Do you have questions about CBD and hemp? If you do then you’re in the right place because we are covering not 5, not 10, but the 20 most common questions we see and get about CBD and hemp.
1. Is CBD Marijuana?
One of the biggest reasons there is so much confusion over CBD products is the terminology, and you’re going to see us talk about it frequently so let’s start at the beginning.
Cannabidiol (CBD) is just 1 out of 113+ phytocannabinoids found in all cannabis plants — both hemp and marijuana plants fall under the genus cannabis. Hemp originates out of Europe and contains extremely low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Marijuana, on the other hand, originates out of India and Afghanistan and is loaded with THC.
THC is the psychoactive phytocannabinoid that gives marijuana varieties of cannabis plants the ability to produce a high when ingested. Hemp doesn’t contain anywhere near the level of THC for it to have any effect on the body.
Besides this, marijuana and hemp are structurally the same — though, hemp’s inability to get you high is a pretty big deal.
2. Is CBD Legal?
The hemp plants inability to produce a high is such a big deal, that CBD products derived from hemp are legal across the United States and much of the world. We need to rethink how we view the term “cannabis” and the plants that fall under them.
We are not saying marijuana should be legal. Instead, we are saying cannabis does not always equal a plant that is illegal or gets you high. Because we have a better understanding of these plants, we’ve seen hemp make huge grounds. The 2014 U.S. Agricultural Bill legalized industrial hemp in 2014, and this opened the door for CBD products to exploded onto the scene. As well, all but 2 states, Nebraska and Idaho, have some type of law that either directly or indirectly legalizes CBD in their state.
When you hear someone claiming a CBD product is marijuana, they’re saying it has high levels of THC in it and that’s often not the case.
3. Which Is Better Hemp CBD Oil Or Cannabis oil?
When you see the term “cannabis oil”, it’s almost undoubtedly referring to oil extracted from marijuana.
As you’re aware, this is unfortunate since both hemp and marijuana come from cannabis plants. Now, these two oils will be the same, except one has THC and therefore will get you high if you take it. THC does have therapeutic properties like CBD — all phytocannabinoids do — but its legality is determined by marijuana laws and not hemp laws.
4. What Is The Endocannabinoid System?
Around 600 million years ago, organisms started developing an internal biological system that could better help them adapt to their harsher environments while still maintaining stability over their internal biological functions. Pretty complex, but it’s really simple when you break it down.
Let’s say an organism moves into a new environment that is emotionally stressful, this system kicks on and helps them adapt to it by calming them down.
Maybe that organism then moves into different environment, but this one has a lot of germs. Again, this system kicks on and works to offer additional protections for fighting the increase in germs and other pathogens. It doesn't matter if the threat is psychological or physical, this system is here to protect against threats of any kind.
This incredible system is called the endocannabinoid system (ECS) and is composed of self-created endocannabinoids (mainly 2AG and Anandamide) that attach to two cannabinoid receptors (CB1 & CB2) found in different regions throughout the body.
That organism that is moving into an emotionally stressful situation is you when you have a bad day at work. That place where your body is working harder to fight germs is you walking into a hospital.
Anything that could stress an organism puts the ECS under stress and forces it to work harder even when it's not noticeable. In the winter, when you leave your warm and toasty home and go outside, your body has to work hard to maintain your internal temperature despite just experiencing an extreme and sudden drop in temperature.
The endocannabinoid, anandamide, is involved in this and can raise body temperatures by attaching to CB1 receptors. Anandamide will also fight germs and dangerous pathogens by producing a fever.
5. How Does CBD Works With The Endocannabinoid System
While all phytocannabinoids interact with the ECS; THC and CBD do it to the greatest degree. THC will partially bind to CB1 receptors found in the brain, and this is what produces the high. CBD, however, will indirectly activate CB2 receptors by attaching to and deactivating FAAH enzymes which break down and recycle endocannabinoids.
21st century and modern living are stressing us out in ways that our ECS has never faced before. One of the reasons is we are quickly jumping from environment to environment, drowning ourselves with threats and things that cause stress. When you watch the news, you’re mentally putting yourself in multiple environments, and it’s causing stress. Then we go and jump onto Facebook, entering into a whole other world.
