Ok first about me so you know where I'm coming from: I have ADHD and go on and off adderall; I don't care for it but it helps. One son is a borderline case and is managed behaviorally. My other son has had medical cannabis authorization for a different disorder since he was 8 (now a teen) - it works. I've written up our experiences for our support group. And I'm a PhD level biologist - I've read some of the scientific literature (what there is of it, but it's not nothing).

It sounds like your son needs to come off adderall. But I would try other ADHD meds before resorting to CBD. And I would keep his doctors in the loop and discuss it with them first.

Legal doesn't make it benign. Neither does natural. Medical marijuana definitely does have negative effects on the developing brain with a period of increased sensitivity around puberty.

CBD is not marijuana. But it is a cannabinoid. And the truth is that we do not know which cannabinoids are having developmental effects on the brain. It's even possible that THC is relatively harmless and it's the other cannabinoids that are the problem. We don't know. We don't know how CBD interacts with the burst of endocannabinoid receptor upregulation that occurs around puberty. It hasn't been studied. And CBD is typically dosed in pretty high quantities.

For this reason I have long limited my medical needs son to only occasional supplemental use. Now that he's older I have begun letting him try more products and use it more often. I am not opposed to cannabinoids in children - sometimes when there is no good option we are simply looking for the least bad option. I'm not fully comfortable with long term stimulant use in children either. But I think there is additional reason for caution for CBD and for cannabis in young kids.