Cannabidiol and naturalistic fallacy: it's natural so it's safe?

Cannabidiol is derived directly from the cannabis plant, a flower in the Cannabaceae family. Cannabis is a complex plant, with 400 chemical entities of which more than 60 are cannabinoid compounds; the major compounds being delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). The discovery of these compounds has led to the further discovery of an important neurotransmitter system called the endocannabinoid system (Atakan, 2012). Gamble et al (2018) suggested that medical interest in alternative therapy has been focused on looking for more ‘natural’ routes, as they are believed to have less side effects or contraindications than conventional medicines.

Cannabidiol, known and marketed as CBD, is a compound that interacts with the endocannabinoid system. Until the mid-1990s the endocannabinoid system was relatively unknown, since then research into this potentially clinically useful system is advancing rapidly in humans, and animal studies are also emerging.

The projected market value of the UK CBD industry looks to hit £1 billion by 2025 (Gibbs et al, 2019). The statistics for the potential animal market are not easily obtainable. Many owners are suspected to be using CBD products without a veterinary pre-scription, as a ‘natural’ alternative to pharmaceutical products. It is important to question and explore these emerging trends to assess if ‘natural’ really does mean that something is safe and benign and, most importantly, to consider whether there is enough of an evidence base to warrant the use of CBD-based products in veterinary medicine.