Two categories that share a plant and nothing else
A prescribed medicine and a consumer product are not the same thing at different strengths. They are different legal categories, assessed by different bodies, under different rules, reaching people by entirely different routes.
The plant is common to both. Almost nothing else is, and confusing the two is the single most consequential mistake anyone can make in this subject.
This page describes the boundary: what each category is, who decides, what each requires, and why nothing sold here belongs on the other side of the line. It does not discuss what any product does, because that is a question for a clinician.
⚠️ Scope. This page describes a process and what can be verified from documents. It does not describe what a product does to a person, gives no amounts, and does not replace a healthcare professional.
🔴 What this page will not do
Discuss conditions
Whether anything is appropriate for any condition is a clinical judgement, made by a qualified person with your history in front of them.
Compare the two on effect
That comparison would be a health claim regardless of how it was phrased, and we have no basis for making one.
Advise on access
Routes to prescribed medicines run through healthcare systems. A retailer is not a step on that path and should not present itself as one.
What it will do
Describe the two regulatory categories and the distance between them. That is factual, checkable, and genuinely useful.
The medicine category
What defines it
A product presented as acting against disease, or as a means of avoiding it, or administered to restore or modify physiological function, falls within medicinal product law.
Who assesses it
National medicines regulators and, for centrally authorised products, the European Medicines Agency. The assessment covers quality, safety and efficacy.
What it requires
Clinical trial data, manufacturing to pharmaceutical standards, a defined composition, and an approved summary of product characteristics.
How it reaches a patient
By prescription, from a clinician qualified to write it, dispensed by a pharmacy. There is no other lawful route.
The consumer product category
What defines it
A product intended for ingestion that makes no medicinal claim falls under food law, or under cosmetics law where it is applied to the skin.
Who oversees it
National food safety authorities, operating under Union food law, with responsibility resting on the business placing the product on the market.
What it requires
Compliance with food safety and hygiene requirements, accurate labelling, and no unauthorised claims. Authorisation requirements under the novel food framework also apply.
How it reaches a buyer
Ordinary retail. No prescription, no clinician, no assessment of any individual’s circumstances.
🔴 Why the categories cannot be mixed
The classification rule
A product is a medicine if it is presented as one or if it functions as one. Presentation alone is enough, which is why claims matter so much.
What that means for a retailer
Making a medicinal claim about a food product reclassifies it. The product then requires an authorisation it does not have, and selling it becomes unlawful.
Why this is not a technicality
The authorisation process exists to establish that a product works and is safe for a stated purpose. Bypassing it by making the claim without the evidence is the harm the rule addresses.
The practical consequence
A compliant seller describes composition and says nothing about effect. It is a narrow vocabulary and there is a reason for it.
What the register says
The register
The Union maintains a public register of authorised nutrition and health claims for foods. Only claims listed there may be made.
What is listed for this substance
Nothing. No health claim has been authorised, which means every such claim on a food product is non-compliant.
Why that is not evidence of anything
Absence from the register means no authorised claim exists. It is a statement about the regulatory process rather than about the substance.
What it does establish
That any seller making such a claim is operating outside the framework. That is worth knowing about a seller.
The prescribed route in practice
Where it exists
Several member states and the United Kingdom have frameworks under which specialists may prescribe unlicensed cannabis-based products in defined circumstances.
Who can prescribe
Generally specialist clinicians rather than general practitioners, under conditions set nationally. The details differ substantially between countries.
What the products are
Pharmaceutical-grade preparations with defined composition, manufactured to medicines standards, and dispensed through pharmacies.
How that differs from retail
At every point: the manufacturing standard, the composition control, the oversight, and the fact that a clinician has assessed an individual.
The authorised medicine that exists
What it is
At least one cannabis-derived medicine has been through the full authorisation process in the Union and holds a marketing authorisation for specific, narrow indications.
What that required
Clinical trials, a dossier, and assessment by the regulator. It is the ordinary path any medicine takes.
What its existence demonstrates
That the route is available and that it has been completed. A substance being in a plant does not exclude it from medicines law.
