CBD Searches Surged in the U.S., Revealing Growing Public Interest and Major Safety Questions
Google searches for cannabidiol, better known as CBD, rose sharply in the United States during the late 2010s. A 2019 study in JAMA Network Open used search data to gauge public interest in CBD, while emphasizing that online curiosity is not the same as confirmed use.
Researchers analyzed U.S. Google searches from 2004 through April 2019. Search activity was relatively stable through 2014, then climbed nearly 126% in 2017 compared with 2016 and another 160% in 2018 compared with 2017. The researchers recorded an estimated 6.4 million searches containing “CBD” or “cannabidiol” in April 2019 and forecast that search volume for the full year would be almost 118% higher than in 2018.
Interest was higher, on average, in states that had legalized recreational cannabis than in states with medical-cannabis laws or cannabis prohibitions. In April 2019, searches for CBD also exceeded searches for several other health-related subjects, including acupuncture, apple cider vinegar, meditation and vaccination. They were comparable with searches for yoga and electronic cigarettes, although searches for dieting remained substantially more common.
The findings show how quickly CBD entered the public conversation, but they do not establish how many people were using CBD, why they were using it or whether the products helped them. Search behavior can reflect news coverage, advertising, curiosity or concern rather than purchasing or consumption.
A separate 2019 study examined the broader effects of recreational cannabis legalization on online behavior. Using data from 28 million searches and 120 million advertising impressions collected between January 2014 and April 2017, the researchers reported that alcohol-related searches fell by about 11% after legalization, while tobacco-related searches increased by about 8%. That research concerned cannabis legalization generally—not CBD specifically—and its search-based design cannot by itself demonstrate changes in alcohol or tobacco consumption.
The rapid growth in interest nevertheless raised important public-health questions. The authors of the CBD study called for research into who uses these products, what they use them for, their possible effects and their interactions with prescription medicines. They also highlighted the need for better product quality controls, labeling and marketing standards.
Those concerns remain relevant because products sold as CBD have not always contained what their labels promised. In a report on illnesses in Utah during 2017 and 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that products labeled as CBD contained a dangerous synthetic cannabinoid and no CBD. The incident illustrates the risks created by inaccurate labeling and weak manufacturing controls.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that most CBD products have not been evaluated for safety, effectiveness, appropriate dosage or drug interactions. The agency has approved a prescription CBD medicine for certain rare seizure disorders, but that approval does not extend to the many nonprescription oils, foods, supplements and other products marketed to consumers. FDA also warns that CBD may cause side effects, interact with other medicines and, in some circumstances, harm the liver.
For consumers, the central lesson is simple: rising interest does not equal proven benefit. More rigorous research and reliable testing standards are needed to determine which CBD products are safe, how they should be used and whether their health claims are supported by evidence.
