SweetSue's Cannabis Oil Study Hall

[SweetSue]

Is the meter you are talking about the CannaDx analyzer from MyDX? That one will do THC and CBD but costs like $700. Not sure it is on the market yet.

Or do you know of another?

I came across this one recently Felonious.

The Tech in tCheck

Is it Magic?

Not really. tCheck is an application specific spectrometer. It works by shining a specific wavelength (color) of light through the oil, then measuring the amount of light that makes it through.

You can do this experiment at home... Take a flashlight and put it behind a small glass of water, then look at the flashlight through the water. Now, start dripping dye or food coloring into the water. As more dye is added, the water gets progressively darker.
The water in this experiment is just like our oils and the dye is like the cannabinoids (THC, CBD, etc.). The more cannabinoids in the oil, the darker the water.

Our eyeballs can only detect a limited range of colors (wavelengths). tCheck uses a wavelength of light beyond our ability to see. However, cannabinoids filter or darken the oil at this wavelength.

Inside tCheck, the light emitter, tray, and receiver have all been calibrated. This means that the amount of light generated is always known, the thickness of the oil within the tray, and sensitivity of the detector is also always known. This consistency, along with some fancy signal processing allows tCheck to translate the dimness of the light into what we call a cannabinoids by volume measurement.

Why do we call it an application specific spectrometer? Because it only measures cannabinoids. Regular spectrometers use a bunch of different wavelengths of light and can measure all kinds of stuff like the carbon dioxide content in Himalayan glacial ice. The problem is that it is extremely difficult to tell the difference between 10,000 year old carbon dioxide and some other unknown compound. To definitively tell the difference, you must collect a ton of data across a wide range of wavelengths and compare those numbers against a massive database. Even then, it is difficult to determine the amount of carbon dioxide in Himalayan glacial ice.

tCheck does not try to measure anything and everything. It only measures the cannabinoids dissolved in oils (and tinctures in the near future). Because it is not a general purpose spectrometer, it doesn’t need to make a million measurements and host a gigantic database. By doing only a single function, the electronics inside could be miniaturized.

 

[HashGirl]

Okay, they're done. Now I just need to figure out how much is a dose. I blogged it with photos if you're interested:

Cannaoil Capsules - Take 1

 

[SL2222]

I found a very interesting article about cannabis from somebody prone to anxiety, talking about how what is relaxing to most people will be horrible for a select few anxiety prone people. It talks specifically about my state and how the market doesn't support the medical side as much as the recreational side, which is exactly what I've found to be true.

** I wanted to add an edit that it seems my anxiety-reaction is not mental. It's mainly physical. I have mental irritation, but not mental anxiety - like I don't feel paranoid or start having anxious thoughts. My body goes into panic mode and then my mind follows with fear of what it's doing. I'm not sure that's the case he's talking about**

Want to Relax? Don't Let Them Talk You Into High-THC Weed - Features - The Stranger


"For every weed smoker who wants to get as high as possible, there's someone else who has a light-duty panic attack–or maybe a heavy-duty panic attack–whenever they try cannabis. Most of these people eventually just decide they're "not a pot person." They want to relax, and even the strains that are said to be relaxing don't help them relax. Many of these people wholeheartedly support the legalization of marijuana, but they aren't getting to enjoy its benefits.

I'm one of them, and it sucks.

While I used to love pot, and want to love pot again, it hasn't been easy to do. Ninety percent of the time, I get super high, much higher than I would like, and it is a terrifying experience for me. Instead of enhancing life, it sends my mind spinning into a tornado of anxiety and paranoia. Recreational budtenders will tell you that sativas are the high-energy strain of weed, giving you a "head high" that's perfect for daytime, and indicas are the relaxing strain of weed, giving you a "body high" and preparing you for sleep, and but even trying a range of indicas didn't work for me. They made my heart pound and my mind race. Since there are now so many varieties of legal weed available, I've been looking for a way to fit pot back into my life, but I kept failing to find anything anywhere near calm enough for me.

My friend Nick, a local DJ who also doesn't partake as often as he'd like to, summed up the search perfectly.

"I'm looking for some dad weed," he said. "Like, weed you can smoke and still pick somebody up at the airport."

He's not alone. There are plenty of people out there looking for weed they can smoke that doesn't cancel their plans. They want to go hiking, they want to read and comprehend literature, they want to be able to relax, they want to ride the bus without feeling everyone's penetrating gaze–they want to do all manner of other normal fun stuff. They want to be lightly stoned. They don't want to be thunderfucked.

