CBD Nation – Full Review

CBD Nation is an excellent documentary about CBD and cannabis that most people will never watch.  You can watch it on Prime Video for $4.99 (rental) or $7.99 (purchase). 

Maybe it was supposed to be released in theaters. Maybe it will be free next year.  It’s worth paying this small price to watch this year.  If you have friends and family who are skeptical about medical cannabis, buy it for them as a gift.  

The film starts with a study that found high levels of pharmaceuticals in bay mussels.  The obvious contrast is with the cannabis plant that can heal without many of the side-effects of harsh drugs. We then hear true stories of patients, including young Jayden David who had life-threatening seizures.  The legal medical cannabis industry is a patient-driven phenomenon.  Harbourside Medical Center in Berkley provided Jayden with a CBD tincture in 2011.  This medication virtually eliminated his seizures.

Jayden David’s epilepsy was controlled with CBD from cannabis.

Raphael Mechuloum is interviewed briefly at strategic points throughout the film. Mechuloum is the Israeli researcher who discovered THC also discovered the seizure-blocking effects of CBD 35 years ago.

Medical cannabis and CBD are presented as alternatives to harsh pharmaceuticals; and as promising treatments for difficult syndromes such as Graft versus Host Disease (GVHD). This leads to a presentation of the endocannabinoid system – our body’s natural system that helps maintain balance. Our bodies produce natural cannabinoids that maintain the balance of other systems in the body.  Cannabis appears to be a plant that contains substances that help our bodies maintain and restore balance.

Rylie Maedler was the inspiration for Rylie’s Law legalizing medical cannabis for children in Delaware

Rylie Maedler was a young girl when she developed an aggressive bone tumor that began destroying the bones in her face. Her mother began researching alternative treatments for shrinking tumors and started Rylie on cannabis oil.  Surprisingly these treatments worked to regenerate the bones in her face and to shrink the tumor. She did not require the reconstructive surgery that is usually needed.  The Delaware legislature unanimously passed “Rylie’s Law” to legalize medical cannabis for children like Rylie.

Veterans with PTSD are then featured. Colin Wells is a founder of the group “Veterans Walk and Talk” who use medical cannabis and hike several times a week in Southern California.  The founder of Irwin Naturals then describes his mission to offer CBD at reasonable prices.

The film is professionally produced and it makes a strong case for cannabis medicine. I wish this documentary could be widely viewed without paying a fee, but I guess that’s not realistic.  Check it out on Amazon Prime Video or Apple Video.  It’s worth the small cost of admission.

Instant Pot Cannabis Decarb – For THC, CBG, and CBD

There are a lot of YouTube videos on using your Instant Pot pressure cooker to decarb cannabis.  Because it uses pressure, the Instant Pot can reach temperatures of 245 degrees Fahrenheit before water boils.  It maintains this temperature evenly during the period it is pressure cooking.  Some bright cannabis fans discovered that you can pop your weed into a mason jar, screw the lid “finger-tight,” add 2 cups of water, and cook it for 40 minutes.  This heating (or decarboxylation) converts the non-psychoactive THCA to the psychoactive delta 9 THC.   While this process works for THC (and also for CBG) it does not produce enough heat to decarb CBD.

Toasted Blonde has one of the more entertaining videos showing how the Instant Pot decarb works for THC.

What about converting CBDA to CBD?  Cannabidiol (CBD) requires either higher temperatures or longer decarb times.  The makers of the Ardent Nova decarboxylator recommend running the decarb cycle twice if you are decarbing CBD hemp flower instead of THC marijuana.  The same principle works for the Instant Pot.  You decarb the hemp flower for 80 minutes instead of 40 minutes. (Ardent just announced a new version with different cycles for THC and CBD – and they recommend using the THC cycle if you are decarbing CBG-dominant cannabis.)

If you are using the Instant Pot to infuse CBD oil you can decarb for 40 minutes, wait for the flower to cool, add MCT oil to the mason jar, and run the Instant Pot for an additional 40 minutes.  By the end of the process you will have a home-made CBD oil that will need to be filtered through a coffee filter or a commercial filter.  It will probably taste more herbal and possibly more smoky than the CBD oil/tincture you buy.

Decarbing cannabis on a baking sheet in the oven can be a smelly process no matter how many smell barriers you erect.  The Instant Pot method only smells a little bit.  That’s another major advantage.  If you have an Instant Pot then you should really try this method.

Hemp Flower and Full Spectrum Hemp Oil are the Future of CBD

The FDA is increasingly cracking down on CBD products in the marketplace. New rules are expected later in 2020 and there has been a lot of speculation about what might be banned. The FDA is charged with (among other things) protecting the public from unsafe foods and drugs. They also have responsibility for regulating “dietary supplements.” They have been active in warning companies that make health claims when marketing CBD, and many companies use the familiar “dietary supplement” label when listing how much CBD is in their products.

