Are you still on the fence about purchasing CBD, and whether or not it actually works? A recent study shows that you’re not alone! A new paper from the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates how popular CBD has become in internet searches. Their findings show that searches for “CBD” and “cannabidiol” increased 126% in 2017 compared to the previous year. A 160 percent increase was seen in 2018 and similar rises are forecast for the year 2019. With these numbers, there is no doubt that CBD is growing in popularity, but how popular has it become?
The total number of searches for CBD as of this April also surpass those for exercise, veganism, acupuncture, meditation, and even the most talked about celebrities such as Beyoncé, and Kim Kardashian! This comes as a huge surprise since searches for CBD were pretty non-existent until 2014.
An author of the study states, “Interest in CBD across the United States has increased considerably and is accelerating.” “While our study is limited in that Google searches may reflect interest in CBD rather than interest in use, search trends are associated with many health-related behaviors… years ahead of traditional data. Our findings suggest that investigation into CBD should become a public health priority to catch up with the public’s interest.” The researchers conclude with suggestions for developing “product safety standards” and standardized “marketing practices around CBD.” They note that “marketing that misleads the public could erode trust in evidence-based medicine.”
What are your thoughts? Do you contribute to the increase for “CBD” or “Cannabidiol” searches for the year 2019? Are you surprised that these searches have surpassed those of some of the most popular sought-after public figures in 2019? Let us know in the discussion below.
Check out our previous blog: Teaching CBD at Universities by clicking here.
