How Does CBD Make You Feel?

If you’re new to the world of CBD, you are probably wondering what to expect with your first experience of CBD. After all, it comes from cannabis! And CBD is a cannabinoid! It all sounds so... Psychoactive. So how does CBD make you feel?

This is an entirely reasonable thing to wonder, and we will address it forthwith, providing some basic but vital background knowledge.  

But first things first….

Will CBD make me high?

To answer the most pressing question right off the bat: no, Kanibi CBD products will not make you high. Yes, hemp is a form of cannabis, but it isn’t marijuana and it won’t make you high. 

Hemp, by law, must contain less than 0.3%THC, the psychoactive compound in cannabis. At Kanibi, we follow stringent testing practices to ensure that our products are well within legal limits.

Basically, you have a better chance of getting a buzz from a cup of coffee.

What does CBD do?

To understand how CBD will or will not make you feel, it’s important to understand some basics about how CBD works in your body.

The short version is that CBD is a chemical that interacts with receptors in your endocannabinoid system (henceforth referred to as the “ECS”). 

In case you didn’t run into that term in Biology class, your ECS is an inter-related system of chemicals and receptors spread throughout your brain and body. 

These chemicals (called cannabinoids) and receptors are often imagined as a lock and key system, which is as good a way as any to understand how they work. (Well, except when cannabinoids block the receptors, at which point the analogy sort of breaks down... But we digress).

Since its discovery in the 1990s, scientists have learned that the endocannabinoid system helps maintain balance, or homeostasis, within your body.

• Fun fact: your body makes its own cannabinoids, called endocannabinoids. One of the most well known and studied is called anandamide (from the Sanskrit word for “internal bliss”), and it plays an important role in pain regulation.

Plant-based cannabinoids like CBD and THC, among others (and over one hundred minor cannabinoids have been identified), interact with the endocannabinoid system, supporting and enhancing its natural functions.  

The effects of all these cannabinoids, and in particular CBD and THC, are the subject of much scientific research right now. New studies are popping up frequently, adding to the growing excitement around cannabis therapy.

Why won’t CBD make me feel high?

So, here’s why you won’t feel any euphoria after taking a CBD tincture. 

There are two receptors in your ECS, called, by some scientist with a serious lack of imagination, CB1 and CB2. 

CB1 is the receptor that is responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis. But CBD can’t bind with the CB1 receptor. Of the plant-based cannabinoids, only THC can do that - hence, the psychoactivity of marijuana, which contains high levels of THC.

In fact, not only does CBD not bind with the CB1 receptor, it actually tends to block it, which tends to dampen the effects of any THC present.

So CBD may be able to do a lot of things, but it is also kind of a buzz-kill. Of course, this is part of what many researchers like about CBD when its effects are compared to THC.

Your Unique Endocannabinoid System

We all know that our bodies are different from each other, and yet Reddit lists about CBD are full of exchanges like this:

1. CBDuser1: CBD is awesome! It helped my (pick a condition)! It makes me feel (insert adjective)!
2. CBDuser2: Great! I’ve also been trying to fix my (insert condition). Tell me how much you took! What brand! What time of day!

The thing is, the way CBD impacts you may be very different to the way it impacts others. Even people that are taking the exact same dose (at the same time of day). 

That’s because each person’s endocannabinoid system is unique. You may be super sensitive to small amounts of CBD or you may find that you need more than others.

So copying someone else’s regimen is unlikely to help you find what you need (though, of course, it could give you a place to start).

If CBD doesn’t “feel” like anything, how do I know if I’m taking enough?

There’s so much hype around CBD’s effects that it can lead to an expectation of some kind of euphoric experience.

As we’ve already said, CBD isn’t going to deliver euphoria. Also, while some people experience the desired effect right away, it often takes time and consistency to find the right dose.

A good guideline for getting started is “start low, go slow.” A starting dose could be as low as 5-10 milligrams of CBD taken under the tongue. But whatever you start with, stick to the same dosage for at least 5-7 days before deciding that you need more.

It can also help to log your symptoms in a journal, so that you can see any incremental improvements in how you feel.

Why won’t Kanibi make claims about CBD’s effects?

You may have noticed that we have been carefully avoiding making any outright claims for CBD’s effects. 

To be clear, that’s not because we don’t believe it is effective. But CBD is a highly regulated substance, and under the FDA’s rules we cannot make specific claims about what it will do for you. 

However, if you’re interested in doing a bit of research, there are some great resources out there. We recommend Project CBD for well-researched articles on CBD’s possibilities.

For any other questions about Kanibi products, our Customer Service representatives are happy to help!