Earlier this month I wrote about how to choose a CBD brand. This one is about the products you already bought, which is the more urgent question, because those are sitting in your treatment room right now and the federal definition of hemp changes on Dec. 11.
The good news is Vital Body products are in the clear.
If you carry other brands, here’s how to do a quick check ahead of the hemp law changes.
First, know where the date actually stands
This one changed while I was writing it. On Sept. 2 a funding bill became law that pushed most of Section 781 from Nov. 12 to Dec. 11, which gives you an extra month on the part that matters most for a spa shelf: the cap on total THC per container.
The delay is partial, though, and the part that didn't move is worth knowing about. Cannabinoids the plant doesn't produce on its own, like delta-8 made from CBD, lose hemp status on Nov. 12 regardless of the extension. Most spa retail shelves don't carry those, but plenty of wellness retailers do, and if you have any, that's a November problem rather than a December one.
So it's Dec. 11 for the topicals and for most of what you're holding, and Nov. 12 if you carry anything in the delta-8 family. I'd still work through this in October rather than late November, while your suppliers still have time to answer properly.
Now: inventory what you actually have
Walk your retail shelf and your back bar and write down every CBD product, the brand, the exact size, and roughly how many units you're holding. Sizes matter more than people expect here, because the new limit is written per container rather than per serving or per ounce. The same formula in a bigger jar carries more total THC, so a product can clear the limit in one size and miss it in another.
While you're doing this, separate the professional products your therapists use in treatment from the retail products a client takes home. The compliance question is the same for both, but the decisions that come out of it are different. A back-bar product you can substitute quietly. A retail product you've been recommending by name for two years is a conversation with your regulars.
This week: pull the lab results
For everything on that list, get the most current certificate of analysis. Most brands publish them, and if yours doesn't, ask. What you're looking for is total THC rather than delta-9 alone, because the old rule only asked about delta-9 and plenty of older documents only report it.
By early October: send one email to every supplier
Here’s an example you can send to all of them:
We're reviewing our CBD inventory ahead of the Dec. 11 federal hemp definition change. Can you confirm in writing, for each product we carry and in the sizes we carry: the total THC per container, whether the product is broad-spectrum, THC-free or full-spectrum, and what your plan is for our existing inventory if a product no longer qualifies.
That last part is the one that costs money. Ask it now while every brand still has time to answer thoughtfully, rather than late November when they're answering the same question from four hundred accounts at once.
Mid-October: do the math on anything that doesn't clear
For any product that won't qualify, work out how much of it you'd sell through at your normal rate between now and Dec. 11. Some of it will simply sell. What's left will be easier to make a decision about.
I'm not going to tell you what to do with product that doesn't sell through, because that depends on your state, your supplier agreement and frankly on your own lawyer. However, brands worth carrying will want to talk about it, and the ones that go quiet on you in October are telling you something useful about next year.
Late October: give your team the words
Your therapists and your front desk will get asked: Is this stuff still legal? And the worst answer is a shrug. Write two or three sentences they can say and put it somewhere they'll see it. Here is an example for your team: the federal definition of hemp is changing, we've checked everything we carry against the new rule, and what's on our shelf meets it. That's it. Calm, short and true if you've done the work above.
Where Vital Body stands
Our topicals are broad-spectrum and THC-free. That was a decision we made in 2018, long before any of this, because we wanted something our moms would use and something a client who gets drug tested at work could use without thinking about it. The compliance question that's making everyone nervous this fall is one we happened to answer eight years ago for a completely different reason.
If you're working through your own shelf and you want a second set of eyes on a COA, send it over. It genuinely doesn't have to be one of ours.