Though there is a lot about weed we still don't know, it's generally agreed that the THC in weed is what makes you high. And both indicas and sativas in the recreational market usually have about 18 to 25 percent THC in them. Why is there so much THC in weed? Because in the old days, on the black market, the higher you got, the better the weed was considered to be–the more bang for your buck–and black-market weed plants were the foundation for most of the weed now grown and sold in the recreational market. Most of the customers in the recreational market still have that mentality: If two products cost the same, and one of them has more THC than the other, that's what customers will buy.

But THC is just one of many cannabinoids in marijuana, and now that the state is filled with expert cultivators, some growers are cultivating for other cannabinoids–including cannabidiol, commonly referred to as CBD. High-CBD products are primarily associated with medical marijuana, as CBD has fantastic painkilling and epilepsy-fighting properties. It isn't psychoactive the way THC is. It doesn't turn your brain into a bouncy ball the way THC does. In fact, it's thought that the CBD in a plant is what regulates the THC high. A plant with high CBD levels and low THC levels is awesome for anybody who is looking to enjoy some of the many benefits of pot sans mental debilitation.

"I recommend CBD to all novice users," said Dr. James Lathrop, founder of Cannabis City, the city's first recreational pot store. Lathrop is a doctor of nursing practice and a third-year PhD student at UW with a research focus on cannabis. "Certainly for people who are prone to anxiety, someone who doesn't want that high-THC effect, the high-CBD strains can really do it."

Strains like Sour Tsunami, AC/DC, or Charlotte's Web are primarily CBD, often containing less than 1 percent THC. The plant you see on the cover of this magazine, being grown in a greenhouse in Ellensburg, is Life Gardens' high-CBD Blueberry Essence strain. The strain's THC content ranges from below 1 percent to as high as 5 percent, with CBD content ranging from 5 percent up to 15 percent. The ratio of CBD to THC varies, but it is never usually lower than three to one, said Rachael Lowatchie, administrative director at Life Gardens. While these strains aren't very psychoactive, meaning you won't feel more than the faintest head high, they still have profound effects. People love CBD, and for good reason. In addition to being an extremely promising medical compound–one that caused CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta to change his tune on cannabis and come out in support of legalization–it's got a whole host of more mundanely awesome benefits.

"I find it to be a really beautiful molecule because I'm not somebody who likes to be out of sorts," said Lathrop. "I like to be in control. I don't like to get drunk and I don't like to get super high. CBD gives you a clear head, it relaxes you, it calms you, it's mellow, it helps with pain, it's a good anti-inflammatory, and it's a natural cancer preventative as well. It's like broccoli. It's like a health food on top of everything else."

Lena Davidson, marketing manager for botanicaSEATTLE, a cannabis processor in Seattle, said that trying CBD was a revelatory experience for her.

"It has transformed my relationship to cannabis," she said. "A petite drop of CBD oil turned to vapor gives me an immediate sense of physical ease and well being with only the gentlest edge of psychoactivity."

Even some stoners who do smoke a lot of high-THC weed swear by CBD. Carl William Larsson, a line cook at King's Hardware and a smoker of regular pot said that, despite his high tolerance for THC, he was a big fan of CBD strains for their more curative properties.

"I smoke recreationally on weekends and at night mostly," he said. "But if I have a headache or I'm just feeling kind of worn down, I'll smoke CBD, especially earlier in the day."

Jeremiah Wilhelm, a budtender at Dockside Sodo who smokes plenty of THC-rich weed, was similarly enthused about CBD as a headache remedy, albeit for a more specific kind of headache.

"For hangovers, it's a fucking godsend," he said. "Or if you get too high or if you binge-ate the night before. It lives in the weed ecosystem in a very complementary way [to THC products]."

Lathrop said, "The CBD basically counteracts the THC side effects–getting high, and secondary to that, anxiousness, paranoia, or whatever," he said. "With a balanced CBD weed, you won't get as high. It's a nice buzz and you won't get whacked-out."

Zachary Iszard, chief chemist at Redmond pot lab Confidence Analytics, concurred. "CBD fights both in short-term and in long-term many of the negative side effects that are normally associated with THC," he said. "Cognitive impairments related to short-term memory and spatial reasoning. It eliminates anxiety and mitigates depression. It does all these sorts of things when it is present in recreational weed. It's almost like CBD is weed vitamins!"

