It’s no secret that police look for and arrest drunk drivers in the UK. Most people also know that you can face serious penalties if you’re caught driving while impaired by marijuana or other drugs.
But can you be arrested and charged for an offence after using CBD oil?
In some cases, yes. You can be charged with dangerous driving, or careless or inconsiderate driving — but whether you’ve used CBD has nothing to do with those offences. They’re based on police observations, not a drug test. In fact, police don’t even test for CBD.
CBD (shorthand for cannabidiol) doesn’t impair users in any way, and it’s not illegal to drive after using it. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), responsible for enforcement in Greater London, says “You can drive legally after vaping or consuming CBD as long as you are fit to do so.”
There’s one potential issue to understand, though.
Most bottles of CBD oil contain what’s called “full-spectrum CBD,” the cannabidiol that’s been extracted directly from hemp. The extraction process pulls other plant compounds out of hemp as well, though. One of them is psychoactive THC, the compound that makes marijuana intoxicating. And all of those substances wind up in full-spectrum CBD.
-
1000mg CBD Lotion
£49.95 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
1000mg CBD Oil
£54.95 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
1800mg CBD Oil
£89.95 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
500mg CBD Oil (Full Spectrum)
£39.95 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
750mg CBD Balm
£44.95 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
750mg CBD Gummies
£49.95 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
900mg CBD Capsules
£49.95 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
900mg CBD Patches
£34.95 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
There’s very little THC in hemp plants, and UK regulations ensure that there’s no more than 0.2% THC content in the CBD products sold in Britain. (The actual limit is 0.1 milligrams per container, but the percentage number is commonly used worldwide.) Either way, that’s nowhere near enough to cause impairment.
However, THC can build up in CBD users who take heavy doses every day, and marijuana offences are proven by THC blood or urine content. There’s a non-zero chance that someone stopped for a driving violation could test positive for marijuana use if they’re regularly consuming very large amounts of CBD.
That potential problem can be avoided by choosing another type of CBD oil, which contains either broad-spectrum CBD (which includes at most a trace of THC) or CBD isolate (which is pure CBD with no THC content whatsoever).
Bottom line: It’s not illegal to drive with CBD in your system, but that doesn’t matter if you’re violating traffic laws and you have too much THC in your system. Choosing CBD isolate oil protects against that possibility.
Here’s a deeper dive.
What Is CBD?
Cannabis and hemp plants contain more than 100 plant compounds called cannabinoids, and CBD is one of the two most important; THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is the other. They’re very similar in chemical structure, but the biggest difference between them is that THC intoxicates users and CBD does not.
Hemp is rich in CBD and contains very little THC, which is why the cannabidiol used to make CBD oil and other products is extracted from hemp plants. Cannabis has high levels of THC and only small amounts of cannabidiol, so it’s not a suitable source of CBD. Of course, the marijuana harvested from cannabis plants is more than suitable for those who want to get high.
CBD products have become enormously popular since they were legalised in the late 2010s, because the cannabidiol they contain appears to provide a large number of medical benefits. There’s only preliminary evidence of those benefits, so CBD isn’t prescribed by doctors (except for a few rare types of childhood epilepsy).
Even so, the apparent benefits are impressive, ranging from stress, anxiety, and depression relief and neuroprotective effects, to chronic pain relief and help with insomnia — and that’s just a partial list.
Types of CBD
There are several methods that CBD producers can use to extract cannabidiol from hemp, and none of them are perfect. The extraction process removes more than CBD from the plants; a full spectrum of plant compounds like terpenes, flavonoids, and other cannabinoids are removed along with cannabidiol.
One of those cannabinoids is psychoactive THC, although not in an amount large enough to impair users in any way. THC’s presence in cannabidiol is actually a good thing, because it and all of the other plant compounds work together in an “entourage effect” to maximize the performance of CBD.
For a small number of users, however, the presence of THC is an issue. They may be allergic to THC, or more to the point of this article, they may be worried that even low levels of THC in their bodies could trigger a positive drug test for cannabis use.
Those folks have options. Extracted cannabidiol can be further processed to remove its extra compounds and then used to create two other types of CBD products.
- Broad-spectrum CBD contains cannabidiol that’s had the THC removed, although slight traces of the cannabinoid may remain.
- CBD isolate is pure CBD with all other plant compounds removed.
