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Whether you’re brand new to the world of CBD or have been experimenting with cannabinoids for a while, there’s always more to learn. Here are six things you may not know about our favorite cannabinoid: Cannabidiol (yes, that's what "CBD" stands for).
It may seem like CBD just exploded onto the health and wellness scene a few years ago, but that’s only half true. The widespread popularity of the substance is definitely a new phenomenon, but CBD was actually first isolated in the 1940s by an American chemist named Roger Adams.
It was later in that decade that Dr. Walter S. Lowe conducted lab tests that showed that CBD did not have psychoactive effects. But because growing any type of cannabis (hemp or marijuana) was illegal in the US (and elsewhere) for so long, scientific research on CBD has been painstakingly slow.
To make things more difficult, all cannabis and cannabis extracts were deemed Schedule I drugs (listed with drugs like heroin and cocaine) until the Farm Bill of 2018. So it’s been difficult for scientists to get permission to do research on CBD. This is why most of the studies that we have on CBD have taken place in the last decade or two.
CBD is a pretty big deal right now, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are over 100 cannabinoids that scientists have identified - and we’re guessing that you’re going to be hearing more of them in the coming years.
These are called the “minor cannabinoids” because they are present in smaller quantities than either CBD or THC (the most most common and the easiest to extract). But as we learn more about cannabinoids like CBG, CBN, and CBC (among others) there will be more companies putting resources into developing strains that produce higher concentrations of these cannabinoids.
The reality is that there hasn’t been much scientific research done on the minor cannabinoids - but the explosion of interest in CBD is beginning to really spark scientific curiosity about what they can do.
You may or may not be aware of this fact, but we try to throw it in whenever we can. Despite the fact that CBD’s lack of psychoactive effects is noted in almost every research study performed on it,many consumers still haven’t quite absorbed this fact.
If you’re wondering why CBD can’t make you high while THC can, it has to do with how they interact with your endocannabinoid system. This biochemical communication system is home to two receptors (that we know of), called CB1 and CB2.
It’s the CB1 receptor that is responsible for psychoactivity, and THC has a strong affinity for that receptor. This explains why THC makes you high. CBD, on the other hand, doesn’t bind with the CB1 receptor so...no high.
Not to harp too much on a point, but not only will CBD not make you high, butscientists have discovered that high amounts of CBD can actually keep THC from making you high. And a recent study has given more information as to why that is.
It appears that CBD blocks the ability of THC to overstimulate the ERK pathway in the hippocampus (which causes the high) and thus prevent its negative side-effects.
“CBD by itself had no (psychoactive) effect,” said Roger Hudson, lead author on the study. “However, by co-administrating CBD and THC, we completely reversed the direction of the change on a molecular level.CBD was also able to reverse the anxiety-like behavior and addictive-like behavior caused by the THC.”
There’s a lot of weird information out there about CBD and how it relates to the plant it comes from.So let’s clear some of this up.
CBD is a cannabinoid, which is a particular kind of chemical present in cannabis plants. Cannabis is a broad term that includes both hemp and marijuana.
In the past, the term “hemp” was used to refer to the more fibrous strains of cannabis that were useful for making rope or clothing. Currently, though, hemp’s legal definition has to do with how much THC it contains.
If a cannabis plant has more than 0.3% THC, then legally that plant is marijuana. If it has less than that amount of THC, it’s industrial hemp - and therefore federally legal.
So, CBD is present in both hemp and marijuana. And it’s exactly the same molecule whether it comes from hemp or marijuana. (CBD can’t make you high even if it was extracted from a marijuana plant.) But, if it was extracted from a marijuana plant, it’s not federally legal.
That may not seem to make much sense, but such is the situation in the US today.
At Kanibi, we only use CBD oil extracted from US grown, legal industrial hemp. And we test our oil to make sure we’re well under the legal limit of THC.
This is a really important piece of information and one which there is a lot of confusion about. Many CBD consumers assume that the FDA must be regulating the CBD industry. But, so far at least, they aren’t.
So what does that mean for consumers? Well, if you’ve heard the media refer to the CBD industry as the Wild West, this is what they’re referring to. Really, there is nobody overlooking CBD companies, forcing us to comply with any standards at all.
That’s why we, at Kanibi, had to take it upon ourselves to set a high bar for quality and transparency. There are a lot of bad actors out there, and the only way to set ourselves apart is to be open about our sourcing, manufacturing, and testing practices.
This is also why we provide two sets of lab tests for all of our products, so you can see what you’re getting - without just taking our word for it.