Getting married is among the most stressful events in a person’s life. Here’s how CBD can help you out.
Weddings are joyful events, at least once the ceremony is actually underway. According to a study, 71% of people believe planning your wedding is more stressful than finding a new job. It’s understandable; even when you’re sending out invitations, making phone calls and booking venues, you still have to pay your bills and go to work.
Many experts believe it’s important to have the necessary tools in order to make it out of wedding planning alive, either by scheduling more visits with their therapist or by simply practicing meditation and enforcing some “me time.” Another factor that can really help couples is CBD.
CBD, which can be found in a variety of forms, can be used to supplement the bride, groom or whomever else is stressed out over impending nuptials.
“CBD oils are known to have anxiety-killing, love-enhancing and sleep-aiding compounds that could be helpful for stress-ridden, overtired brides,” Bryce Gruber, editor of Bridal Pulse, tells the Associated Press.
Photo by Drew Coffman via Unsplash
The oils can be utilized for different purposes, such as treating your skin ahead of the wedding in order to reduce puffiness and inflammation or by ingesting the compound to help stay more relaxed without adverse side effects.
Alexis Rosenbaum, founder of Rosebud CBD, explained to Bride Magazine that despite all the happiness that weddings are supposed to provide, the actual process of planning it is very hard to enjoy. “When it was finally time for [my] wedding, I was a ball of anxious exhaustion and just waiting for it all to be over,” she said. “CBD wasn’t a part of my life back then, but if it had been I would’ve felt as if I could catch my breath amongst the madness.”
So, if you’re planning your wedding, keep calm and maybe check out that CBD product your friend was recommending. Or book a visit to your nearest CBD massage place. It’s a stressful time, so try to keep your sanity. Marriage isn’t going to be any less stressful.
To cook with marijuana properly, you need to take the step even the most enthusiastic “baker” down the street is probably forgetting — decarboxylation.
So you’re new to cannabis — welcome! You’ve likely already started enjoying and experimenting (always in moderation). The edibles at your local shop look so yummy, don’t they? But $15 for a brownie?! You’ve been baking your entire life. How tough can it be to make your own?
The answer: It’s not. But it’s likely not the same kind of baking you’re used to. To cook with marijuana properly (meaning effectively, as in, the marijuana doesn’t take over the flavor of the dish completely and it’s the correct dosage), you need to take the step even the most enthusiast “baker” down the street is probably forgetting — decarboxylation.
Please. Come back. Sit down. This isn’t going to be a lecture on organic chemistry. I mean, if you want that, go here. But decarboxylation is something you haven’t likely done before, right? It’s still a novel idea in modern American cooking when home chefs prepare their own ingredients.
What It Does
(Briefly) chemically speaking, decarboxylation removes carbon atoms from a carbon chain. For our purposes, it will convert THCA to THC. THC, one of the two most discussed compounds in cannabis, is the main cause of the euphoria associated with it. It already exists in raw marijuana you buy since as it dries it converts THCA to THC. Decarboxylation jump-starts the process.
You will need ground marijuana (finer is better), a baking sheet/pan and, if you have it, baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover the pan with a sheet of the parchment. Evenly lay the herb out on the paper. Bake at 225 for 45 minutes.
As with barbecue, there are hundreds of Vital Secret Rules on how to improve. Two things to consider when modifying this recipe: Higher heat may burn the marijuana and make it less effective and taste worse. Low and slow may be the way to go, but it will release more odor and 75 minutes at 200 degrees might be too much of a time commitment — though that gets great results.
Other advice: Ventilate the area properly and use a timer. Especially if you’ve already been indulging.
What Now?
Your cannabis is now ready to be added to butter or made into tinctures or flavored oils. My personal favorite is cannabis-infused oil brushed on grilled salmon toward the end of cooking. When using cannabis butter in recipes use the same amount of butter as called for in the recipe.
