It is difficult to say when exactly CBD derived from cannabis ceased to be demonised and when it became a generally accepted cure for everything.
Perhaps it was in January when Mandy Moore, a few hours before the Golden Globes, told Covetherovius that she was experimenting with CBD oil to relieve the pain caused by wearing high heels. Perhaps it was in July when Willie Nelson introduced a line of coffee beans called CBD, called Willie’s Remedy- these are my two of my favourite things, connected together in an ideal way.
Or maybe it was earlier this month, when Dr. Sanjay Gupta officially supported CBD on “The Dr. Oz Show”.
“I think we are talking about a legal medicine in this case,” he said. “About something that can really help people.
So the question arises: Is this the beginning of a new miracle drug, or does all this media noise mean that we have already reached the peak of CBD’s potential?
In any case, it would be difficult to write a more salutary scenario for today’s society. Considering that CBD cures a wide variety of ailments such as inflammation, pain, acne, anxiety, insomnia, depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome and even cancer, it is worth considering whether this natural marijuana derivative without psychotropic properties represents an irreplaceable medicine for the 21st century. Ice caps are melting and society is becoming increasingly fragmented. Is it surprising that so many people reach for an effective solution?
“CBD is the natural equivalent of Bitcoin from 2016”, summed up Jason DeLand, New York’s advertising director and member of the board of directors of Dosist, a cannabis company in Santa Monica, California that produces disposable Vape Pens containing CBD.
Cannabis for non-smokers
It’s hard to understand the pace of CBD development, which already appears virtually everywhere – in bath balls, ice cream or animal delicacies. A year ago you could have been blissfully unaware of CBD’s existence. Today, the media noise around cannabidiol is compared to the sudden discovery of yoga. Or penicillin. Or maybe even oxygen.
Nevertheless, you probably keep asking yourself: what is CBD? Many people still have absolutely no idea. CBD stands for cannabidiol, a chemical compound found in cannabis. Unlike its more famous cannabinoid cousin THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), CBD has no psychoactive properties.
But that doesn’t mean that you feel completely normal when you use it!
In the case of CBD drops produced by New York start-up Plant People, a product designed to relieve stress, reduce pain and improve cognitive ability, but users talk about the so-called “body high”, which is the physical feeling of relaxation of the body, which is different from what the mind feels.
“Physically, it’s a feeling comparable to a warm bath and getting rid of tension,” said Gabe Kennedy, the 27-year-old founder of Plant People, a New York-based company that sells CBD capsules and oils.
Comparing this to the sensations associated with intensive meditation or yoga sessions, Kennedy added that CBD’s brilliance produces “synergistic effects of a lower order” in terms of social relationships.
“In the company of others, I am more present and attentive, as well as more creative and open,” he said. “What’s more, you’re unlikely to find the need to heat up frozen burritos in a microwave at midnight after taking CBD, unlike after smoking weed.
Such pseudo-religious conversations are now common among CBD followers.
“I am a 30-year-old man who has not experienced a single day off from anxiety throughout his adult life. – wrote one of the users on the CBD subreddit at the beginning of this month. “About 3 weeks ago I started using 10% CBD oil and I can’t even describe how amazing I feel. I’ve also fallen in love with the CBD cookies and I buy edibles every week. For the first time in 15 years I am happy and I can’t wait to live until my old age.”
Such opinions make CBD an ideal cure for our times. Every cultural era is characterised by a defined psychological illness. It also means that every era has its own flagship drug. The desperate post-war era gave rise to a fashion for sedatives, which can be seen in post-war pop music (“Mother’s Little Helper” – The Rolling Stones) and bestsellers (“Doll Valley” by Jacqueline Susann).
The recession of the 1990s led to an outbreak of anxiety and anxiety among Generation X, with milestones like the mass mourning after Kurt Cobain’s death it led to a cultural obsession with new antidepressants entering the market.
Today’s psychological condition of society, especially among the Millennials, is above all the fear of political dysfunction, terrorism, climate change, and even artificial intelligence that “steals” well-paid jobs. This anxiety seems to be even more acute as the young generation feels constantly bombarded with new basics to get crazy with so-called intelligent devices.
“We are flooded with bad news from all over the world and we have no choice but to switch off”.
Said Verena von Pfetten, former director of Lucky magazine, founder of Gossamer, an exclusive magazine dedicated to cannabis.