Informed of my own issues with anxiety, Lathrop said, "For you, CBD would be a magical molecule."

Here's the bad news: Low-THC, high-CBD marijuana isn't terribly common. Most of the consumers who would benefit from it don't even know what to ask for. Most people still think that the more THC weed has, the better weed it is. Even budtenders who are asked for a relaxing weed still aren't very well acquainted with high-CBD weed.

This is because most of the pot on store shelves is bred to do one thing: get you higher than a kite. Super-high-THC strains are coveted above all, and since that's what sells, many stores won't even bother looking at anything that tests under 20 percent. Many growers, seeking to make as much money as they can in a highly taxed new industry, want to grow the weed the stores want and customers say they want. Recreational consumers have been trained by the black market and years of weed culture to seek out the most potent, mind-melting pot possible.

Because we know so little about the myriad other cannabinoids in pot, THC numbers have taken top billing. Lathrop pointed out that THC and CBD are the only cannabinoid molecules we even test for, out of more than 100 different ones. There's a lot more going on in there.

Lauren Downes, who manages Ponder, a new pot shop in the Central District, pointed out that it's not just THC that has an impact on how high you get. She said that without the aid of terpenes, the molecules responsible for the distinct aromas of pot, THC itself wasn't all that jazzy.

"Terpenes are the true magicians when it comes to getting high from cannabis," she said. "THC itself is energetic and cerebral. It is only in conjunction with terpenes that you begin to feel the variety of effects. For example, limonene is what is responsible for citrus smelling strains. It actually thins the blood brain barrier and enables your body to absorb more terpenes and more THC, thus producing a stronger high."

Nick Mosely, one of Confidence Analytics' cofounders, agreed that the ratios of "cannabinoids to terpenes" are as important as the ratios of THC to CBD. "This is not a single molecule drug, this is a very complex drug," he said.

Lathrop said that breeding strains to get the highest possible THC definitely comes at the expense of diversity: There are so many different kinds of plants out there that are all being bred for one cannabinoid, the one that gets you as whacked-out as possible–THC–which means we're potentially missing other chemical combinations that would have different effects. "One of the interesting things about the plant is that it has only so much energy that can go into producing cannabinoids," he said. "That basically tops out at about 20 to 25 percent. After that, it can't really make any more cannabinoids. What we've done with the street strains, just by economics, is we've washed out all of these other cannabinoids." As a medical student, he's particularly curious about those other cannabinoids, which is why he's studying them–because there's still so much we don't know.

"If you push that THC to that 20 percent and beyond, you've lost all the other cannabinoids," he said, including CBD. "When you're like, 'That's got only 12 percent THC,' it's probably got other cannabinoids in there that haven't been washed out. They're not tested for, they're not on the label, but that's what you're paying for. You're paying for this whole product, not just the THC."

Despite the ostensible benefits one misses out on when you go for a 25 percent THC strain, we don't seem to know enough about what we're missing to even miss it.

"CBD is not a fully understood component of cannabis at this point, especially CBD and THC consumed together," said Alex Cooley, who owns Solstice Cannabis, a grow in Sodo. "As people become more educated on it and engage with it and experience it more, I wholeheartedly believe that it would become a larger segment of the marketplace."

However, that's still a long way off, as things stand. Stoners have been trained for years to get the most bang for their buck, and, as far as they've ever known, THC is that bang. Thus, it continues to be the deciding factor for many.

"Without a doubt, easily 80 percent of the people who come through the door are looking for the hottest, newest, dankest weed you can get," said Wilhelm, the budtender at recreational store Dockside. While it may turn heads in the medical marijuana world, CBD is no one's darling in the recreational market.

The consumer fetishization of THC has lots of consequences. A recent analysis of publicly available testing data by Dr. Jim MacRae, of Straight Line Analytics, noted that the cannabis testing labs that consistently returned the highest THC results were most popular with growers, suggesting a financial incentive for labs to nudge their THC numbers. This led to the formation of new industry group, the Washington Cannabis Lab Association, that will enable labs to double check one another's work, ensuring that everyone plays by the same rules.

