If you want to try CBD before dropping $80, Diamond CBD runs 50% off for new customers. Sourcing isn’t quite cbdMD-tier but it’s defensible, and at half off you can find out if CBD does anything for you for under $25.
Diamond CBD, 50% off for new customers: https://track.flexlinkspro.com/g.ashx?foid=24.212261.6658000&trid=1476186.212261&foc=16&fot=9999&fos=6
The skip
Gas station CBD. Every form, every brand. Half are mislabeled. Don’t.
Amazon “CBD” too — Amazon’s TOS prohibits CBD, which means anything sold there as CBD is either lying or evading. Either way you don’t want it.
Three small wins
New to CBD? Start at 15–25mg in the evening. Hold there for 10 days before adjusting.
Read the COA before you buy. Every reputable brand publishes one. If they don’t, walk away.
CBD interacts with about 60% of common prescriptions via the same liver enzyme as grapefruit. If you’re on meds, talk to your doctor before regular use.
One thing I get asked
“Is full-spectrum actually better than isolate, or is that marketing?”
Mostly marketing, with a small grain of truth. Full-spectrum often works slightly better for me. But quality of sourcing matters way more than spectrum. I’d take a high-quality isolate over a low-quality full-spectrum any day.
Next Sunday
The four-thing sleep stack I actually run. Plus the supplement everyone takes that did nothing for me in 18 months.
— Dan