Hemp flower is an agricultural product; and is obviously not a dietary supplement. It closely resembles marijuana, and a few states have even banned “smokable hemp” because it is hard to distinguish it from marijuana. It remains legal in most states, and it is one of the least expensive ways to get CBD and other cannabinoids into your system. The 2018 Farm Bill made hemp legal federally, and the FDA does not appear to have jurisdiction over the sale of agricultural products such as hemp flower.

In 2020 most hemp flower is CBD-dominant, with CBD being the primary cannabinoid present. CBG-dominant flower is newer and less is known about it and its effects.  Studies thus far have found anti-cancer and anti-microbial benefits.  Research is ongoing. If highly-processed CBG products become popular the FDA may step in and regulate them too. CBG flower and CBG-dominant full-spectrum hemp oil will be harder to regulate.

Full spectrum hemp oil is only one step removed from the hemp plant. Hemp oil is created when hemp is processed in such a way that the alcohol and/or oil soluable components are extracted from the plant. These are then dissolved in a neutral oil (such as MCT oil) and they resulting “hemp oil” is sold in small bottles. This oil generally contains CBD if the hemp strain is a high-CBD hemp strain. If the hemp strain is a high CBG hemp strain then the resulting hemp oil will be an oil that is high in CBG instead.

The FDA gets involved based on the labeling of products such as CBD oil. If the label includes instructions for taking the product by mouth, then the FDA likely has reason to view it as a dietary supplement, a medication, or a food product. If the label is mute on the use of the oil, then the FDA may not have any reason to regulate the sale of the product.

Those of us living in the U.S. are currently awaiting the FDA’s new regulations. While you wait, consider trying hemp flower. Most people seem to be smoking it like marijuana, but vaping is safer. (Vaping the dry herb is much safer than vaping a commercial liquid product.) You can also heat it and eat it. The cost per milligram of CBD is much lower in the raw product and you have a better chance of getting the “entourage effect.”

Will the FDA ban over-the-counter CBD Isolate?

The website CBD.how created a stir on Reddit this month with their prediction that the United States Food and Drug Administration will ban CBD (cannabidiol) isolate products in 2020.  I will embed their video in this post below. When I first saw this video I was skeptical. CBD is everywhere.  How can the FDA put the genie back in the bottle?

The FDA does have a history of banning substances that are being sold as supplements if the same substance is being used (or studied) as a drug.  Pyridoxamine is a form of Vitamin B6 that has been shown to reduce “age-related glycation end products” (AGEs). In this way it may protect the cells of diabetics from damage caused by high blood sugar levels.  In 2009 the FDA retroactively banned pyridoxamine from sale as a dietary supplement because a company was studying it as a potential new drug.  Several companies were selling it as a supplement and had to stop. In this case the FDA banned a vitamin. It almost seems like the FDA only bans the really effective supplements.

Like pyridoxamine, CBD is being sold as a dietary supplement by multiple companies. CBD is also available by prescription as Epidiolex^®.  Doses recommended for children with epilepsy are much higher than the products you see in stores and online.  For example, a U.S. dosage calculator recommends  227 to 554mgs per day for a 50 pound child.  At these higher doses elevated liver enzymes were found in some research subjects.

The FDA can ban chemicals but not whole plants.  (Only Congress can ban plants federally and it’s the DEA – not the FDA – that enforces these bans.) Full spectrum and broad spectrum hemp oils contain multiple ingredients and are quite different from CBD isolate. These oils usually contain many cannabinoids, sometimes including trace levels (below .3%) of THC.  The FDA may have more trouble banning these products, thanks to the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized hemp and hemp derivatives.  The FDA arguably does not have the power to make hemp derivatives illegal again.

I don’t have a crystal ball (and neither does the guy from CBD.how.)  If the FDA does step in and ban some CBD products I agree that the CBD (cannabidiol) isolate products are the most vulnerable.

How to make CBD and CBDA Menthol Salve to relieve aches and pains

It’s easy to make a homemade hemp salve to help soothe your achy joints.  I use it at night for arthritis pain in my hands.  I made this batch with hemp flower that I ordered last year when it first came on the market.  I bought a lot more than I needed and I mixed a little over an ounce together.  I decarbed 3/4 of the total in order to convert the CBDA to CBD.  I left the remaining 1/4 “raw” so that the salve contained some CBDA as well as CBD. While CBDA has not been as widely studied as CBD, there is evidence that it is a COX2 inhibitor (like Celebrex).  These substances are a subclass of NSAIDs – non-steroidal antiinflammatories. – which are used to treat arthritis.