Say you drive 30 minutes to work . . .
You just went from your house to your parking lot to your car to another parking lot, before entering your work. That’s five different physical environments in 20 minutes which all force your ECS to combat different issues.
Our protection and regulatory system are struggling to keep up, and we are getting sick. CBD products boost this system naturally by allowing us to produce more and needed endocannabinoids.
6. What Can CBD Help With?
Because our bodies create our own cannabinoids for pretty much every biological function, many see CBD helped their health in countless ways.
- Anxiety
- Inflammation & Arthritis
- Diabetes
- Addiction
- Nausea
- Skin Conditions
- Depression
- Cancer
- Alzheimer’s
- Migraines
- Pain
- PTSD
This is just a few medical conditions, that research has shown CBD can help treat.
7. Is CBD Safe?
Comprehensive reviews looking over all studies undertaken on CBD, all conclud that CBD is relatively harmless. Some tiredness happens with extremely high doses as well as potential stomach discomfort. For the most part, CBD will have counteractive effects to both.
CBD will attach to CYP enzymes in the liver which are responsible for metabolizing around 60% of all pharmaceuticals currently on the market. This means that CBD can temporarily delay or increase concentration levels of other drugs.
For the most part, low to average dosages avoid this interaction, so a high dose (40mg+) should be avoided if you’re concerned about CBD interacting with your medication. Some rare studies have seen low doses of CBD increased seizures rates until the CBD dosage was increased.
This is believed to have happened because CBD deactivated enough CYP enzymes to delay and weaken the anticonvulsants medication. The reason increasing CBD stopped this issue is because it’s dose was too low to provide its own anticonvulsant properties to compensate.
This is worrisome, but by increasing CBD’s dosage, both seizures rates and the medication used to control them were lowered to levels not possible without CBD. These studies concluded that CBD should be continued because of this and that blood levels should be monitored.
8. Can I Give My Pets CBD?
If your pet has an endocannabinoid system, the answer is a resounding yes! Forutanly that's all organism with a vertebrate, so all mammals have an ECS that works by creating its own endocannabinoids. CBD will work the exact same way so therapeutic benefits will be the same, as well as the side effects.
One area to note; many mammals are more sensitive to THC than us. THC is what protects the marijuana varieties of cannabis plants from getting eaten by animals — hemp varieties didn’t have this threat and never needed to produce an abundance of THC.
Dogs especially have a lot of CB1 receptors in their hindbrains and do not handle THC well at all, — this is the reason THC is toxic to them in high amounts.
When giving your pet CBD, make sure it’s derived from hemp so you avoid THC.
9. Is CBD Oil The Same As Hemp Oil?
If you’ve walked into the grocery store, you’ve come across hemp products galore. There is hemp protein powder, hemp topicals for healthier skin, and hemp seeds that you can throw in your food. But these products don’t have CBD or other phytocannabinoids in them.
When you see “hemp oil”; it’s referring to oil derived from the seeds which are rich in omega 3 and 6 fatty acids and have a complete amino acid profile. CBD and the other phytocannabinoids are derived from the flowers and stalks. Both are great oils and can improve your health.
In fact, CBD oil needs a carrier oil for bio-absorption and stability, and hemp oil can be used for it. It even has a healthier profile than commonly used coconut oil. Plus, it makes the product 100% hemp, so we choose hemp seed oil over poor quality and all too common MCT oils.
10. Can CBD Make Me Fail A Drug Test?
This depends on your CBD product and how much you’re using. Most likely, as long as it’s derived from hemp and it contains the legal amount of THC (0.03% or less) you should be completely fine. You never have to worry CBD Drug tests look for THC, not the other cannabinoids.
THC does stick around in fat cells for a while and can build before leaving the body. Let's say you hypothetically took around 1,000-2,000 mg CBD every day, that could lead to a false positive. A false positive means once it undergoes a Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry to confirm the positivity it will come back negative.
The average dose of CBD for chronic conditions is 15-30 mg a day, so there is little chance. And while there is no such thing as a CBD drug test, you might have concerns about small traces of THC — in that case, just check out our CBD isolate which has absolutely no THC.
For more information on CBD, click here!