Resident Dank Zombie H4CBD Gummy Mix, 2400mg

What H4CBD is, stated plainly

H4CBD is hydrogenated CBD. Hydrogen is added to the CBD molecule in a laboratory, which changes its structure and its behaviour. It is described as semi-synthetic because it starts from a plant-derived compound and is then chemically modified.

That means it is not CBD, and a product containing it is not a CBD product. Our own catalogue currently records this line as CBD isolate, which is wrong, and we would rather say so on the page than leave it uncorrected in the background.

It holds no authorisation under the Novel Foods regime that governs ingestible CBD in Great Britain, and it is not on the Food Standards Agency's public list. Nothing about it has been assessed for use as a food.

The claims made for it across the shops selling this product are worth naming so you can recognise them. You will see it described as around a hundred times more effective than CBD, and in the same paragraph as non-psychoactive but extremely potent. We are not repeating either. Our H4CBD explainer sets out where the hundredfold figure came from and why it does not mean what it is used to mean, and our Euphoria cartridge listing covers why shops disagree about whether it is psychoactive at all.

We stock it because our owner decided to, having been given this reasoning in full. We list it with the reasoning attached rather than quietly.

The ingredient list nobody reproduces

Here is what is published for these gummies: glucose, syrup, sugar, water, gelatine, acids, acidity regulators, flavourings, fruit and vegetable concentrates, corn starch, gelling agents, wheat starch, potato starch and potato proteins.

Read it twice and three things stand out that no listing for this product mentions.

The first is wheat starch, which means gluten. That is not a minor detail on something sold as a sweet, and it is the kind of thing people scan an ingredient list specifically to find. It appears in none of the retail descriptions we read.

The second is that there are three separate starches in one gummy. Corn, wheat and potato. Most gummies manage with one, and using three alongside gelling agents and gelatine is a deliberate choice about texture rather than an accident of supply.

The third is potato proteins, which is genuinely unusual in a confectionery ingredient list. Proteins of that kind are typically used for structure and mouthfeel, and finding one in a gummy that already contains gelatine suggests a chew engineered fairly carefully rather than a standard base with flavouring added.

One translation while we are here. Fruit and vegetable concentrates in this position are colouring rather than fruit content. They are the natural alternative to synthetic dyes, and they say nothing about how much fruit is in the sweet, which is none.

Three exclusions in one sweet

Most gummies exclude one group of people. A gelatine gummy is out for vegetarians and vegans. A pectin gummy is usually fine for both.

This one manages three at once. Gelatine rules it out for vegetarians and vegans, and wheat starch rules it out for anyone avoiding gluten, including coeliacs.

That combination is worth flagging because it is not what a shopper would predict. Gluten is not something most people expect to have to check for in a fruit gummy, and a product that contains both gelatine and wheat is unusual enough that assuming from experience will get you the wrong answer.

If any of those apply to you, this is not a borderline case to weigh up. It is a straightforward no, and the alternatives we stock are set out below.

The strength figure, and what it is a figure of

The pack states 2400mg. The single most important thing about that number is what it counts.

It is 2400mg of H4CBD. It is not 2400mg of CBD, and the two are not interchangeable in any sense that matters, which is why our listing describing this as a CBD product is a fault we are correcting here rather than repeating.

Retailers publish a per-sweet figure of 60mg. We are reporting that as published rather than confirmed, and we are not stating how many sweets are in the pack until our distributor confirms it, because a strength figure and a count that we cannot verify should not be combined into an arithmetic anyone might rely on.

There is no Food Standards Agency daily figure for H4CBD. The ten milligram advisory that gets quoted for CBD is about CBD, it was arrived at by assessing CBD, and it does not transfer to a different molecule simply because the names look similar. Our H Bomb listing goes into that.

You will also see it stated that these contain less than 0.01 per cent THC. A percentage is not the test that applies in the UK, where what matters is the quantity of controlled cannabinoids in a container rather than a proportion of its weight. Our Euphoria shot listing explains why a percentage on its own settles nothing.

Who should not buy these

Anyone avoiding gluten, gelatine or animal products, for the reasons set out above. That is three separate groups and the list is unusual in catching all of them.

Anyone who came looking for CBD. This is a different compound with a different regulatory position and a different amount of evidence behind it, and if CBD is what you want, our gummies category has products that actually contain it.

Anyone who needs to be certain what they are taking has been assessed for use as a food, because H4CBD has not.

Anyone driving, operating machinery, or otherwise needing to be sure of being unimpaired. Shops describe this compound in contradictory terms and we are not able to tell you which description is right, which is itself the reason for caution.

And anyone under 18, for whom nothing on this site is intended.