A CBD product that a creator says helps with anything is, in the Food and Drug Administration's reading, a drug that has not been approved. The FDA's questions and answers on cannabis-derived products state that any product intended to have a therapeutic or medical use, and any product other than a food intended to affect the structure or function of the body, is a drug; that drugs must generally either receive premarket approval or conform to an over-the-counter monograph; that CBD was not an ingredient considered under the over-the-counter drug review; and that an unapproved new drug cannot be distributed or sold in interstate commerce. The same page names the only CBD drug the FDA has approved, Epidiolex, and says there are no others. Everything a creator might say about sleep, anxiety, pain or recovery is, under the FDA's definition of a drug by intended use, the kind of sentence that turns a bottle of oil into that unapproved drug.
This guide is about that category and nothing else. The craft of the category, the routine, the ritual, the calm preparation, is in the guide to UGC for wellness brands. It is not about state cannabis markets, which have their own rules this guide does not state, and it is not a guide to whether a CBD product may be sold at all, a question the FDA itself answers with "it depends". It is about what the FDA's page says about marketing, applied to what a brand and its creators say about the product on camera, and about the disclosure that governs the free bottle.
What the FDA's page says, in its own order
Selling CBD "depends"
Asked whether it is legal to sell CBD products, the FDA answers that it depends, among other things, on the intended use of the product and how it is labeled and marketed, and that a product meeting the definition of hemp under the 2018 Farm Bill still has to comply with all other applicable laws, including the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The page also says that state and local authorities are fielding numerous questions about the legality of CBD and that the FDA is in communication with them. For a brand, the sentence that matters is the middle one: intended use, labeling and marketing decide, and a creator video is marketing.
Not a supplement, not a food ingredient
The page answers two more questions with a flat no. THC and CBD products cannot be sold as dietary supplements, because the FDA has concluded they are excluded from the definition of a dietary supplement under section 201(ff)(3)(B) of the Act, a substance that is an active ingredient in an approved drug or the subject of substantial public clinical investigations being excluded unless it was marketed as a supplement or food before that; the structure/function vocabulary the supplement guide in this cocoon describes is therefore not available to it. And it is a prohibited act under section 301(ll) to introduce into interstate commerce any food, including animal food, to which THC or CBD has been added, the FDA having concluded that none of the statutory exceptions apply. A creator who calls a CBD gummy a "supplement" is using a category the FDA says CBD products are excluded from; a creator who sells a CBD-infused drink as a food is describing a product the FDA says may not be introduced into interstate commerce.
The therapeutic claim
The page's answer on products seen in stores and online is the one a brief is built around. The FDA says it is aware that some firms are marketing CBD products to treat diseases or for other therapeutic uses, that it has issued several warning letters to such firms, and that selling unapproved products with unsubstantiated therapeutic claims is a violation of the law that can put patients at risk, because the products have not been proven safe or effective, and raises a public health concern, because consumers may be influenced not to use approved therapies. The page lists FDA and joint FDA and FTC warning letters to companies marketing CBD with claims about conditions from infant teething to Alzheimer's disease. What usually stops a CBD brand from briefing correctly is that the sentences its customers ask about are the ones the FDA describes as proliferating, therapeutic and medical uses, whereas the FDA's page leaves it exactly one thing to say: what the product is, not what it does.
| What the creator says | What the FDA's page makes of it | What the brand needs |
|---|---|---|
| "Helps me sleep", "calms my anxiety", "takes the edge off my pain" | A therapeutic or structure/function claim: the product becomes an unapproved drug | Not available; remove, retake |
| "It's a supplement", "a daily wellness supplement" | A category the FDA says CBD products are excluded from | Not available; remove the word |
| "CBD gummies", "CBD seltzer" described as food | A food to which CBD has been added, prohibited in interstate commerce | Counsel's decision on the product itself, before any video |
| "A hemp-derived oil, 25 milligrams per serving, third-party tested" | A description of the product with no claim about the body | Accuracy of every element against the certificate of analysis |
What the FTC adds
The FDA's page records joint FDA and FTC warning letters, and the FTC's own health products guidance applies to any health-related claim in advertising: it requires substantiation in the form of competent and reliable scientific evidence, it treats a consumer testimonial as a claim the advertiser is making, and it holds advertisers liable for misleading endorsements in social media. For CBD the two regimes point the same way: the FDA says the therapeutic claim makes an unapproved drug, the FTC says the claim needs evidence the brand does not have, and the creator's sincere "it works for me" is the sentence both are describing.
The disclosure is unchanged: a free bottle received so that the creator will post about it is a material connection, and the FTC's influencer guidance asks for it to be disclosed clearly, in the video itself and not only in the description, even when the brand never asked for a mention.
The platforms, and the state layer
Two layers sit outside this guide and are named only so a brand does not mistake silence for permission. Whether a creator video for a CBD product may run as a paid ad is a question for each platform's own advertising policies, which this guide does not state and which the brand's media buyer reads before the brief. And states regulate cannabis and hemp products under laws that vary and that the FDA's page describes only as a matter of ongoing communication; a brand should know its own state's rules and the rules of the states it ships to before it briefs anyone. Neither layer is stated here.
Five lines for the brief
- Write the FDA's position at the top of the brief in one line: a claim about sleep, pain, anxiety, stress or any condition makes the product an unapproved drug, so the video does not make one.
- Forbid the words "supplement" and "food" for the product, and any comparison with an approved medicine.
- Supply the description the creator may give, the source of the hemp, the form, the serving, the testing, with every element checked against the certificate of analysis.
- Ask the creator for a routine, not a result: when they use it, how it tastes, what the ritual is, without an effect on the body attached.
- Write the disclosure of the free product into the brief, and have counsel watch the final cut, because the category's history is warning letters.
Sources
- FDA, FDA Regulation of Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Products, Including Cannabidiol (CBD)
- Federal Trade Commission, Health Products Compliance Guidance
- Federal Trade Commission, Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers
Checked on 20 September 2026. This guide is not legal advice. Where this guide and the official source disagree, the official source prevails.