Meanwhile, there's an artificial supply-side deficit of high-CBD pot. Because THC-rich weed is so sought after, it takes the lion's share of the state's canopy space. Cooley, of Solstice Cannabis, said that, while he's a huge fan of high-CBD pot, the market for it isn't there. Plenty of growers grow great high-CBD stuff–Cooley noted that many CBD strains grow "like a weed"–but it isn't exactly their cash crop.

"We'll harvest 20 pounds of [high-THC pot], and it'll be sold in a day. Whereas we'll harvest 20 pounds of Sour Tsunami, and it'll be sold in eight weeks," said Cooley. "That's the Washington market."

April Roth, the store manager of Uncle Ike's, confirmed that low-THC weed was hard to move. "Recently, one of my top vendors had some beautiful weed that tested at 11 percent THC," she said. "It's so pretty, I took pictures of it. And it's as great to smoke as it is to look at–but if I hadn't put it out at a lower price than comparable, higher-testing strains from the same vendor, it would have sat on the shelf for a long time."

Life Gardens devotes only about a tenth of its canopy to such strains. Lowatchie, their administrative director, said, referring to retailers, "Even if we happen to have a coveted strain, if it's not high-THC, they're not interested."

Life Gardens still grows high-CBD strains, said site director Matt Begni, because it's not any more difficult or expensive to grow than regular high-THC strains, but they don't grow more than the market can bear.

"We don't lose money on it, because usually retailers that do like CBD come along and buy it all," he said.

Because of the low demand for high-CBD stuff in recreational stores, growers tend to minimize those strains in favor of big-ticket (i.e., higher-THC) varieties, leaving even those CBD-interested retailers that Begni sells to in the lurch at times. While there is a significant amount of high-CBD weed out there, it's not exactly an endless supply.

After Lathrop and I chatted about the benefits of high-CBD pot in his office at Cannabis City, we went downstairs to find an evenly balanced THC to CBD strain he'd been recommending. They were out. They were also out of Life Gardens' high-CBD stuff. In fact, they were down to just one high-CBD strain.

While most recreational stores carry at least one high-CBD product these days, and many places strive to carry more, it's still an afterthought.

Many budtenders, when faced with a customer complaining of weed-induced anxiety, don't even think to recommend high-CBD strains as an alternative.

"I would say it's based on the environment," said Wilhelm, the Dockside budtender. "You have places that are more turn and burn, trying to do volume. People might not be as educated on the effectiveness of CBD because they don't use it, and they're just like, 'You wanna relax? Indica.' I can see the mental connection they make, but it's not correct."

It certainly isn't. If you're one of the unlucky few who doesn't react well to THC, a high dose of it can send your mind racing and set your heart rate on overdrive.

As Wilhelm put it, "It's like putting rocket fuel in a Datsun. You're going to go from 0 to 300 miles per hour, especially if you're more prone to anxiety."

Or as Iszard, the chemist, aptly put it, smoking pot that's all THC can be like "stabbing yourself in the third eye."

Lathrop, despite his temporary lack of inventory, said that, as a medical professional, educating consumers (and his own budtenders) about CBD was a high priority for him.

"Quality is not based on THC, neither is potency," said Downes, from the pot shop Ponder. "We have high-CBD and low-THC products in every category, and we buy based on quality, not THC. In fact, we really try not to purchase products with unrealistically inflated THC numbers."

While Lathrop, Wilhelm, and Downes are clear proof that low-THC strains have some advocates in the recreational retail sector, knowledge and inventory continue to be in short supply. Sadly, the hegemony of high-THC pot means that alternative options are often left off the table entirely.

So what can we do about it?

Well, growers could plant significantly more CBD crops, retailers could start asking for more CBD products at wholesale, and budtenders could make it a more regular recommendation. But it ultimately falls to the consumer. Money talks, and we're the ones spending.

Buying pot based on the outdated method of "highest THC for the lowest price" discourages growers from experimenting with new strains, encourages shady lab testing practices, and robs many of us of what could be a very positive experience with pot.

Ironically, it could be the least snobby potheads who bring about a change in the recreational market, by eschewing the "hottest, newest, and dankest" for some good ol' dad weed. For your own sake and the industry's, all of you anxiety-ridden, "tried it once and hated it" types should really give high-CBD pot a chance. I did, and I couldn't be happier."

 

[SweetSue]

Interesting read Sara. Thank you. I know I wasn't the only one reading that who smiled and thought of the plants we have growing in our own gardens. Take control of your destiny. Stop waiting for the market to catch up to you. Grow a balanced ratio plant or find someone who'll grow it for you.