What it does not demonstrate
Anything about consumer products containing related compounds. An authorisation covers one product, one composition and one set of indications.
The manufacturing difference
Pharmaceutical standards
Medicines are manufactured under good manufacturing practice, with batch documentation, validated processes, and regulatory inspection.
Food standards
Food businesses operate under hygiene requirements and hazard analysis, with responsibility on the operator and oversight by national authorities.
Why both are real
Food law is not lax. It is a serious framework with real requirements, designed for a different kind of product and a different level of risk.
Where the difference bites
Composition control. A medicine must contain exactly what its authorisation says, batch after batch. A food must be safe and accurately labelled.
What a certificate does and does not establish
What it establishes
The composition of one batch, measured by a laboratory, against the parameters commissioned.
What it does not
That a product is suitable for anyone, for anything. Composition is not an indication and a certificate is not a clinical assessment.
Why the distinction matters here
Because a well-documented product is still a food product. The quality of its documentation does not move it into another category.
What that means for a buyer
Read the certificate for what it covers, which is composition and contamination, and take clinical questions elsewhere.
Interactions and why we do not discuss them
The general point
Substances can affect how other substances are handled by the body. It is a real and well-studied area of pharmacology.
Why a retailer cannot advise on it
Because it depends on what else a person takes, in what doses, and on their individual circumstances. A page cannot know any of that.
Who can
A pharmacist or a doctor, with a full medication list. Pharmacists are readily accessible and this is squarely within their expertise.
What we recommend
Asking them, particularly for anyone taking prescribed medication. It is a short conversation and it is the right one to have.
The vulnerable-group question
Why it is treated separately
Pregnancy, breastfeeding, childhood and existing medical conditions all change the calculation, and none of them can be assessed remotely.
What responsible retail does
Directs those questions to healthcare professionals rather than answering them. It is not evasion; it is the correct answer.
What the framework requires
Certain products carry mandatory advisory statements. Where those apply, they appear on the label and they are not optional.
The consistent position
Anything concerning an individual’s health goes to someone qualified to assess that individual.
What to be wary of
Testimonials
Individual accounts presented as evidence. They are neither controlled nor generalisable, and using them to imply an effect is a claim by another route.
Scientific-sounding language
References to studies, mechanisms and receptors, deployed to suggest an effect without stating one. The framework covers implied claims as well as explicit ones.
Comparisons to medicines
Any framing that positions a consumer product alongside a prescribed one. It is the clearest signal that a seller is over the line.
What a compliant seller looks like
Composition, documentation, and silence on effect. It reads as unhelpful and it is the lawful position.
Why the boundary protects buyers
The evidence requirement
An authorisation means someone independent examined whether a product does what is claimed. Without it, a claim is an assertion.
The composition requirement
A medicine’s content is controlled to a pharmaceutical standard. A food product’s content is what its certificate says for that batch.
The oversight
A clinician assessing an individual, against their circumstances and their other medication. No retail transaction includes that.
What the boundary costs
Convenience, and it is a real cost. The rule exists because the alternative has a worse failure mode.
The presentation rule, in detail
Why it exists
Because a product that people buy for a medical reason is functioning as a medicine whether or not it was assessed as one. The rule looks at how a product is offered, not only at what it contains.
What counts as presentation
The label, the packaging, the website, the advertising, and anything said in correspondence. All of it forms the presentation and all of it is assessable.
What that catches
Implication as well as assertion. A product page carrying condition names, patient stories or clinical imagery is presenting a medicinal purpose without stating one.
Why sellers get caught by it
Because they think of a claim as a sentence. The framework thinks of it as an impression, and an impression can be built without a single explicit statement.
The two documents that matter to a buyer
For a consumer product
The certificate of analysis, showing composition and contaminants for the batch, and the ingredient list. Both are verifiable and both concern what is in the product.
For an authorised medicine
The summary of product characteristics, which states the approved indications, the dosing, the contraindications and the known interactions. It is a very different kind of document.
What the difference shows
One describes a substance. The other describes a substance in use, for a purpose, with the evidence assessed. That gap is the whole distance between the categories.