Butter and oils are better than dumping marijuana into the batter. THC is oil (and alcohol) soluble. So when you infuse, you get more of the effect, less of the strong plant flavor.
Photo by ponce_photography via Pixabay
A Word About Dosage
The main issue regarding cooking with cannabis is that it is illegal under federal law so there is no standard “dose.” And most states where it is legal label THC content, but that substance has varying effects on people. Unlike alcohol where most adults know what one drink will do to them. Or two. Tell the salesperson at the shop you will be baking and note the strain its THC percentage you will be using in your recipe. When cooking, start with a little. Use Jeff the 420 Chef’s calculator to gauge how much THC you will be adding to servings. Write this down. After eating make some notes and some suggestions less/more for next time.
Keep in mind smoking marijuana can have an effect in five minutes and is gone in two hours or less. The body processes edible cannabis differently and it can take an hour or more to have an effect, which can last up to four hours. The potential danger is a newbie can eat, not feel anything in 30 minutes, then eat more. Then become Maureen Dowd. Start low and go slow until you know what works for you.
Lupus patients have little reliable treatments to rely on, but Toni Braxton has found relief in CBD.
Treating lupus can feel bleak for many patients diagnosed with the illness. It causes the body’s immune system to revolt against itself, attacking tissues and internal organs. Flare-ups often result in numbing pain and exhaustion for patients, unable to participate in anything besides laying down on the couch.
Though doctors don’t understand the disease’s cause or cure, it affects around 240,000 people in the United States. Among them is a Grammy-winning, legendary R&B singer, yes, Toni Braxton uses CBD to combat lupus. She was diagnosed with lupus in 2008, which has caused complications in planning her busy musical career, including canceled tour dates. That is until she tried CBD.
“I was really achy one day and I didn’t have my prescribed medication,” Braxton told ESSENCE Magazine. “I’m looking under my bathroom sink and I found a product I had been gifted called Uncle Bud’s. I put it on, and 20 minutes later I was like, ‘Oh wow, I feel better.’”
Photo by IRA_EVVA/Getty Images
She has since partnered with the company and featured heavily in their promotional videos. However, Braxton swears off using traditional marijuana products, or “herbal refreshments” as she calls them.
“Some days, having lupus is like waking up with the flu,” Braxton said. “Every day my body aches, and I don’t always feel my best. But I have good days, so I take them and always try to be positive. I get up every morning and do what I have to do, because I have kids and a family to keep healthy for.”
“I’m very leery of anything I’m putting on my body, and these are just products that happen to really work and I really believe in it,” she adds.
Currently, Yale researchers are working on multi-site randomized clinical trial that examines how CBD could treat lupus. Using synthetically created CBD (called Lenabasum), the scientists want to examine if CBD could relieve pain and inflammation in lupus patients. According to Fotios Koumpouras, a rheumatologist and director of the Lupus Program at Yale Medicine, lupus drugs available today aren’t uniformly effective in treating the disease.
“Reducing inflammation is crucial for patients with lupus because it is what causes the buildup of scar tissue in vital organs that can eventually lead to their deterioration and malfunction,” he said.
CBD oil has natural anti-inflammatory effects that can more effectively soothe sore muscles and joints, which makes it great for massages.
CBD massages are largely dependent on the place where you get them, but they’re mostly just standard massages with the addition of CBD oils and creams.
CBD products are no strangers to the wellness space, producing anti-anxiety effects, treating inflammation and working on your skin health when ingested or applied topically. When it comes to CBD massages, this relaxing effect appears to be maximized.
Day spas have begun incorporating CBD into their treatments, with most adding a fee when the oil is used. Cyndi Ramirez-Fulton, founder of Chillhouse, a massage parlor in New York, spoke with Byrdie about the benefits provided by these kinds of massages.
“CBD oil has natural anti-inflammatory effects that can more effectively soothe sore muscles and joints, which makes it great for massages. It encourages the body to speed up the healing process and is beneficial in relieving anxiety as well as gastric distress. Our CBD cream also has arnica and lidocaine, which also allows for additional anti-inflammatory benefits,” she explains.