"Dad Weed" will be a staple in the market within a decade. Well within a decade. The demand grows stronger by the day. Budmasters will learn how to move product too. That part was sad to read. A good salesman knows the product and nothing....nothing stops him or her from making the market bend to his or her will. Geez.

Patients already know the answer is supply your own. Do you really see a day when you can go to the local dispensary and purchase the precise strains or near equivalents to make the oils some of you administer? It would be nice. I hope that day comes sooner than it looks like it may happen. If I had cancer I wouldn't be putting my faith in the local budmaster. I'd be growing my own or have someone grow for me.

The consumer base isn't very well educated yet. They'll catch up quick. It won't be long before consumers of recreational cannabis figure it out too and start growing their own. Then the power companies will get rich.

 

[SL2222]

Interesting read Sara. Thank you. I know I wasn't the only one reading that who smiled and thought of the plants we have growing in our own gardens. Take control of your destiny. Stop waiting for the market to catch up to you. Grow a balanced ratio plant or find someone who'll grow it for you.

"Dad Weed" will be a staple in the market within a decade. Well within a decade. The demand grows stronger by the day. Budmasters will learn how to move product too. That part was sad to read. A good salesman knows the product and nothing....nothing stops him or her from making the market bend to his or her will. Geez.

Patients already know the answer is supply your own. Do you really see a day when you can go to the local dispensary and purchase the precise strains or near equivalents to make the oils some of you administer? It would be nice. I hope that day comes sooner than it looks like it may happen. If I had cancer I wouldn't be putting my faith in the local budmaster. I'd be growing my own or have someone grow for me.

The consumer base isn't very well educated yet. They'll catch up quick. It won't be long before consumers of recreational cannabis figure it out too and start growing their own. Then the power companies will get rich.

I agree with you. I completely planned on eventually growing my own, but I was so ignorant of the choices I'd have here. I see a dispensary every mile, sometimes several on a block, so I assumed that I'd be able to choose to my hearts' content and then decide what I wanted to grow from there. I also wanted to get my family on board, first. They are here a lot, I live in my aunts' house for now. I need at least their approval before doing that. They are here at least every weekending, sometimes more.

I think taking it into your own hands and growing is definitely the safest, surest bet.

I also assumed my practitioner would be providing what I asked for - he even mentioned he specializes in high CBD concentrates - even though my formulation is higher in THCa than CBDa. But I'll find out what he has available next week. Although, to be fair, how is he or anyone to know that I'm one of the few people that can't tolerate - anything, really Hehe.

Interestingly, I was simply searching for CBD dominant oils around here, looking for alternatives in case he doesn't provide what I need. WA has virtually NOTHING available, but Colorado came up with a lot and easily available at dispensaries. Or so it seemed from what I managed to see today. So, yeah. If this guy doesn't have what I need, I'll have to have a new plan.

That said, I had to stop the oil. I know you and he both told me not to stop - that's it not good to start and stop, but I had to. I was suffering immensely and going out of my mind. It would be one thing if it was simply not making me better, I could easily wait it out and keep it in my system, but I couldn't tolerate feeling worse and worse every day. Besides the anxiety, it felt like I was itchy from the inside. I'm not sure that makes sense. I've felt much better since so far. I'm sure the anxiety might build throughout the week, just like it did last time I stopped. But I'll deal with that as it comes and hope I'll feel relief soon

 

[Oldbear]

Hi Sara Im saddened by your update and I wish there was something I could do to help.

Thinking it would be helpful to know what you are taking. What concentration of thc cbd is in what carrier oil? Edit to add: Do you know how this oil is being made? You could be reacting to leftover solvents.

One reaction I get is like a tingle or a tickle in my joints. I'm wondering if that is the itch you feel?

Do you have allergies by any chance?

 

[Oldbear]

Okay, they're done. Now I just need to figure out how much is a dose. I blogged it with photos if you're interested:

Cannaoil Capsules - Take 1

Yes please, I'll take one

 

[SweetSue]

Yes please, I'll take one

 

[SweetSue]

I agree with you. I completely planned on eventually growing my own, but I was so ignorant of the choices I'd have here. I see a dispensary every mile, sometimes several on a block, so I assumed that I'd be able to choose to my hearts' content and then decide what I wanted to grow from there. I also wanted to get my family on board, first. They are here a lot, I live in my aunts' house for now. I need at least their approval before doing that. They are here at least every weekending, sometimes more.

