Cannabis flower is good for you in a myriad of ways, but what about the leaves themselves? Doctors and enthusiasts are starting to ask how raw marijuana leaves can benefit the body.
But before you go sprinkling a gram into your morning kale smoothie, it’s important to note that it does matter how you prepare and serve the cannabis.
When cannabis is heated, cannabinoid acids are activated into psychoactive THC and cannabinoid CBD. In these forms, even the most regular stoner can only handle relatively small doses. The recommended dose for this kind of THC is 10 oral milligrams, but raw cannabis acids can be taken in upwards of thousands of milligrams.
As Herb notes, Dr. William Courtney spoke about the benefits of raw cannabis several years ago:
He says that cannabinoid acids are anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-ischemic, and have anti-tumoural effects. Courtney suggests that because the raw plant doesn’t have psychoactive effect, it allows people who don’t want to feel high to take it in the morning when they get up, while driving, or at work.
Smoothies and juicing the leaves are the most delicious delivery methods for raw cannabis leaves, but the imagination can run a little wild with this one: Keeping it in a little windowsill terra-cotta pot next to your basil and rosemary plants? Snipping off a leaf to sprinkle onto pasta or omelettes? Chopping it into salads or soups? Sure.
Even The New Yorker jumped on this trend, briefly, in 2013.