The Spa Industry Association also believes in the power of CBD, explaining that these kinds of oils and creams allow massage therapists to work more efficiently since they reduce inflammation within muscles and joints. No matter people’s levels of physical activity and muscle stress, CBD oil can also speed up the recovery process of different kinds of muscle lesions.
While the CBD industry is in dire need of scientific research, many experts believe adding the oil to massage sessions poses no risks or side effects. “European studies show that topical CBD decreased inflammation and pain, while avoiding the negative side effects associated with taking it orally, such as stomach upset or lowered absorption,” doctor Shirley Chi told Well + Good.
So, for those who are curious about CBD’s therapeutic effects but are hesitant to try out a product that’s still not FDA-approved, CBD massages sound like the safest and most effective bet.
A race is underway to explore the attributes of psychedelic mushrooms and to leverage their promise in commercial applications.
There is a bona fide movement underway with psilocybin. Decriminalization occurred last year in Denver, Oakland and Santa Cruz, and that was just a start: nearly 100 other cities are looking at decriminalizing psychedelics. At the state level, ballot measures are out for signature in California and Oregon. Federally, legislation has been proposed to allow research into psychedelic drugs, alongside calls for decriminalization.
On the commercial side, well-funded private companies (for- and non-profit) are pushing ahead with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) psilocybin studies, patent acquisition, and registration of other intellectual property. Many of these private companies are set to go public. Others are public already. All in all, a race is underway to explore the attributes of psychedelic mushrooms and to leverage their promise in commercial applications.
Because psilocybin and other entheogens are Schedule I drugs in the United States (and strictly controlled under international law), the comparison is often made between what is happening with psilocybin and what happened with marijuana over the past few decades. It’s not a terrible comparison, but it’s not perfect either. Below is a high-level survey of psilocybin, contrasting the lay of the land with historical cannabis progress.
Like cannabis, psilocybin will advance on two tracks
On the first track, psilocybin is moving ahead via initiatives and initiated ordinances, just like marijuana from 1996 to the present. The scope of the psilocybin initiatives is similar to the early marijuana ballot measures in that they focus primarily on decriminalization. These initiatives do not contemplate a commercial model and it seems unlikely that they will be lucrative. They certainly do not yet resemble the second wave of “retail model” programs that became standard with medical and adult use cannabis. Mushrooms and cannabis are very different in nature.
The second track for psilocybin is the pharmaceutical model. We also saw this with cannabis, first with synthetic drugs and then with Epidiolex, the first non-synthetic cannabis drug to win FDA approval. With psilocybin, this second track is moving faster. The FDA already has granted “breakthrough therapy” status to a pair of psilocybin applicants for depression-related formulas, after approving another antidepressant designed to mimic hallucinogenic ketamine last year.
Photo by eskymaks/Getty Images
On those tracks, psilocybin will advance slower (and faster) than cannabis
Psilocybin will continue to be decriminalized around the United States in 2020 and beyond. But that is not the same thing as broad legalization. The closest we may get to “legalization” will be in proposals such as Oregon’s Measure 34, which goes beyond mere decriminalization to create a state-sanctioned “patient and caregiver” framework. This type of proposal envisions psilocybin-assisted therapy in controlled environments. It rules out the retail model entirely.
On the pharmaceutical side, the FDA’s willingness to grant breakthrough therapy status to psychedelic drugs, as mentioned above, has put psilocybin approvals in an expeditious place. Research companies, along with FDA, are seemingly “all in” on psilocybin’s potential in battling treatment-resistant depression. The funding and sophistication required are definitely there.
This targeted pharmaceutical approach will serve psilocybin promoters well, as contrasted with cannabis, which has been touted broadly and amorphously for every use from chronic pain to Alzheimer’s disease. Expect psilocybin to move more quickly than cannabis on the pharma track. Concurrently, expect the groundswell of broader “legalization” efforts to continue, even if we never see psychedelics sold at retail.
