Newsflash: weed gets you high.

Of course, if you don’t like that, you don’t have to partake. “But,” you say, “there are so many benefits of marijuana. How do I take advantage of those benefits and not get high?

The truth is, of the three most common active ingredients in marijuana (THC, CBD, or CBN), only one gets you high: THC. And the truth about THC? It doesn’t carry the same benefits as the other two, which, given the inherent drawback if you’re not into getting high, makes it unnecessary, particularly in light of the sheer beneficence of the other two chemicals.

Fortunately, just as there are edible treats with THC in them, so exists food and beverage that contains these compounds, which essentially contain all of the benefits of cannabis, but none of the intoxicating effects.

Here we’ll look at some of the benefits of CBD in particular and then we’ll look at some of the products on supermarket shelves that contain these friendly chemical compounds.

Cancer

Yes, CBD kills cancer cells. The American Cancer Society says on its website that “cannabinoids such as CBD slow growth and/or cause death in certain types of cancer cells growing in lab dishes. Some animal studies also suggest certain cannabinoids may slow growth and reduce spread of some forms of cancer.”

Not that it’s wise to depend on CBD for cancer treatment, but consuming it may be beneficial in the long run as well as during treatment.

Anxiety

In the very short run, CBD is an anxiolytic substance, meaning it inhibits action in the brain that causes anxiety. Inhaling CBD has been known to provide lightning fast relief to anxiety. It calms nerves in a way that doesn’t have the same side-effect of low grade intoxication that many prescription anxiety drugs like benzodiazepines have. CBD is a powerful, non-prescription remedy to anxiety.

Of course, if you have been prescribed anxiolytic medication, we recommend that you go by what your doctor says and not our humble blog. While CBD does have proven anti-anxiety benefits, the prescription stuff is strong, and strong is what many people need for their anxiety disorders.

If you have an anxiety disorder, ask your doctor if CBD will interact with your medications in any way, just to be safe.

Pain

Pain is cruel. It spares no one and its remedies often carry the risk of dependence. Fortunately, CBD helps with pain. At one point in his life the author of this article purchased a cartridge of liquid CBD just to see what kind of effect the vapor would have. One day, while in possession of the oil, the author had to count out thousands of political signs in a warehouse, and so the author’s lumbar and upper shoulders started to take on a dull pain. The author then had several hits of the CBD oil vaporizer and the pain went away.

That’s right: the pain went away. Period. No placebo effect. The pain just went away. That is the magic of CBD, a compound with extraordinary analgesic magic.

Diabetes

One thing we cannot stress enough is that CBD has proven benefits to many conditions. It is not a cure to any of these conditions, but it can have a hand in ameliorating them.

That being said, people who consume CBD on a regular basis were found to have a 16% lower fasting insulin levels than those in the five-year study that had never used cannabis. Researchers also believe that cannabis’s anti-inflammatory properties may be implicated in treating insulin resistance.

 

Types of CBD treats

There are many other benefits of CBD, ranging from anti-acne properties to providing seizure relief to sleep assistance to being a neuroprotective. Now we’ll take a look at the types of CBD treats available on the market.

Cannabis-infused beverages

As of now, there are a slew of cannabis-infused beverages on the market, ranging in prospective production size from large beverage companies like Coca-Cola and Heineken to up and comers like Happy Apple, which sells apple flavored cannabis infused beverages.

Coke is very secretive about its plans for a cannabis-infused beverage, but one insider said that Heineken’s beverage(s) will most likely be non-alcoholic and that the flavor may range anywhere from a “fruit flavor to a coffee flavor to a kombucha”.

Of course, there are already products on the market such as “Cannabis Energy Drink,” which is a caffeinated beverage from Amsterdam that comes in (you guessed it) a bright green can with a pot leaf on it. We haven’t sampled it, so we can’t tell you if it’s any good, but it exists.

“Legal” brand drinks are another option that’s currently on the market, which claims to give you a “relaxing high”. Of course, that wouldn’t be legal; the truth is the product contains only CBD, hence the relaxation. Ultimately the only thing that may be illegal about Legal beverages is false advertising, but we’re gonna go ahead and guess that it’s a good product.

Other cannabis infused beverages include CBD-infused H2O by Root Origins and CBD-infused energy shots called Cannabis Quencher Sips.

Cannabis/CBD-Infused Foods

There are many CBD-infused foods on the market, but most of them are only available in markets that have legalized marijuana like Colorado or California. These products range from chocolate bars by Blank Brand to cookies to fruit roll-up type foods. To be honest, the foods I’ve listed so far sound like the kinds of things you’d eat after consuming these products, but CBD oil can also be added to pretty much any food so you can bake with it or add it to salad dressing.

That’s right: the oil itself is edible. That means if you wanted to you could incorporate it into many dishes, as long as you don’t apply direct heat. You can add it to a smoothie or mix it into peanut butter. You can also mix it into condiments like ketchup.

Nutiva actually sells hemp oil with CBD, and so does Aromatics International.

Your best means of consuming CBD with whole foods is to add it in the form of oil. Just don’t put the oil over heat if you want to get the full effect of the CBD. You can order hemp oil with CBD online or find it at some local stores. Most of the CBD-infused treats are only available where marijuana is legal.

CBD is good for you, and there are many good ways to consume it. If getting high isn’t for you, you should consider hemp oil or CBD-infused foods as an alternative. Ultimately, it is important that you’re happy and comfortable, and CBD definitely has a place in creating that space for any individual.

——

Chad Weisman—CEO, Golden Strands Communication; ‘creative type’; surfer on the amber waves of grain; avid concert attendee.