I think taking it into your own hands and growing is definitely the safest, surest bet.

I also assumed my practitioner would be providing what I asked for - he even mentioned he specializes in high CBD concentrates - even though my formulation is higher in THCa than CBDa. But I'll find out what he has available next week. Although, to be fair, how is he or anyone to know that I'm one of the few people that can't tolerate - anything, really Hehe.

Interestingly, I was simply searching for CBD dominant oils around here, looking for alternatives in case he doesn't provide what I need. WA has virtually NOTHING available, but Colorado came up with a lot and easily available at dispensaries. Or so it seemed from what I managed to see today. So, yeah. If this guy doesn't have what I need, I'll have to have a new plan.

That said, I had to stop the oil. I know you and he both told me not to stop - that's it not good to start and stop, but I had to. I was suffering immensely and going out of my mind. It would be one thing if it was simply not making me better, I could easily wait it out and keep it in my system, but I couldn't tolerate feeling worse and worse every day. Besides the anxiety, it felt like I was itchy from the inside. I'm not sure that makes sense. I've felt much better since so far. I'm sure the anxiety might build throughout the week, just like it did last time I stopped. But I'll deal with that as it comes and hope I'll feel relief soon

Im impressed with how you listen to your body Sara. You did the right thing. Stopping until you can make face-to-face contact with your caregiver was a smart move, given the discomfort you were experiencing.

A question that arose: why is it necessary to have your family on board? I'd assume you're going to get the anxiety under control before you start that project. I have great faith in your caregiver. I'm certain he'll find the formulation and method of administration for you. Discuss capsules with him, get his take on it. But the nature of this site is to set the grow up as a stealthy enterprise, undetectable by others. This is the case in many legal homes as well. I'd caution you to rethink setting your life on hold to try to keep anyone else happy. You'll learn to keep the garden a "quiet affair."

A big hug girl.

I know where your head is at, and I want you to know that voice telling you it was a failure again is wrong. You're experimenting Sara. You'll find your sweet spot. It's inevitable, so just accept that and trust the universe. It brought you here, didn't it? We'll get this worked out for you. I have no doubt about this.

 

[SweetSue]

Sara, are there no dispensaries selling any flowers of a strain with more CBD than THC? Have you tried vaping a strain higher in CBD? I ask, because my daughter shared a story with me yesterday that I forgot to pass on.

Yesterday was her FIL's birthday and they were taking him to lunch, so she was vaping her Med GOM 1.0 in preparation. She uses this strain only for bleedover anxiety and when she knows she has to leave the apartment. The agoraphobia is her last remaining challenge. So she takes her three small inhallations, sets the vaporizer down and reaches for her shirt. As she was pulling the shirt over her head she said it was like everything slowed down and her anxiety fell away as the shirt settled on her. She described it as almost magical how the frantic feelings just melted off of her and slipped away.

Her capsule regimine keeps her mostly level, but before we got her started on that we had her using the Med GOM 1.0 exclusively, and that got her through an entire month waiting for the Criticals to be harvested.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

Truth is that as soon as Washington's recreational law went into effect last July high CBD strains pretty much disappeared along with everything useful for medical. Washington's LCCB shut down all the med dispensaries and also med growers and processors over "tax issues". This month I finally found CCO that I can use. And I live in a cannabis Mecca. It's out there but really really hard to find, and frustrating as hell to explain to bud tender why what they have won't work for my medical needs. It seems to be getting a little better very slowly.

 

[SL2222]

KingstonRabbi explained it very well below. The dispensaries are all selling the highest THC possible, and that's it. The medical side has been brushed aside almost completely. I have searched for tens of hours now and nobody's menu includes high CBD - there is a site that lists companies who do/did concentrates for medicinal use and it seems like almost all are out of business. Some that are still going use only THC dominant.

I think even the medical providers, like mine, sort of work with the assumption that high THC (or THCa) is desirable

Hopefully he has more options.

Oldbear - he told me what the mixture, strains and percentages were, but I couldn't understand him. I asked twice and he already feels guilty about his accent, so I gave up. Besides that, my cell service here is bad....Seeing him in person I should be able to get all the info I need.

The cannabis is CO2 extracted, and supposedly clean of solvents. You never know though, which is why growing is so smart. I mean, he seems very concerned about the purity of his stuff, so I assume it's decent that way.