Photos by: Flickr user afgooey74, HighGradeRoots/Getty Images
Cannabis legalization helped pave the way for psilocybin
Any legal right of adults to decide what to put into their own bodies must be re-litigated with every controlled substance. That was true 100 years ago with alcohol, it’s true with cannabis, and it’s going to be true with psychedelics going forward. Much of this litigation happens in the court of public opinion. People begin to believe that prohibition is useless, that incarcerating people for using drugs is wrong and that new rules are needed. This is how we ended up with laws from the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1933), to California’s Proposition 215 (1996) to Oregon’s proposed Measure 34 (2020).
For at least several years, most Americans have supported the medical use of psychedelic drugs. As I previously discussed in a close reading of Oregon’s proposed Measure 34, the “legalization” model is similar to the trail blazed by locally cannabis. When enough cities and states move along the continuum from prohibition to decriminalization and beyond, the legal status quo becomes untenable. People will push this hard; people will try things. At some point, federal policy finally evolves and change becomes inevitable. All of that should happen this decade with psilocybin.
While the majority of consumers report feeling “safe” using vaping products, Google searches for “quit vaping” dramatically spiked at height of EVALI outbreak.
Though new cases continue to be reported, the outbreak of E-cigarette or Vaping product use Associated Lung Injury (EVALI) has steadily declined since initial reports surfaced last July. As of February 4, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports there have been 2,758 hospitalized cases of EVALI resulting in 64 deaths. Cases were found in all 50 states, but its spread peaked in September of last year.
While EVALI has primarily been linked to THC vaping products with dangerous additives purchased on the black market, the outbreak caused worried e-cigarette users to ask Google how they can “quit vaping.” According to researchers, the potential of illness caused vaping users to question their habit. Monitoring Google Trends data, scientists determined that search terms like “quit vaping” increased 3.7-fold during the peak of the EVALI outbreak.
“Then these searches then died down, so the timing of the outbreak was strongly associated with searches on how to get off of these products,” said Sara Kalkhoran, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the lead author of the study.
Kalkhoran, who specializes an investigator at MGH’s Tobacco Research and Treatment Center, believes her team’s study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, shows the need for stronger public health messaging on happing. Vaping users should understand the consequences, she added, “before something like this happens.”
Despite the brief scare, the majority of vapers feel relatively “safe” using e-cigarette products despite recognizing the habit as unhealthy. In a different study conducted by health data management firm Harmony Healthcare IT, researchers surveyed 1,800 Americans between the ages 18-38. Respondents most commonly said they started vaping to quit smoking cigarettes, and 77% said vaping is healthier than smoking cigarettes, with 39% labeling vaping as healthier than smoking marijuana.
Though 71% believed vaping was unhealthy, 79% still said they felt safe using vaping products. According to the survey, only 56% said they considered quitting due to EVALI with 36% admitting they would still vape even if they knew someone who developed an illness from vaping. Most of those surveyed stated they did not know the total number of people who became sick with EVALI from vaping.
A recent study found that marijuana can reduce the symptoms of ADHD and the amount of prescription medication ingested.
A new study says that when people with ADHD take the right kind of medical marijuana, they tend to use less prescription medication.
The study, published in the Rambam MaimonidesMedical Journal, collected data from 53 medical cannabis patients from Israel who were diagnosed with ADHD. Thirty-seven of these patients also suffered from some other mental health condition.
Participants of the study were tasked with filling out different surveys and self reporting on their monthly doses of cannabis, how they were consumed, and the cultivar name of the cannabis product. Israel currently grants more access to medical marijuana patients than many other places in the world, providing them with more varied cultivars and opportunities. The study collected data from subjects from October 2019 to January 2020.
