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It’s been almost 30 years since medical care was legalized in California. marijuana Cannabis, and in the intervening years, this little plant underwent a major rebranding as 24 states legalized its recreational use. It’s not just about changing the names mentioned above from Spanish-sounding to more scientific names. (and marketable) tags.
herbs It was once demonized as a corrupt vice. Among jazz musicians, beatniks and other perverts are A true superstar of the wellness industry, with a diverse portfolio of tinctures, tonics, and topicals. Strains, concentrates, and edibles that promise all kinds of benefits to strengthen your body and mind.
Go to the pharmacy, you (ahem) Ganga You might recommend a sativa-dominant strain for increased energy and creativity, or an indica hybrid for focus and relaxation. Does weed make you anxious?Now, your buddy tender might say why not try anti-anxiety cannabidiolalso known as CBD.
Unfortunately, all of these claims may be bullshit as it turns out.
According to recent scientific studies conducted in Canada and the United States, episode In the podcast Science Vs, much of the most commonly touted weedy wisdom doesn’t hold up under the microscope of peer-reviewed scientific scrutiny.
Now, that’s not to say that cannabis has no proven health benefits. According to the National Institutes of Health, Overview of research over the past 20 years It found there was “conclusive or substantial evidence” that cannabis can treat chronic pain, nausea, and patient-reported symptoms of multiple sclerosis spasticity (muscle spasms).
There is also moderate evidence that it can improve sleep in people with obstructive sleep apnea and reduce symptoms of fibromyalgia, chronic pain, and multiple sclerosis.There limited There is also evidence that it can help with a variety of other conditions, including loss of appetite associated with HIV/AIDS, symptoms of Tourette syndrome, and post-traumatic stress.
But the mainstay of the sales pitch for commercial cannabis is that consumers are encouraged to experience a heady high, a light-headed feeling that makes them feel like they’re sitting on the couch, or a calming sensation. Best of all, you can customize your high by choosing the right strain to produce the effects you want. Sleep aid.
However, until recently, little genetic sequencing of this plant had been done, in part due to cannabis’ status as a Schedule 1 drug. severely restrict The kind of research that can be done in the United States.
but Sean MilesAn associate professor of agriculture at Canada’s Dalhousie University set out to do just that. He and his research team obtained various strains (White Rhinoceros, Dr. Grinspoon, and King Kush) from multiple growers in Canada and sequenced the DNA to determine whether the two different supplies were a single strain. We checked whether the sources were genetically matched.
In theory, they should, just as two Honeycrisp apples purchased at different grocery stores would be genetic twins. Instead, Miles and his team found no such similarities.
“[W]”We tried a lot of samples and didn’t find much in common,” said Merrill Horne, the podcast’s senior producer. “And one in three times, the white rhinoceros or something looked more like something else entirely than the other white rhinos in his data set.”
He got the same results with other strains he studied. [Download the study here.]
“So with cannabis, you go to the store and they say, ‘This is Bubba Kush,'” Miles said. “And that’s the biggest shit I’ve ever heard in my life, because that name doesn’t mean anything.”
Okay, but what about their revered twin super-ancestors, Sativa and Indica? Even for casual enthusiasts, Sativa tends to give an invigorating and uplifting feeling, while Indica gives a relaxed body uplift and makes you feel sleepy. You can see that it is possible.
Miles also studied this, analyzing the samples chemically and genetically and finding that the two purported strains were distinct, although there were slight differences in surface properties such as odor. scientifically indistinguishable.
His initial study was conducted using samples obtained from the Netherlands, but when he repeated the study using Canadian weed, he found the same results. Later, a group of American researchers conducted similar tests on strains from California, Washington, and Colorado. same result.
Miles theorized that decades of intensive interbreeding were likely the culprit.
“We’ve been exploiting this plant like crazy, moving it around the world like crazy, shuffling it and mixing its genome like crazy, and it’s buried underground and no one talks about it. ” he said. He said. “And the only people who can do all this breeding are, you know, guys who smoke a lot of weed and breed a lot of weed. There was stuff flying all over the place. .”
He is undoubtedly mocking the revolutionary efforts of the Emerald Triangle’s brave and pioneering breeds there, but clearly the results are holding up in the region. multiple studies.
So what about CBD? This non-psychoactive compound is commercially available everywhere these days, including gummies, topicals, and toothpaste. butt moisturizer and injected sports bra. This chemical is frequently touted as an effective treatment for anxiety disorders, among other things.
Amir England, a researcher at King’s College London, set up a double-blind clinical trial to study the effects of CBD on reducing paranoia. He administered varying levels of THC (the main psychoactive compound in cannabis) and CBD to subjects and had them report feelings of anxiety and paranoia.
result CBD showed no effect.
“And I was like, ‘No, that’s not true,'” England told the host. “It was really depressing. It was really, really consistent that CBD had no effect on almost everything we studied.”
Other than coughing. For some reason, subjects given higher levels of CBD coughed more.
According to England and other researchers, anxiety levels are determined primarily by the amount of THC ingested. So if you tend to be paranoid about cannabis, try consuming a little less next time.
Here we must note that the National Institutes of Health has kept its research doors open. saying There is “limited evidence” that CBD can help reduce anxiety in people with social anxiety disorder, as assessed by public speaking tests. And of course, the placebo effect can be powerful.
The Drug Enforcement Agency is It is reported that the classification of cannabis is being reviewed.This will make it easier for scientists to conduct more scientific tests to improve our understanding of cannabis and its effects.
In the meantime, what you can do is Click here for link In the Science Vs episode discussed in this post, and here it is Transcript of the episode with footnotes to the various studies referenced.
Please comment below with your observations about how the science discussed above is flawed, corrupt, or otherwise bogus.
And I hope all the LoCO readers have a great 4/20.