Homemade hemp salve to help relieve aches and pains.

The first step is to infuse some coconut oil with the CBD and CBDA. Infused coconut oil is especially easy to make with a Magical Butter machine or an Infusium 420, but there are also recipes that use a crock pot.   If you are using one of the machines you simply load in 8-12 ounces of coconut oil (which is semi-solid at room temperature) and an ounce or more of plant material (and optionally a small amount of lecithin). Run the machine through a cycle, using either the oil button or the butter button.  You strain the resulting warmed liquid oil and pour it back into the jar.

If you let this sit at room temperature it will harden again.  You can actually use it in edibles as well as in salve. To make the salve from the infused coconut oil follow the following instructions:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup infused coconut oil
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup beeswax (or shea butter or cocoa butter)
• 1 TSP menthol crystals
• Other essential oils as desired.  Some to consider are calendula, lavender, arnica, and tea tree oils.

In a double boiler or a pan set on top of a pot with simmering water, melt infused coconut oil. (I set the jar of infused coconut oil into a pyrex bowl and added almost-boiling water from a tea kettle to melt the oil.)

Add olive oil to the infused coconut oil. (This is said to help create a smoother finished product and improves absorption.) Break-up the beeswax or heat it so that it dissolves in the coconut oil.  (The beeswax is to reduce greasiness.) It can take a long time for the beeswax to dissolve. Remove from heat and add the menthol and the essential oils. Stir or whip the mixture until a smooth texture is achieved. Place in cosmetics containers and cool completely. _{(Based on a recipe from the Infusium 420 cookbook.)}

You can optionally add some powdered CBD isolate to the salve to boost the CBD content. I did the math estimating that 75% of the CBDA from my original plant material made it into the infused coconut oil, and I wanted a stronger finished product. I added 1 gram of CBD isolate powder to the hot mixture and it dissolved readily.

You can, of course, make a similar salve from marijuana and you will have THC and THCA in your salve instead of (or in addition to) CBD and CBDA.  There is good research suggesting that a blend of THC and CBD may relieve pain better than either alone.  Living in an illegal state, my salve is made from hemp.

Is it Safe to Travel with CBD?

Two grandmothers were arrested recently for carrying CBD oil in their luggage.  Drug possession charges were dropped in both cases, but only after the women were charged and taken to jail.  The 2018 Farm Bill was supposed to make hemp-derived products legal throughout the United States, but some states and localities are still treating CBD as a
controlled substance.  What should you do if you are traveling?  Here are some things to try:

Photo by bruce mars on Pexels.com

• Take pills instead of CBD oil if you are flying.  Many CBD “liqui-gels” look just like vitamin E supplements.  Divide doses of medications and supplements into small bags or those AM/PM containers. It is unlikely that anyone will test everything in your luggage.  If you don’t take vitamins consider taking some just for the trip so that the CBD doesn’t stand out.
• Consider gummies.  These also blend in nicely with vitamin gummies or they can be tucked into a small plastic bag in your luggage.   Since they are not liquid they don’t attract attention like a bottle of oil. Suck on the gummy before chewing it in order to get some sublingual absorption.
• Look for small containers labeled “hemp oil” if you have some confidence that they contain CBD,   CBDistillery oils, for example, are labeled “Hemp Supplement” and “full spectrum hemp extract” even though “CBD” is in the brand. Avoid traveling with homemade oils and handwritten labels.
• Consider taking a break from CBD.  Sometimes this is a good way to discover whether it is really helping as much as you think.  There are no withdrawal symptoms. CBD is not addictive.

Do you have tips to share?  Do you disagree with me?  Please comment below to share your ideas.

How to make CBD Oil for Morning and Evening

(This is a continuation of previous posts on How to make CBD Oil and How to make Broad Spectrum CBD Oil.)

If you are making your own CBD oil you can tailor your blends of terpenes to include terpenes that are activating for morning use and terpenes that are sedating for evening use.  I’m not suggesting adding anything that does not naturally occur in cannabis. Some people sell CBD for evening use that is blended with melatonin.  I think that’s stupid. Melatonin is cheap (in the U.S.) and there’s no need to start adding it to CBD.  It’s also not a good idea to take melatonin except right before bedtime.  Taken at the wrong time of day it can actually give you jet lag.

