New figures showed there are now 250,000 CBD users across the home nations, up from the 125,000 users recorded last year.

Despite the uncertain legality of the drug, the Cannabis Trades Association UK reported there are around 1,000 new CBD users every month. According to Mike Harlington, chairman of the CTA UK, around 65 percent of these users are women seeking relief for anxiety, back pain, or epilepsy.

Government advisors made it legal to buy CBD oil last October after they admitted it has a ‘restoring, correcting or modifying effect’ on people. However, the agency backtracked on its decisions within weeks and announced suppliers had to obtain a license to sell it as a medicine. The process of obtaining of medical license to sell CBD is a lengthy one in the UK, the reason why many manufacturers are choosing to market their CBD products as food supplements instead, rather than medicine.

Harlington is now calling for better understanding about CBD, and better education about the substance to erase the negative stigma associated with cannabis.

“In a lot of cases, as soon as you mention ‘cannabis’ the stigma is obvious,” he said. “Products like CBD, because of where it comes from, are stigmatized despite the fact that every mammal has an endocannabinoid system and is therefore designed to use cannabinoids naturally.”

“We’ve known about the endocannabinoid system for 40 years or so but it has been ignored to a greater or lesser degree,” Harlington continued. “Cannabinoid deficiencies are starting to become understood by the medical world, and it is slowly becoming obvious that cannabinoids like CBD are actually essential for general health and wellbeing.”

Pharmacist Shamir Patel sells  branded CBD products on his website and said he has seen the popularity of CBD ‘rise dramatically’ in a short period of time.

“We are hoping that by selling this product through a registered pharmacy we can add to the legitimacy surrounding its use,” Patel said.