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In the meantime, there’s virtually no way for consumers to feel confident about what or how much they’re taking when they buy a CBD cookie, and dosage has a big impact on what we know about CBD’s effects so far. How transparent a bakery or coffee shop decides to be about its sourcing and dosing is completely up to them. “It’s actually really hard to get pure CBD. It’s really expensive, and there’s a limited number of high-grade producers across the world,” Blessing says. “If I’m a coffee company that’s coming onto the scene and I want to make some money, I don’t really want to put a lot of stuff in it.”

Sometimes, products that claim to contain CBD don’t have any at all when tested, Blessing says. More commonly, though, cookies and beverages simply contain far less than 300 milligrams of CBD, which is the minimum amount she says has been found effective in the preliminary science so far. Vybes, a brand of CBD-laced drinks, has 15 milligrams of the compound in each bottle. Feelz by Chloe, a line of CBD desserts from the vegan fast-casual chain By Chloe, has said in the past that each dessert contains only 2.5 milligrams of CBD a serving.

Still, Blessing notes, amounts below 100 milligrams haven’t even been tested, so it’s not impossible that small amounts may have some effects. As far as anyone knows, heating up CBD doesn’t degrade its effects, and early evidence suggests that taking it along with high-fat food (like a dessert) aids the body’s absorption of the chemical. Beyond that, all anyone has is guesswork. By Chloe didn’t respond to a detailed list of questions about its sourcing and dosing, but I tried a few of the company’s CBD treats anyway. They were all incredibly tasty, and after consuming three cookies in the course of 24 hours, I accidentally fell asleep on my couch at an indeterminate time of the evening and woke up at 4:30 in the morning. Was it the CBD, or was I just tired? Maybe it was a classic placebo effect, in which I expected to be relaxed and became so.

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CBD research is still in its infancy because both the substance itself and the cultivation of the plants from which it’s derived have long been illegal in the United States. And despite all those cookies you see for sale, CBD does seem to remain illegal, unless FDA approved. In December, hemp cultivation was legalized nationwide as a provision of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018. But the FDA released a statement explicating the agency’s stance on CBD’s legality: In short, the FDA does not recognize a distinction between cannabis- and hemp-derived CBD and, for the time being, considers both to be illegal—especially as a questionably safe food additive. Although CBD isn’t dangerous to healthy people, it can affect how the body metabolizes certain types of medication, which Blessing says could lead to overdose in some cases. (Because of the government shutdown, the FDA is unavailable to explain its stance or enforcement plans in further detail.)