Is CBD oil legal in Illinois? Legislators leave much room to wonder

CBD oil is hugely popular in Illinois. Since this U.S. state has a large population, especially in its biggest city, Chicago, it could potentially be a very profitable market for CBD oil. There’s just one catch – much confusion about whether it is legal yet.

You may wonder why CBD is getting so popular right now when medical cannabis has been legal for residents of Illinois since way back in 2013, and you’d be right to do so.

The recent trend of CBD being sold in almost every major retail store, health stores, vape shops, and many other stores, has been happening because of the legalization of hemp, not medical marijuana.

Hemp got legalized by the passing of the United States Farm Bill in the last days of 2018. Once that bill was passed, growing and harvesting hemp became legal in all 50 states – and that really made way for the CBD boom.

Shops across Illinois are now offering various sorts of supplements, health drinks, and other types of consumer goods infused with CBD.

What is CBD?

Simply put, CBD – or cannabidiol – is a molecule created by both hemp and marijuana, and it has no psychoactive effects, unlike its cannabinoid cousin THC.

CBD was discovered way back in 1940, much earlier than THC.

Unfortunately, the focus of the medical community was pointed towards THC much more than CBD for quite a long time.

Medical research of CBD has been gaining momentum in the past few decades as the legalization of marijuana started being less of a taboo, and more of a reality.

As research progressed, CBD was found to be a vital cannabis compound as it acts as a sort of balance to the other cannabinoid we mentioned, THC. It somehow negates the psychotic effects that high levels of THC can cause.

Illegal cannabis growers across the world discovered the same thing and intentionally started breeding out CBD in order for their plants to have a stronger kick and a bigger imbalance between these two cannabinoids.

It was also discovered that, since they balance each other out, taking a combination of CBD and THC is by far the best medical application of cannabis.

Is CBD oil legal in Illinois?

As we mentioned before, the United States Farm Bill legalized hemp, and with it the CBD. However, even months after that happened, people were still getting arrested left and right for possession of CBD oil.

That made people start to wonder whether CBD oil is legal in Illinois and other states with medical marijuana programs, as people in Texas and Florida were being arrested at the airport and other public places.

Hemp-extracted CBD oil is legal across all state borders. However, we strongly recommend against flying with CBD in your luggage as federal and state authorities are still lacking training on this issue. The result is innocent people experiencing unwarranted unpleasant situations.

In addition, Illinois passed its own recreational cannabis legalization bill which made possession of cannabis legal for the residents of Chicago and the rest of the state.

In essence, CBD was legalized for medical use in Illinois a little while ago, after which the federal government legalized hemp and by proxy legalized hemp-extracted CBD.

The recreational vote didn’t really affect the legality of CBD, but it did bring some much-needed regulation to the cannabis industry in Illinois.

Does CBD show up on drug tests?

Testing positive for marijuana can be a harsh sentence in some cases, as losing a job just because of maybe smoking a little bit of weed on the weekend is a total injustice.

Using CBD oil allows you to be more careful. You can (and should always) check its label and if the bottle says the oil was made from hemp, or even better if it says that it contains 0% of THC, then you’re good to go regarding the drug test.

Just to make things clear – there are brands that sell bottled CBD oil which contains other cannabinoids and terpenes, not just CBD. These oils are usually a bit more expensive than the ones with 0% THC, so that’s one way of knowing which ones to get.

If you are taking CBD oil, or CBD in any other form, you won’t fail a drug test as long as the levels of THC in the product aren’t over the legal limit (which is 0.3 % in hemp that CBD is derived from).

Where to buy CBD?

If you’ve walked the streets of Chicago recently, you probably noticed some of the many CBD shops that have been popping up over the last couple of months.

Online shops are also getting hugely popular these days. You can now order CBD oil and CBD isolate via Amazon, and dozens of other retailers also have the online purchase option available.

However, if you have the chance to go to a local source and pick up your CBD product personally, that’s probably the best way to get information about it and support your community while at it.

If you’re in the wider Chicago area, you can have CBD oil delivered to your door in just a few business days without having to leave your house.

That’s another way to find out where your CBD was sourced from and you’ll have near-total control over your medicine.

You definitely don’t want to buy it from places you aren’t familiar with, as reports of fake CBD oil have surfaced over the years.

If you or any of your family members are using it for medical purposes, sourcing CBD oil from a medical dispensary would be the best choice.

Best way to take CBD

There are many forms and shapes of CBD that you can buy. The most popular are CBD oils, isolates, gel capsules, and tinctures.

Those are all great, but they are considered the standard categories. Some of us over at Greencamp prefer CBD in the form of gummy bears and other animal-shaped candy.

That’s right – gummy bears can be made with this molecule extracted from cannabis or hemp, either way.

In fact, all foods and beverages can be infused with CBD, no matter if it’s something you bake, like muffins and brownies, or perhaps you want to mix it with some lemonade.

Edibles are getting hugely popular, and the fact that cannabis just got legalized in Illinois will bring new and more potent cannabis edibles products to the shelves in Chicago and surrounding places.

Oral consumption via eating or dripping CBD oil onto your mucous membranes are the most common ways of taking CBD. Taking it through the mucous membranes is actually the fastest way to get the calming effects of CBD.

Other, less common ways of taking CBD include vaping and dabbing it, as well as using salves and other types of creams via rubbing into the skin.

How long can CBD oil stay fresh

CBD oil, just like most other oils, can be stored for a very long time. Some oils made and bottled in the days of ancient Greece and Rome were found at the bottom of the ocean in galleys that were supposed to ship them over the Mediterranean Sea, and they still kept some of their properties.

If you do plan on storing CBD oil for extended periods of time, we suggest you do it in a dark and dry spot and avoid using it after keeping it for longer than 2 years.

In any case, the properties of CBD oil are best when the oil is fresh and recently extracted, so don’t leave it sitting too long.

Keeping CBD oil in the fridge might be the best solution for storing it for years.