Milligram

A milligram is a metric unit of mass equal to one thousandth of a gram, the standard unit for stating the amount of a cannabinoid in a product.

Because active compounds are present in very small quantities, milligrams are the practical scale for pharmaceuticals, supplements, and cannabinoid products alike. One thousand milligrams make a gram; one thousand micrograms make a milligram. On a CBD label, the milligram figure may refer to the whole container, to a single serving, or to each milliliter of a liquid, and the three are easily confused. Reading which one is stated is the first step in understanding a product.

Certificates of analysis report cannabinoid content in milligrams per unit or per gram, which allows the labeled amount to be checked against laboratory results. Regulators and researchers use the same unit when describing study doses, which is why comparing a study figure with a product label is straightforward in principle, though the amounts often differ greatly. The milligram figure describes quantity only; it says nothing about how much of that quantity is absorbed.