A convenient time for Mother Nature to give mankind a cure that seems to involve many cultural motifs at the same time – our obsession with caring for ourselves and wellbeing, mainstreaming alternative therapies and the constant struggle to legalize marijuana.
“It seems to be like a gift nowadays,” added Verena von Pfetten.
The avalanche of CBD-containing products struck so suddenly and with such force that they tried to find a suitable analogy for it. Chris Burggraeve, former executive director of Coca-Cola and Ab InBev, called CBD fashion in an interview for Business Insider “a new avocado toast”. On the other hand, toasts with avocado is a fashion from 5 years ago……
Fashion followers looking for new products can also check out ricotta and honey-rich toasts at CBD Chillhouse, a café, a hairdressing salon and a massage parlour in the Lower East Side in Manhattan. Then we recommend going to Inscape NYC, a meditation and relaxation studio in Chelsea, to relax during the Saturday CBD session to get rid of stress.
It would be a mistake to suggest that CBD is nothing more than an obsession with Millennials. According to the AARP website, CBD has become a popular cure for pain and arthritis among the Baby Boomers, some of which may have remained outside the cannabis sphere since the time when they lit the last joint at the 1975 Foghat concert.
Despite this, CBD seems to have found its natural target group among vegan consumers focusing on fashionable hotels such as the James New York-Nomad Hotel, whose menu offers a tasting of products containing CBD. Many hotels in Miami and New York sell $50 worth of blood red jellies in their minibars for packaging offered by the exclusive brand CBD Lord Jones.
Blood-orange jellies containing CBD are produced by the exclusive brand Lord Jones and are now distributed in elegant, fashionable hotels.
Such elegantly packaged CBD products with increased prices refer to conscious consumer trends. Although cannabidiol is derived from cannabis, it is not treated as a recreational drug. On the contrary, it helps to treat the effects of prolonged alcohol consumption and reverses the effect of cannabis consumption. For example, a detoxification drink called Sober Up containing CBD is designed to support the liver and prevent the hangover.
A smaller number of people with a hangover is also the aim of selling products in Adriaen Block, a bar in the Queens district of Astoria, which combined CBD’s properties with classic cocktails.
“You are able to sustain the conversation and be aware of what you are saying”, said Zsolt Csonka, the owner of the bar, who also works as a bartender. “After two or three such drinks, you can easily go to the gym the next day.
When cannabidiol is added to foods such as sesame prawn toasts in PopCultivate, the tasteless CBD acts as a social binder. Similarly to a glass of wine, however, as the supporters claim, without a superfluous hangover.
“You become more involved with your neighbours, talk more freely and meet more people”, said Chris Yang, a molecular biologist, who became the chef.
However, no field using CBD evokes as much enthusiasm as health and beauty.
Among cosmetic products only, CBD has already reached cliché status, appearing in masks, shampoos, hair conditioners, anti-acne lotions, massage oils, soaps, lipsticks, bath balls, anti-wrinkle creams, face and body creams. Even the bedroom is not safe from CBD invasion, as can be seen from the number of hemp lubricants on the shelves.
“I have replaced all my cosmetics with products containing CBD,” reads the Glamour headline.
The natural aura around CBD fits in perfectly with the lifestyles of long-standing supporters of aromatherapy, cryotherapy and homeopathy, helping to accept natural biological regeneration beyond what Big Pharma and pharmaceutical companies offer.
“As one of the ways to improve health, CBD is proving particularly attractive for women,” said Gretchen Lidicker, editor of Mindbodygreen health, the New York-based health web portal and author of CBD Oil Everyday Secrets.
She noted that the majority of those working in the CBD-based cannabis industry are women. “It’s no surprise that women lead the CBD movement,” said 26-year-old Lidicker. “Women have long been ignored and dehumanized by the medical and pharmaceutical industries,” she added. “The waiting time for treatment is too long. Patients’ pain and suffering is often read as anxiety or hysteria, as the body of a man was usually used for research”.
Such concerns seem to have contributed to the development of the CBD industry. In times of distrust of institutions (governments, banks, hospitals), CBD flourished.
Perhaps because it seems new, mysterious and uncontaminated by the mainstream. This may or may not be a coincidence, but one of the most famous CBD retail stores in New York, Alchemist’s Kitchen in East Village, already serves CBD-rich tinctures and gel capsules, while running workshops on astrocartography, conscious dreams and full moon healings.
Supporters of CBD complain that it is effective.
