From gummies to fine chocolates, several Upstate stores are now selling food products made with hemp-based CBD oil, a natural substance that has been said to improve sleep and reduce seizures, headaches, nausea and anxiety.

Short for cannabidiol, CBD is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid made from the plant hemp, which is a form of cannabis. Marijuana is also a derivative of cannabis and contains CBD, but also contains high quantities of THC, a psychoactive cannabinoid that causes mental impairment. To be legal in South Carolina, hemp-based CBD oil must have less than 0.3 percent of THC, which is what causes mental impairment.



Asheville anesthesiologist Dr. James Taylor of Integrated Pain Solutions has been recommending it to his patients for over a year to treat everything from anxiety to chronic back pain. “It was really the opioid crisis that kind of pushed us down this path to look at CBD,” Dr. Taylor says. “Initially all patients come back and tell us they sleep so much better.”