One of the factors that makes this study the first of its kind is the fact that researchers asked participants to list out the cultivars that they were consuming, allowing them to learn which cannabis compounds produce better effects for people with ADHD. While the interactions between the different cannabinoids and terpenes remains unclear, the study did find that patients who consumed cultivars with large amounts of cannabinol (CBN) has the best results.
“The aim of this cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was to identify associations between the doses of cannabinoids and terpenes administered, and symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),” explains the study.
Following CBN, other cannabinoids that produced effective results for people with ADHD include THC, THCV and CBD.
In the study’s conclusion, the writers explain that although more studies are necessary to understand how cannabis impacts ADHD, consuming higher doses of the drug improved the symptoms of patients and made them reduce their medication use.
The NFL proposed shrinking the drug testing window from four months to two weeks, as well as dramatically reducing penalties for positive tests.
The National Football League maintains the harshest substance use policy in professional sports. Testing positive for marijuana use could ultimately result in a player’s indefinite ban from the league. Ahead of the upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations, players want the league to decriminalize marijuana, as Major League Baseball did last year.
The NFL also has a rather wide testing window for players, beginning April 20 and ending in early August. Yes, the NFL begins testing players for marijuana on 4/20. Players also receive these tests at random, meaning they must remain clean throughout the four-month window, which coincides with offseason training and practices.
According to NBC’s ProFootballTalk, that could soon change. The new CBA offered by the NFL includes a clause that would reduce the four-month drug testing window into a two-week period. If a player hasn’t previously tested positive for marijuana, this would dramatically reduce the duration they had to refrain from cannabis use. Those players in the program — meaning they have tested positive for weed in the past — would remain subject to “enhanced testing.”
Photo by Doug Pensinger/Staff/Getty Images
In addition, the drug policy would seriously reduce penalties for positive testing. Suspensions would only occur “in the event of extreme and repeated disregard of the policy or significant violations of applicable law regarding the possession and use of marijuana,” reports ProFootballTalk.
This won’t legalize marijuana under the NFL’s internal judicial system, by any means. But it essentially announces to players the NFL will back off from pursuing and persecuting cannabis use for players. It’s effectively decriminalization, though it isn’t known when the two-week period for drug testing would occur.
That doesn’t mean professional football is exactly embracing marijuana. Last month, the NFL concluded through an internal research and reporting effort there was not sufficient evidence to recommend CBD use to players. “CBD is a promising compound, but the extent of its use in the United States outpaces the level of evidence,” co-chairs of the NFL pain management committee wrote in a white paper sent to teams.
A majority of New Yorkers favor legalization, but that opposition from the medical community and law enforcement, among others, remains.
I am not, in general, a betting man. If so, I would have lost some hard-earned dough last year when I predicted that New York will legalize the adult use of cannabis in the legislative session during the first half of 2019.
There are a number of reasons the bill was not passed, but that analysis is for another day. Since that experience, one hopes that the Governor and his Democrat-controlled legislature would have learned from the experience as they try to legalize again this year. Is anything different?
Well, yes and no. What is the same is the strong view of some of Cuomo’s Democrat colleagues that taxes raised through the sale of legal cannabis be directed towards poorer neighborhoods that traditionally were disproportionately affected by the War on Drugs. Cuomo doesn’t necessarily disagree but would rather have a broader “cannabis tax fund” that the state can later decide how to divide up.
In addition, legislators would like to ensure that possession of up to three ounces of marijuana would not yield criminal penalties. Cuomo wants to limit that to one ounce. In a bit of a give as well, Cuomo agreed that the very powerful cannabis czar he proposed last year would be checked and overseen by a five-member board. He would like, however, for that board to include only members appointed by the Governor.
Photo by Freddy Marschall via Unsplash
What also has not changed is that a majority of New Yorkers favor legalization, but that opposition from the medical community and law enforcement, among others, remains. Real issues about impaired driving, for example, should be addressed in a final bill. Press reports are indicating that these various challenges and differences are creating uncertainty as to the ultimate fate of the bill.