“Cannabidiol really helps to fight the pain, inflammation and general anxiety that I have 24 hours a day”, said Anna Duckworth, editor of Miss Grass, a California-based web portal. “There are millions of people who have had enough and do not want to take drugs that make them feel bad”, she added, “They want to change the form of treatment and opt for a less toxic, more natural method.
Pears on willow or a wonderful medicine?
There is one problem with this approach. If society uses coconut latte with CBD to treat acne or erectile dysfunction, it will not be easy to distinguish true scientific claims from media noise around cannabis. Skeptics who assume that CBD properties are only pears on willow may be surprised by scientific research on the impact of CBD on the treatment of diseases such as schizophrenia, insomnia and cancer.
“CBD is the most promising treatment for neuropsychiatric diseases in the last 50 years”, said Dr. Esther Blessing, representative of the University School of Medicine in New York and coordinator of research on the impact of CBD on the treatment of post-traumatic stress syndrome and alcohol dependence.
“The reason why CBD is such a promising cure is because of the unique combination of efficacy and safety in a very wide range of applications.”
The database published by the National Institutes of Health lists about 150 scientific studies on the participation of CBD in the treatment of, among others, muscle spasticity and Parkinson’s disease. These studies led to the start of cannabidiol-based therapies.
In June 2018, the Food and Drug Administration approved a cannabidiol-based medicine called Epidiolex as an aid in the treatment of severe forms of epilepsy. Dr. Blessing noted that preliminary studies show antipsychotic properties of CBD to help reduce schizophrenia symptoms and fewer side effects compared to other antipsychotics.
According to a study published in the Neurotherapeutics Meadows in 2015, CBD has shown promising properties to help reduce hunger among opioid-dependent people. The results of the study also take into account the positive impact on cancer control. The authors of the review published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology in 2012 wrote:
“There is evidence to suggest that CBD is a strong inhibitor of both growth and spread of cancer cells.
This does not mean, however, that one or two CBD-containing jellies can be considered as a medicine.
“Most available CBD-containing products, such as coffee and food products, contain a trace amount of CBD that is too small to have an effect on the body”, said Dr. Blessing. “CBD coffee often contains about 5 mg of CBD, and the effective treatment of anxiety and anxiety requires the intake of about 300 mg of cannabidiol.”
However, do not remove the CBD oil yet. Dr. Blessing says that many scientific studies in this area have just begun, so the quality and recommended dosage of some products containing cannabidiol may not yet be confirmed. She also noted that CBD may have negative interactions with some medicines, so potential users should consult a doctor before taking the medicine.
There are also some legal risks
Although countries like Poland and Canada completely legalized it and you can buy CBD online there legally without any problems. It’s like buying a BigMac at your local McDonalds.
As with all products containing cannabis, the US Federal Government classifies CBD products other than Epidiolex as Schedule I substances. According to the Second Enforcement Administration, they are in the same group as heroin. Cannabis remains illegal under U.S. federal law even in states that have legalised cannabis for medical or recreational purposes.
However, D.E.A. focuses on looking for large-scale drug traffickers, not individual cannabis users,” said Barbara Carreno, D.E.A. spokeswoman. “We are not taking the joint out of our hands in Hawaii, nor are we going to focus on people buying body balassam or ice cream containing CBD.”
Although there have been police raids across the country on retailers of CBD-containing products, several states, including Alabama, Texas, Florida and Oklahoma, have adopted laws approving certain CBD products to treat specific conditions. Shops offering products based on CBD have appeared throughout the country.
In New York City, CBD products can be purchased in specialist shops with healthy food, yoga studios, flea markets, boutiques and even at crossroads stalls. The availability of CBD in New York, however, is not surprising given the efforts of Mayor Bill de Blasio to reduce penalties for violations of cannabis law. Ultimately, in addition to federal repression in the United States, the greatest threat to the development of products containing CBD is the noise around them.
Some CBD claims “are the reason for false expectations that a CBD molecule is not able to meet”, said DeLand. “It’s doubtful these not only encourage the government to introduce new regulations, but also lead to a situation where real claims are questioned,” he added.
“Isolated CBD obviously has some advantages, but it is certainly not the golden mean for the health problems of this world”, said DeLand. “We are at the beginning of a path towards a full understanding of the therapeutic uses of cannabidiol and their repetitive use. The future of the industry is based on facts and not on fiction”, he stated.
Featured image courtesy of Greencamp.