19/08/2021
Britain's legal cannabis market has boomed during the coronavirus pandemic to become the second biggest after the United States, as consumers rushed to alleviate Covid-linked symptoms, industry experts say.
Cannabidiol or CBD, which is most commonly sold as oil at high street retailers, is one of the active ingredients of non-psychoactive cannabis.
CBD is touted as have relaxing and anti-inflammatory properties, but experts argue the market has long suffered from questions about its efficacy and a lack of regulation.
Britain's Food Standards Agency now regulates the sector and its marketing, after the European Union classified CBD as food in 2019.
Such products will generate sales of £690 million ($856 million, 811 million euros) in 2021, according to the Association for the Cannabinoid Industry (ACI).
That was almost a third higher than the UK trade group's pre-pandemic 2019 projection.
- 'Pandemic increased demand' -
"The pandemic increased CBD demand because there obviously were stress, sleep problems, anxiety, these kind of risks," ACI co-founder Steve Moore told AFP.
Britain has experienced a "quiet cannabis revolution" that has transformed it into "the world's second largest consumer cannabinoids market", ACI said.
Such products are stripped of psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol or THC molecules, which are found in recreational cannabis that remains illegal in Britain.
The state-run National Health Service warns there is "no guarantee" that products claiming to be medical cannabis and sold in health stores as food supplements, such as CBD oil, are of "good quality or provide any health benefits".
The UK allows the sale of h**p products that can be made only from the cannabis plant's fibres or seeds, but not the buds.
Aside from Covid, such products have also experienced strong demand from Britons seeking to ease pain from chronic illnesses such as severe arthritis.
- 'No definitive evidence' -
British charity Versus Arthritis recommends patients contemplating CBD should consult their doctor beforehand, and also wants more work done to understand its impact.