Why a certificate cannot close it
Because no amount of compositional detail addresses whether something is appropriate for a person. Those are different questions and only one of them has a document.
A short glossary
Medicinal product
A product presented as acting against disease, or as a means of avoiding it, or administered to restore or modify physiological function. Presentation alone brings a product into the category.
Marketing authorisation
The approval a medicine requires before it may be placed on the market, granted after assessment of quality, safety and efficacy.
Register of claims
The Union register of authorised nutrition and health claims for foods. Only claims listed there may be made, and none is listed for this substance.
Good manufacturing practice
The pharmaceutical manufacturing standard, involving validated processes, batch documentation and regulatory inspection.
Unlicensed product
A preparation supplied on a specialist’s prescription outside the marketing authorisation route, under conditions set nationally.
The five checks that apply to any product
The batch certificate
Request it with the number printed on the packaging. A general document for the product line does not cover this batch, and those differences are exactly what it should record.
Total THC
Delta-9-THC plus THCA multiplied by 0.877, because THCA becomes THC under heat and the limit applies to the sum, not to either value alone.
Price per milligram
A division, not an opinion. The only figure that makes two products comparable, whatever the format, process and pack size.
The claims
Without an authorisation number in the EU Register these are assertions, not data — and for cannabidiol that register contains no authorised entry to this day.
The seller’s details
Company name, address and contact. Without them there is also no counterparty to turn to if something turns out to be wrong.
How this connects to the rest
With health claims
The register is the same document that governs everything a seller may say about a food product.
With the certificate
It establishes composition and it does not establish suitability. That distinction is the whole of this page.
With novel food status
The authorisation framework for foods is separate from and parallel to the medicines framework. Both apply to different products.
With how we write
The boundary described here is why our pages describe composition and documentation rather than effects.
What this is for in practice
If you have a medical question
A doctor or a pharmacist. Not a retailer, not a product page, and not a forum.
If a seller makes medical claims
They are operating outside the framework. That tells you something about the operation regardless of whether the claim is true.
If you take prescribed medication
Speak to a pharmacist before adding anything. It is a short conversation and they are the right person for it.
If you are looking for a prescription
That route runs through a healthcare system and through specialists. Retail is not part of it.
Frequently asked questions
Are these the same thing at different strengths? No. They are different legal categories with different assessment, different manufacturing standards and different routes to a person.
What makes something a medicine legally? Being presented as acting against disease, or as a means of avoiding it, or being administered to restore or modify physiological function. Presentation alone is sufficient.
Who authorises a medicine? National medicines regulators, or the European Medicines Agency for centrally authorised products, after assessing quality, safety and efficacy.
What governs consumer products? Food law, or cosmetics law for topical products, with responsibility on the business placing them on the market.
Why can a seller not discuss effects? Because only claims in the Union register may be made on foods, and none is authorised for this substance. A medicinal claim also reclassifies the product.
Is there an authorised cannabis-derived medicine? Yes, at least one, for specific narrow indications, having completed the full authorisation process.
Does that say anything about consumer products? No. An authorisation covers one product, one composition and one set of indications.
Can I get a prescription through a retailer? No. Prescribing runs through healthcare systems and, generally, through specialists.
What about interactions with my medication? Ask a pharmacist. It depends on your specific medication and circumstances, which no page can assess.
What does a compliant seller sound like? Composition, documentation, and nothing about effect. It reads as unhelpful and it is the lawful position.
What we check and what we do not
We check what can be checked from documents: official registers, declared contents, certificates of analysis, arithmetic. We test no products, rank nothing, and assert no effects.
This is the page where the limits of what we do are clearest. We can tell you what is in a product, whether the documentation is coherent, and whether a seller is operating within the rules. We cannot tell you whether anything is right for you, and any retailer who offers to is telling you something about themselves.
The boundary between the two categories is not bureaucratic tidiness. One side has independent assessment of whether a product works, controlled composition, and a clinician who has looked at your circumstances. The other has a certificate of analysis and a label. Both are legitimate; they are not interchangeable.