The I-Team found hemp products sold locally and gaining popularity and it's popping up in stores in Tampa Bay.
CBD is being used as alternative medicine.
One store owner says, "CBD coming from hemp is benefiting people. That is a fact."
It comes in pills, oils, creams, even edible products.
Distributors claim it helps with everything from stress, nausea, and headaches to anxiety, autism and epilepsy.
Jennifer Nyak uses it on her 11-year-old son, Ravi.
"He was born missing the center part of his brain, but it looks like autism," Nyak said.
She's seen positive results.
"It allows Ravi to function in a much more calm way," she added.
CBD is found in hemp-- a cannabis plant like marijuana.
But unlike marijuana, hemp is high in CBD and not THC.
Wendy Potler uses it for sleep anxiety.
"I'm always up in the middle of the night and I'm able to get a good night sleep when I use it," Potler said.
More parents are moving to Colorado because they want their children with epilepsy to legally be allowed to use CBD.
You can buy it online or in some stores here in Tampa Bay.
But, there's just one problem-- federal regulators with the DEA claim it's still technically illegal to buy and sell over the counter under two federal laws.
"It is because it's still a scheduled 1 narcotic. It is not for legal use." said DEA Special Agent Anne-Judith Lambert.
In the past year, sheriff's deputies in Orlando busted several smoke shops for selling CBD labled products that still contained THC.
"The concern is that because the research has not been conducted and we don't have conclusive results whether it's helped medically or not, anything can be sold out there," Lambert said.
Mark Eiglarsh is a former prosecutor and a defense attorney in Florida and says there's a loophole.
"Because it comes from agricultural hemp which is legal and also because they're selling it as a supplement and not a drug," said Eiglarsh.
If you choose to use CBD, Mark said do your homework like asking for lab reports to show what's in it before you buy.
Still, Federal regulators warn that people can provide phony lab reports, and until it's properly regulated, tested, and legal it should not be used.
Follow Jarrod Holbrook @jarrodholbrook