Will the differences be rectified before the budget must be completed on March 31? I am no longer in the predicting game. What I do know: Gov. Cuomo this year has put a lot of political capital on the line for this. He gathered the Governors of multiple neighboring states to seek to coordinate efforts on legalization and vowed to get this done in his recent State of the State message. Former President Ronald Reagan once famously said, “[I]f I can get 70 or 80 percent of what it is I’m trying to get, yes I’ll take that and then continue to try to get the rest in the future. And maybe it’s easier to get it as they see that this works.” Nuff said.
For the marijuana debate to move forward anytime soon, the people are going to have to vote Democrat in November.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the self-proclaimed Grim Reaper of Capitol Hill and longtime gatekeeper to the upper chamber, seems to have forgotten what it means to live in a democracy.
The lawmaker is presently sitting on nearly 400 pieces of legislation recently pushed through by the House of Representatives, including one marijuana-related bill, that he admits will not pass the Senate.
Democrats have been complaining about McConnell’s tactics for a while now, arguing that the lawmaker alone is what stands in the way of progress on several issues. Last week, during an interview with Fox News Friday, anchor Bret Baier asked McConnell if the accusations were real.
Not surprisingly, the senator, all cocky and contemptuous, straight-up admitted that no bill on the party’s agenda is going to get a fair shake in the Senate.
“It is true,” McConnell said. “They’ve been on full left-wing parade over there, trotting out all of their left-wing solutions that are going to be issues in the fall campaign. They’re right. We’re not going to pass those.” Instead, he continued, both chambers will “have to work on things we can agree” on, such as government spending, the Mexico-Canada free trade agreement and some environmental issues.
But as for marijuana, you had better believe it’s one of those “left-wing” issues that McConnell isn’t entertaining.
Last year, the House overwhelmingly passed a marijuana bill known as the SAFE Act. The bill was simple enough in design. It didn’t call for the legalization of marijuana at the national level or anything too severe, only that banks be given permission to do business with the cannabis industry.
Photo by FilippoBacci/Getty Images
Regardless of its lightweight nature, the bill has been lingering in political purgatory for months waiting for the Senate to answer its call. House lawmakers have been pushing McConnell to respond to the bill, but he has continued to ignore it every step of the way. And from the way it sounds, the situation isn’t about to improve for cannabis reform in 2020. No sir, marijuana is pretty much a dead issue this year, no matter what type of legislative magic makes its way through the House.
This is the real reason Democrats are hellbent on taking back control of the Senate, something that is possible in the November election. All of the power on the Hill would mean that their agenda could move forward without much drag at all, which is something that the Democrats have been missing for years.
And, to be quite honest, their chances at winning are good.
Several Senate seats are up for grabs this year, and the Dems are strategically working to see that they get filled with all the right people. Unfortunately, this means the anti-Trump part of the population could lose their presidential candidate of choice. Ever since Democrat Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primary last week, reports have been circulating about how the powers-that-be probably will not nominate him to be the face of their campaign. They are worried that his socialist views might prevent them from gaining the necessary votes to win the Senate.
This strategy, however, could end up backfiring. Even with the Democrats in control of both the House and Senate, their mission to further marijuana reform (and many other issues) will go down in flames if President Trump wins a second term. Although it worked out for him in the end, Trump isn’t about to forget that it was them that fought tooth and nail to have him impeached. Therefore, we could see a situation next year where bills are getting vetoed as quickly as they are passed.
It’s impossible to predict how the government will look come 2021. But for the marijuana debate to move forward anytime soon, the people are going to have to vote Democrat in November.
But will they?
That’s tough to call, as well. Right now, not only is the government divided but so are the people. A recent Gallup poll finds that roughly 28 percent identify as Democrats, 28 percent as Republicans and 41 percent as independents. Unfortunately, the marijuana issue alone is not strong enough yet to create a united front – this in spite of the fact that 66 percent of the population supports the cause.
