CBD Gummies Vs. Hemp Gummies: What's The Difference?
December 19, 2022
Many people mistakenly think hemp gummies are the same as CBD gummies. They purchase a product, take it, and either don’t experience the effects they’d hoped for, or they experience effects they really didn’t want. Worse, if they didn’t understand the implications of taking a full-spectrum CBD product or a hemp product with THC, there may be trouble when their workplace decides it’s time for random drug testing.
Let’s talk about the differences between CBD gummies vs. hemp gummies, so you can understand what you’re looking for and make the right purchase for your needs.
Weighing CBD gummies vs. hemp gummies? Here’s what you need to know.
CBD vs. hemp gummies: What are the ingredients?
The distinguishing factor of a CBD gummy is that it contains a dose of cannabidiol. This can be accomplished in a couple of different ways.
Some manufacturers begin with a regular gummy and then spray or coat the outside with a layer of CBD oil. This technique gives the gummy a bitter taste as soon as it enters your mouth, and it also makes it difficult to achieve a consistent dose of CBD. Some gummies may get a larger spray of CBD than others and contain a higher dose, while others miss out and may wind up with only a few milligrams of CBD. You’ll have to roll the dice with every gummy you take.
Other manufacturers, including Butler Hemp Co., prefer to infuse each gummy with a measured dose of cannabinoids. That way, every single one of our gummies contains precisely 25mg of CBD. You can easily predict how long the gummy will take to work, how it will make you feel, and when it will be time for another dose with no guesswork involved.
For a gummy to legally be considered a hemp gummy it needs only to contain hemp seed oil. This is important to understand because hemp seed oil contains zero cannabinoids. Cannabinoids are found in the floral components or the buds of the hemp plant, not in the seeds.
Many customers mistakenly purchase hemp products assuming they will contain CBD and other cannabinoids, but this is not a safe assumption. Sometimes manufacturers add cannabinoids to their hemp gummies, and sometimes they don’t.
The moral of this story is: Always check the label before you purchase anything.
Here’s a cheat sheet for understanding the labels.
If a product is marketed as a CBD gummy, it must legally contain some CBD. The label should tell you the dosage of CBD you can expect, as well as if the CBD comes from an isolate or a full spectrum oil. You should also be able to easily check the level of THC, which is usually listed as a percentage of the overall formula.
If a product is marketed as a hemp gummy, it might contain CBD and other cannabinoids. If these cannabinoids are not listed anywhere, you can probably assume the gummies were made with hemp seed oil alone.
Keep in mind that even tiny amounts of hemp seed oil can legally qualify a gummy as a hemp product. If your goal is to find a product with a considerable level of hemp seed oil, you’ll want to do some label-shopping to find one with the ingredient percentages listed.
If you’re ever looking at a product and you can’t easily tell the ingredients and dosage by checking the label, you might want to put that product back and look for something else.
Hemp gummies vs. CBD gummies: What do they do?
CBD is well known for its soothing, relaxing qualities. Most people take CBD products, gummies included, to ease pain, relieve anxiety, and get a better night’s sleep. Taking CBD as needed can help ease the burden of tough days or periods of soreness, while sticking to a regular dosing schedule provides daily relief of chronic anxiety and painful conditions.
Hemp gummies, on the other hand, do not necessarily cause any noticeable effects. If you’ve chosen hemp gummies that also contain cannabinoids, you could potentially get the same pain and anxiety relief you would from a regular CBD gummy, but this is highly dependent on the dosage and the quality of ingredients.
Some people take hemp gummies as a health food, similar to a multivitamin. Hemp seed oil has plenty of healthy omega fatty acids, so hemp gummies can be part of an overall healthy lifestyle. Usually, however, people who buy hemp gummies take them thinking they will help with sleep and anxiety, when in fact they will not.
It’s worth noting that some unscrupulous manufacturers know customers often don’t understand the difference between hemp and CBD gummies. They may market a hemp gummy by claiming it has soothing properties without explicitly mentioning why or how it would help with pain and stress.
Most likely, hemp gummies would be marketed as CBD gummies if they contained any CBD, because CBD is often what customers want for help with pain, anxiety, and sleep. The absence of such marketing implies a lack of CBD, and therefore you can assume the gummy won’t do much of anything for these conditions.
Be cautious about purchasing a hemp product marketed to look like a CBD product. If the seller falsely markets their product, you never know if they may have also lied about dosage and ingredients.
Hemp vs. CBD gummies: What about drug tests?
CBD gummies are usually full spectrum, meaning they contain trace amounts of other cannabinoids including THC in addition to the main ingredient of CBD. Always check the label before taking a dose if drug tests may be in your future. Even just tenths of a percent of THC can show up as a positive result weeks after ingestion. That’s because the body will store THC metabolites in fat cells long after the ingredient has otherwise cleared your system.
The way around this is to look for a gummy product with a CBD isolate instead of a full spectrum oil. Though you’ll miss out on some of the effects — CBD alone effectively helps with sleep, pain, and anxiety, but not to the same degree as a full spectrum blend — a CBD isolate will not cause a positive drug test result. If you’re open to using other CBD products besides gummies, you might be interested in this THC-free CBD isolate tincture.
The variance in ingredients used in hemp gummies makes it more difficult to predict how they might affect a drug test. If a product was made with just hemp seed oil and no cannabinoids, it won’t cause a red flag on a drug test. But if the manufacturer added THC or a full spectrum blend to the hemp gummies, that’s another matter. Both of these would almost certainly cause a positive drug test result up to several weeks later.
For high-quality, full spectrum CBD gummies, try Butler Hemp Co.
If you’re looking for effective pain control, anxiety relief, and better quality sleep, there’s no substitute for a full spectrum CBD product. Isolates will help, but using all the cannabinoids as nature intended will give you the biggest benefits. Hemp gummies, as we’ve covered, may or may not help with these issues at all, depending on whether they contain added cannabinoids.
Butler Hemp Co. uses extensive testing and quality control to make sure every ingredient that goes into our products is of the highest quality and provides the most beneficial effects.
Shop for gummies here or let us know if you have any questions.