Adding naturally relaxing/sedating terpenes such as myrcene and nerolidol is different. It is a way to mimic some of the chemical makeup of a sedating cannabis strain in a THC-free CBD oil.  In my most recent batch of CBD oil I made three slightly different blends.  I used the basic technique in How to make Broad Spectrum CBD Oil, including blending in some Kanabia Golden Harvest oil in order to get an entourage effect from added CBD-V, CBG, and THC-V.  (This is the only oil with such high levels of these cannabinoids and code cannap15 still gets you 15% off.)  I made the oil stronger by using more CBD isolate than in my last batch; and less MCT oil.  The contents of the final result is below.  The bold ingredients are the ones that distinguish activating from sedating:

AM-Activating: 29mg CBD/ml.
Hemp-derived terpene blend, harlequin terpene blend, Durban Poison terpene blend
D-limonene, b-carophyllene, linalool
CBD-V, CBG, THC-V (from Kanabia oil)

Neutral: 29mg CBD/ml.
Hemp-derived terpene blend, harlequin terpene blend
D-limonene, b-carophyllene, linalool
CBD-V, CBG, THC-V (from Kanabia oil)

PM-Sedating 29mg CBD/ml.
Hemp-derived terpene blend, harlequin terpene blend, myrcene, nerolidol
D-limonene, b-carophyllene, linalool
CBD-V, CBG, THC-V (from Kanabia oil)

As you can see the only differences are the addition of Durban Poison terpenes in the morning and the addition of the sedating terpenes myrcene and nerolidol in the evening. The result is three slightly different CBD oils. I definitely notice the extra sedation in the evening.  I sometimes get “couch-lock” where I end up dozing in my recliner rather than asleep in the bed.

I’m not sure yet about the activating blend.  It doesn’t make me sleepy, but I’m generally drinking a cup of coffee in the morning too. Leafly describes Durban Poison as:

This pure sativa originates from the South African port city of Durban. It has gained popularity worldwide for its sweet smell and energetic, uplifting effects. Durban Poison is the perfect strain to help you stay productive through a busy day, when exploring the outdoors, or to lend a spark of creativity.

Another option for an activating blend would be to add individual terpenes that are thought to be activating. You can buy combinations of food-grade terpenes that are sold as either sedating of activating as well.

Have you made different blends of CBD oil?  What is your formula?  Please comment below.

The Amazon CBD Hemp Oil Paradox

You can buy CBD on Amazon.  You just can’t sell CBD on Amazon. When you search for CBD on Amazon you get results. None of the results list CBD in their ingredients. You will usually see “hemp extract” or “full spectrum hemp extract.” Sometimes you see “hemp oil.” Stay far away from “hemp seed oil.” Hemp seeds contain almost no cannabinoids. (The exception is that hemp seed oil is sometimes used as a carrier oil, possibly along with the more common MCT oil).

I know of a few legitimate brands selling CBD-rich full spectrum hemp oil on Amazon.  I will not reveal the names because I don’t want to contribute in any small way to their getting banned.  There are also other brands that have been tested by a third-party and found to contain no CBD.  What’s a buyer to do?

Amazon’s seller policy states:

• Drug listings must not be for controlled substances or products containing controlled substances, such as:
  • Products containing cannabidiol (CBD), a Schedule I Controlled Substance, including but not limited to:
  • Rich Hemp Oil containing cannabidiol (CBD)
• Products that have been identified as containing CBD by LegitScript
• Hemp products containing Resin or tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)
• Hemp (or any cannabis Sativa spp. strain) seeds capable of germination
• Anything listed in Schedules I, II, III, IV or V of the Controlled Substances Act

As CBD moves off Schedule I it may be accepted by Amazon.  For now products containing CBD must be listed as “hemp oil,” which is an accurate description of what is contained in these oils/tinctures.

One company that I have bought from before recently began offering a few of their products on Amazon. In their email announcing this they said:

“they made us retouch the word CBD off and replace with “Hemp Oil”, but you will receive your normal CBD with 300, 900, 1800mg of actual CBD content.”

Does it really contain CBD?

One site claims to have tested some brands from Amazon and found no CBD in 6 out of 7 hemp oil products tested  The site CBDlabresult.net appears to show thumbnails of COAs (certificates of analysis) from an independent lab.  Unfortunately the COA pictures are heavily cropped.  Interestingly, the only other article on their site is a positive review of a CBD oil that you can buy (from them?).  I’d trust the site more if it had more content.  The domain was registered 12/29/2018 and the post about Amazon CBD testing was dated the following day. They waited a month to write a positive review of the other site that sells CBD.

Since there are lots of places to buy CBD it is probably better to avoid Amazon unless you have other independent details about the brand. If you are not sure contact the company and ask them what is in the product they sell on Amazon.  You won’t find COAs on Amazon since they don’t allow CBD to be sold there.  Look for vetted sites that include independent certificates of analysis.  Look online for sales and coupon codes. When you find a good brand, stick with them.