CBD is in everything. From dog treats to human treats, you can find a CBD product, projected to be a $22 billion market by 2022. But what exactly is this miracle three letters and its cousin THC? Well the truth is: this Cannabis family is larger then just two compounds.
CBD is a compound that is created when the plant Cannibis sativa is burned, boiled or vaporized. In this process of heat, oils seep out, that contain more then 100 compounds (many more yet to be “discovered”).
A long list of studies have shown that these compounds {the most popular being CBD and the antagonist (for some) being THC} help alignments from Anxiety and Insomnia to Epilepsy and Cancer. They all share many common symptoms in the body, mainly inflammation. Compounds like CBD decrease the inflammation therefore relieving the individual from the stress of the issue at hand.
In other words, it calms your ass down.
The following are only a few of the full cannabinoid compound “work in progress” list that have been documented by science :
- CBG (Cannabigerol)
- THC (Δ9–tetrahydrocannabinol)
- CBD (Cannabidiol)
- CBC (Cannabichromene)
- CBGV (Cannabigerivarin)
- THCV (Tetrahydrocannabivarin)
- CBDV (Cannabidivarin)
- CBCV (Cannabichromevarin)
Honestly any of the above letters could have been selected to be as famous as CBD. Nevertheless I’m glad science is catching up with what many from ancient India to ancient Egypt been saying.
Here you can see a chart by Leafly showing the full array of medicinal benefits derived from each compound.
So when you purchase a clear liquid “CBD” bottle. The contents will most likely be an isolate from a lab extracting the CBD compound from the plant and away from the rest of its cannabinoid family that all have been working together.
Personally I DO feel a CBD isolate will most likely have “some” positive effects when the person consumes it. But I ALSO believe that the CBD by itself won’t be as potent/beneficial if it was with all it cannabinoids and multitude of other compounds intelligently working together.
Its like saying: Which one is more potent/beneficial? A lab extracted Vitamin C bottle or an organic recently picked Orange?
There are however great full spectrum CBD products that do use the whole plant. But why then call it CBD? It could have been CBG … anyhoo.
The point I am illustrating is do we dumb down our perception of nature and believe an isolate is better the the full workings of the conciousness of the plant? Or do we respect the plants, respect the medicine and respect the ancestral knowledge by the western medicine humbling itself.
Only time will tell, but in the meantime, the government is gearing it self up to be able to bottle all the above compounds and sell it back to you. In the recent signing of the Hemp Bill, Hemp was made legal by taking it out of Schedule I AND ALSO paving the way for the regulation of the extraction of the CBD compound, making only one CBD product legal: GW Pharmaceutical’s Epidiolex.
So what is CBD, CBG, THC? It is ultimately the systems current way of disconnecting us from the Earth by confusing us to the benefits of the whole plant which the Earth provides for free. The alternative which is being able to grow your own Cannabis requires a $200K cash in the bank with a non-returnable $10K application to grow it.
