CBD and its growing popularity in our region

Couple Laura Warren and Ryan Schirmer are opening up a CBD store on Brambleton Avenue in Roanoke. It's the second store of its kind in the Roanoke Valley, aimed at helping CBD users find the right medications for their pain and anxiety.

"The Roanoke Valley really needs access to high-quality CBD. A lot of times you don't know what you are getting with CBD," Warren said.

With its growing popularity in our region, there's still a lot we don't know about CBD. That's why WDBJ7 went to Thomas Piccariello, a chemist and CBD expert recommended by Virginia Tech.

"CBD is the main component, main cannabinoid in Hemp, and it has been used in a variety of treatments for medicinal purposes," Piccariello said.

It differs from THC in that it creates a feeling of relief without a marijuana high. Piccariello says the Food and Drug Administration is still reviewing the products.

"The FDA is looking at it right now. I think CBD has definitely demonstrated that it's safe . . . The FDA is probably more concerned about drug interactions," he added.

That, along with the appropriate dosage of CBD products that should be sold in stores.

"It's really kind of hard to define what the dosage is for particular condition that people are trying to treat," Piccariello said.

But the FDA's approval would help to regulate dosage.

"It would be helpful if the FDA did finally make a decision because the industry needs to be more regulated, and the CBD products that people are currently purchasing, some of them are not what they say they are," he said.

Piccariello says the FDA plans to come up with an assessment of how to regulate the products soon. Meanwhile, there's already been millions of uses of these products, so most CBD users don't want to wait for the FDA's approval.

"If we can start with one store that is specialized in educating people and providing that quality product, then I think if one store can be saturated then we can start adding more," Schirmer said.