Sometimes dm and Rossman sell CBD oil, then they take it out of the range again. Why this is so – and where you can still buy cannabidiol oil.
Dm and Rossmann added cannabidiol oil (CBD oil) to their range in 2018 without much notice. However, the products disappeared just as quietly the following year. A few weeks later they were back on the shelves of both drugstore chains.
Currently, however, there are no more CBD products to be found at dm, neither the CBD oil nor the recently introduced CBD chewing gum. At Rossmann you can now buy various brands of CBD oil again.
THC levels in cannabidiol products
But why this back and forth? The reason for this are legal problems: The first stop on sales was about the THC content of the products. Cannabidiol is obtained from the hemp plant, but unlike medicinal cannabis, industrial hemp hardly contains any psychoactive THC. So cannabidiol is not high or addictive. In order for a CBD product to be sold, however, it must comply with a limit value for THC: it may contain a maximum of 0.2 percent THC in order not to fall under the Narcotics Act.
For foods with CBD, separate guide values also apply. These guidelines are recommendations of how much THC a person can safely consume per day. Authorities had carried out spot checks and raids in the CBD industry to check the values.
The THC content of four Limucan brand oils was slightly higher in one product (the oil with ten percent CBD), says Limucan founder Murad Salameh in an interview with Techzle.com. (The Lumucan oils were sold at dm.) But this is a number in the microgram range – that is, a thousandth of a milligram. In any case, the guideline values are set extremely low and are controversial among experts.
That’s why dm no longer sells CBD oil
A few weeks after the first sales stop, Rossmann and dm had added the CBD oils to their range again – but not for long. Since July 2019, the chain has stopped selling any CBD products at all. The explanation for this is provided by dm marketing director Sebastian Bayer in the Food newspaper: “The legal classification of the articles has not yet been conclusively clarified. In coordination with the responsible authorities, we have decided to take the CBD products out of sale for an indefinite period. “
The sale of CBD oil as food does not only take place in a legal gray area because of the THC content – the EU’s so-called “Novel Food Catalog” also plays a role. Hemp extracts are listed in this catalog. Certain labeling requirements apply to “novel foods” and they are also classified as “not marketable”. In order to disappear from the list, an approval procedure is necessary.
Murad Salameh from Limucan sees the THC and novel food debate as a pretext: “The bottom line is to take cannabidiol off the market so that it can only be sold as a pharmaceutical substance.” CBD as a pharmacological substance would then only earn the pharmaceutical industry.
Rossmann still has CBD oil – thanks to a trick
Unlike dm, Rossmann has CBD oil again – more precisely, five percent CBD oil from the nutree brand and oil from Canobo with five and 2.5 percent. The fact that Rossmann was able to list the oils in the range again is thanks to a trick: The leaflet from nutree no longer says how to take the oil. Rather, it is recommended to drip the oil onto the pillow (previously it was said to drip the oil under the tongue).
Manufacturers generally do not reveal the effects of CBD oil. Selling cannabidiol products with healing promises is prohibited by law. Cannabidiol is said to have a relaxing, pain relieving and anti-inflammatory effect. It is also said to have a calming and anti-anxiety effect. At dm and Rossmann, the CBD oils were often sold out, in the online shops they received mostly positive reviews.
Read more on Techzle.com:
- Supermarket tricks: this is how we are cheated!
- The 5 most audacious health lies in the supermarket
- Packaging-free supermarket: shopping without packaging