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Ever know the kid who tried smoking a hemp bracelet? I'm from a little town in the Midwest, so I knew a few. And I'll tell you now what they told me then: They didn't get high. They coughed lot, and then maybe felt a little woozy from lack of oxygen.
But if those kids had, say, cancer and a vaporizer, they may have had a very different experience. Because while industrial hemp is extremely low in psychoactive THC—the substance that makes guitars sound better—it's often also high in cannabidiol, or CBD, which people in great pain say eases their struggle without using heavy narcotics.
This makes CBD unpopular with large companies that sell heavy narcotics. And even under President Obama, U.S. News & World Report reported in March that the Food and Drug Administration has decided to "crack down" on CBD, sending strongly worded letters to manufacturers about products containing CBD. Prohibitionists cheered the step, and hoped for more.
So that's great news for Big Pharma and the pro-pain crowd, but are they screwing us recreational users out of anything?
After experimenting with CBD for a few weeks, I can report they aren't. For those of us without lingering physical pain, the CBD products I tried have roughly the same soothing and centering effect as a really, really good cup of herbal tea.
Care By Design spray
Available at Happy Leaf, 1301 NE Broadway, and from cbd.org.
This mix of coconut oil and CO2-extracted cannabis oil comes in little spray bottles to be shaken and squirted under the tongue. It has 18 parts CBD for every one part of THC, meaning you could throw the whole vial back like a shooter without getting high (Care By Design sprays are available in 5 different ratios). Two squirts give you a pleasant, citrusy cannabis flavor, not unlike a weed-flavored breath freshener. I experimented with two or three sprays at various times of the day in recent weeks, and found it mostly useful as a sleep aid, especially paired with a glass of red wine. During the day, the effect was more like drinking herbal tea, calming the blood and loosening the joints.
ViPova Yunnan CBD black tea
Available from vipova.com. Can be shipped.
Arizona-based ViPova renders the CBD oil in this tea from industrial hemp, meaning the company is not worried about shipping this product across state lines. Each tea bag has 50 milligrams of hemp oil at 20 percent CBD, meaning you should get about 10 milligrams, enough to get you high if it was THC. In addition to Chinese black tea, each bag contains a little nonfat evaporated milk, which is intended to help aid the absorption of CBD. Eight tea bags cost $24, making it rather expensive for drink-at-home tea, though ViPova points out it costs less than Starbucks.
I had a mild but positive response, finding the tea calmed and centered me, but without providing any sort of physiological effect. It's great for curling up with the book, and someone who is experiencing pain might find it has other advantages, too.
Cannatonic
Available at Pure Green, 3738 NE Sandy Blvd., puregreenpdx.com.
Look a bit, and you can find strains of marijuana with almost no THC—and high in CBD—for sale at local dispensaries. We've had a few writers try them, and they all report it makes them feel light and goofy of limb, but not in any useful way. So instead I reached for Cannatonic, which tested at 14.59 percent CBD and 6.53 percent THC, meaning it will get you mildly high.
I baked about a third of a gram in the middle of the heat range on a Cloud EVO desktop vaporizer and went for a walk. I noticed that the guitar boooooing on Built to Spill's "Aisle 13" felt like one of those little mini metal springs being flicked inside your head. Also, my nose and throat got that minty-clean openness you get after being slathered in Vicks VapoRub. I had a bunch of great ideas. It was wonderful. THC 1, CBD 0.
Willamette Week