Those two versions are less effective, unfortunately. The absence of THC means broad-spectrum CBD has a lesser entourage effect than the cannabidiol originally extracted from hemp (known as full-spectrum CBD), and the removal of all other compounds means CBD isolate has no entourage effect at all.
However, those concerned about being drug tested by their employer — or by the police, if they happen to be pulled over while driving — can feel better knowing they won’t have to worry about having THC in their system.
The Legality of CBD
When the UK government legalised the sale and use of CBD, it was identified as a food supplement, It’s not a controlled substance like cannabis or meth, because CBD oil and other products don’t alter users’ consciousness or interfere with their ability to function in any way. Police won’t care if you possess or use CBD.
There are no laws against driving after taking CBD, either. That theoretically means CBD users don’t have to worry about legal charges or being stopped by the police.
There are several caveats, though.
Driving Offences
You can be stopped and charged with dangerous driving, or careless or inconsiderate driving, whether or not you’ve been using CBD. You’ll still have to worry about the police if you are driving dangerously or committing other offences; you just won’t be charged with anything related to CBD consumption.
CBD Oil vs. Cannabis Oil
Legal products like CBD oil cannot have more than 0.2% THC content (the law actually specifies 1mg of THC per container). More than that makes it cannabis oil and it’s illegal under UK law unless obtained with a medical marijuana prescription.
A user purchasing cannabis oil instead of CBD oil from a street dealer, either deliberately or by accident, is at risk. If caught, they’re usually only warned or perhaps fined up to £90 for a first offence, but repeated violations carry much more significant penalties. And if a traffic violation leads to a positive drug test, the user would be likely to face a drug driving charge.
THC in CBD Oil
Cannabis tests look for the presence of THC in urine or blood. In most cases, even full-spectrum CBD oil doesn’t put enough THC into users’ bodies to trigger a positive test. However, people who take extremely high doses of CBD, or those who take very high doses daily, could wind up with enough THC in their blood or urine to flunk a cannabis test.
Experts say there’s less than a 10% chance of CBD use triggering a positive drug test, but those who use very high doses might want to be proactive in choosing a brand of CBD oil. The broad-spectrum or CBD isolate products we mentioned earlier would be smarter choices than full-spectrum CBD oil.
And of course, if CBD users at risk for testing positive for THC in their blood or urine don’t drive or put themselves in situations where they encounter police, they’ll never have to worry about the THC in full-spectrum CBD oil.
Poor-Quality CBD Products
We’ve mentioned that CBD oil purchased from a dealer might conceivably contain more THC than allowed by law — and could get you into trouble. That’s not the only possibility.
CBD oil and other products are now sold at gas stations, convenience stores, and other shops that may not be overly concerned with the source of their products or the reliability of their suppliers. That could be a prescription for disaster. Low-end producers don’t always meet the same quality standards adhered to by the CBD industry’s reputable manufacturers.
The best defence is to do your own research before purchasing. Among the steps you can take:
- Only patronize high-end shops, dedicated CBD outlets, or reputable websites when buying CBD oil.
- Check out the CBD producer to make sure they have a reputation for producing high-quality products.
- Read the product label and make sure you’re purchasing the type of CBD you want to buy (full-spectrum, broad-spectrum, isolate) and that it’s been sourced from hemp. If the source of the hemp is identified, that’s another good sign.
- Find and inspect the product’s third-party Certificate of Analysis (COA) to make sure it contains no more than 2% THC and no contaminants or hazardous substances. Reputable producers include that documentation or make their COAs available online; there should be a link to the certificate on the product’s packaging.
One Final Question About CBD Oil and Police
This question won’t matter to most readers, but the answer is interesting nonetheless: can UK police officers legally use CBD oil?
They can. However, they need to be even more careful about the CBD products they purchase, because police are regularly tested for the presence of controlled substances in their urine or blood — and there’s zero tolerance for drug use by officers.
That would make it imperative for them to fully understand where their CBD oil was produced and what the cannabidiol was sourced from, to check the product’s COA to confirm the amount of THC it contains, and to only purchase from reputable CBD vendors. Using CBD isolate oil would be a smart choice as well since it contains no THC.
One final suggestion: before drug tests, officers should disclose that they’re using CBD oil (and perhaps even bring the bottle with them to prove it’s a legal supplement). Police officers can mount a defence against charges of using a prohibited substance, but that defence is made a lot stronger by presenting evidence of innocence beforehand.
