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One of the Obama administration's last acts was a shameful one.
In December of last year, before the Orange cloud descended on Washington, the Drug Enforcement Administration tried to schedule CBD.
Cannabidiol, which is not psychoactive beyond making people more chill and less epileptic, was listed alongside heroin and PCP. The feds said that it was a "Marihuana Extract"—yes, Obama's people still spelled it "marihauna," using the most offensive transliteration of the Mexican Spanish word for cannabis—and that it was no more legal than meth or LSD.
Thankfully, hemp farmers sued in federal court and the move has been hindered. At this point, Trump's team is too busy planning to bomb North Korea to get overly worked up about weed.
And so, thankfully, CBD continues to spread in Portland, with innovative new products hitting shelves at dispensaries and vape shops. Here are three new CBD products we're digging right now.
Radler with Ablis CBD soda at Tin Bucket
ablisbev.com and tin-bucket.com.
We've had a few interesting encounters with cannabis-infused beer, including one where an intern drank a little too much and ended up in a borderline dissociative state. We also helped make what we believe to be the first CBD beer served to the public in Oregon, a collaboration with the late Dean Pottle, who ran a homebrew speakeasy in the basement of his Northeast Fremont home. We served it at last year's Portland Pro-Am Beer Festival.
The brewery in the stall next to us at the Pro-Am came up with the very original idea of rolling out "Oregon's first commercial CBD beer" a few weeks later. That brewery has since dedicated a lot of its production to various CBD-infused beers. Unfortunately, they aren't very good. On a recent visit we ordered two beers that each cost $6 for 10 ounces, and abandoned both after a few sips.
So what does someone do if they want a really delicious beer infused with CBD? Go to Tin Bucket on North Williams, and order the radler.
Tin Bucket is getting CBD-infused fruit sodas made by Bend's Ablis through their distributor, Point Blank. The lemon ginger is delicious, and with about 10 milligrams of CBD in a half-pint serving, it's perfect for blending with a lager or hazy IPA to make a drink that's basically a vacation day in a pint glass. It's been my favorite beer discovery of the summer.
Mary's Medicinals CBD Transdermal Patch
marysmedicinals.com
Mary's Medicinals is basically the Tom's of Maine of weed, making stylish products that appeal to the tote bag set. Their patches come in both THC and CBD versions and aren't especially discreet, since you apply them to a wrist or ankle, but they do offer a nice steady drip of chill. My only side effect was a little numbness in the ankle.
Floyd's of Leadville
floydsofleadville.com and rivercitybicycles.com
Remember Floyd Landis? I do, because I happened to be living in a Mennonite community when the cyclist made his people proud by winning the 2006 Tour de France. He was later found to be doping and forced out of cycling.
"I was left to pick up the pieces of my life and try to redefine myself," he writes on the site of his new CBD supplement company. "I was now a disgraced former athlete with numerous lingering painful injuries, falling deeper into depression."
He turned to opioids but found cannabis as a way out. He's now spreading the gospel through a supplement designed to be anti-inflammatory and relaxing. Each softgel combines 20 milligrams of CBD with fatty acids (Omega 3, Omega 6, and GLA). A jar of 30 runs $50, which is a very good price for this amount of medicine. I used the pills on a recent trip with lots of walking and bike riding and found them very helpful.
Now, if we could just get Jeff Sessions on board with these CBD pills.
Someone's gotta fix Obama's mess.