However, I'm sensitive to a lot of things. Too much vitamin C, vitamin D, iron, even things like collagen products. I've had this internal itch feeling before, it's similar to too much vitamin C, but more intense. I mean, maybe it is the terpenes and all the natural compounds kept with a raw extraction. Oh! And too much caffeine, but green tea especially. Does green tea have terpenes? Because too much of that gives me a mild version of that. I have lots of allergies. Interestingly, the cannabis seemed to help my sinuses. I am famous for carrying around handkerchiefs and dropping Kleenex everywhere and I wasn't blowing my nose much at all this week. It also helped a lock jaw problem I have.

The anger and irritation was eerily similar to a birth control I had tried years and years ago. Just not my personality but I suddenly hated and couldn't tolerate anyone or anything. So weird.

Susan - I guess you are right. The only thing is that my aunts are moving into this house in a few months, so they are here working on it every week - in every nook and cranny doing repairs, upgrades, etc. It might not be hard getting them on board. I started broaching the subject here and there. If not, maybe a closet will do. We will search and see what we can come
up with . My partner already said he'd help, which is good. I have a black thumb.

 

[SL2222]

Sara, are there no dispensaries selling any flowers of a strain with more CBD than THC? Have you tried vaping a strain higher in CBD? I ask, because my daughter shared a story with me yesterday that I forgot to pass on.

Yesterday was her FIL's birthday and they were taking him to lunch, so she was vaping her Med GOM 1.0 in preparation. She uses this strain only for bleedover anxiety and when she knows she has to leave the apartment. The agoraphobia is her last remaining challenge. So she takes her three small inhallations, sets the vaporizer down and reaches for her shirt. As she was pulling the shirt over her head she said it was like everything slowed down and her anxiety fell away as the shirt settled on her. She described it as almost magical how the frantic feelings just melted off of her and slipped away.

Her capsule regimine keeps her mostly level, but before we got her started on that we had her using the Med GOM 1.0 exclusively, and that got her through an entire month waiting for the Criticals to be harvested.

Yes!! This is what I want Described so perfectly! Imagine what I could do if that fear and frantic energy just melted away like that.....

I'm thinking that I might be interested in similar regime - using something that keeps me stable, but then also having something for the breakthrough. My agoraphobia is awful. Partly why I was hoping I wouldn't have to meet my caregiver face to face. Even phone calls, particularly knowing they are coming in advance, make me sick. Meeting in person is going to have me frantic with fear. Why? No idea. No idea what I'm afraid of. Boundaries, maybe? I'm never able to stand up for myself in person, or even have the where-with-all to say what I need or want in the moment, I'm overcome with shyness and fear and brain freeze. Although, once I am at my situation, while I have this issue, the intense fear tends to go away. It's mainly the anticipation.

I always had a bit of this growing up, but then I spent years (18 - 28) with little fear of new situations at all. I had a lot of fun and accomplished a lot If I had fear, it wasn't overwhelming. It didn't stop me. And then, it seemed that it all went backwards completely and reached new levels when I got sick.

I still remember that after I got sick, I was meeting new practitioners weekly - finding new ways to deal. My anxiety was horrible but I had no agoraphobia. Then suddenly, one day I'm walking to my bus and I was overcome with this fear, this horrible, irrational fear, of meeting this person. I turned and walked home. And it never stopped from that moment. I usually take Lorazepam to deal with new situations. It's the only way I manage to get myself there. Let's see what happens this week. I'll get there somehow!

 

[SweetSue]

Yes!! This is what I want Described so perfectly! Imagine what I could do if that fear and frantic energy just melted away like that.....

I'm thinking that I might be interested in similar regime - using something that keeps me stable, but then also having something for the breakthrough. My agoraphobia is awful. Partly why I was hoping I wouldn't have to meet my caregiver face to face. Even phone calls, particularly knowing they are coming in advance, make me sick. Meeting in person is going to have me frantic with fear. Why? No idea. No idea what I'm afraid of. Boundaries, maybe? I'm never able to stand up for myself in person, or even have the where-with-all to say what I need or want in the moment, I'm overcome with shyness and fear and brain freeze. Although, once I am at my situation, while I have this issue, the intense fear tends to go away. It's mainly the anticipation.

I always had a bit of this growing up, but then I spent years (18 - 28) with little fear of new situations at all. I had a lot of fun and accomplished a lot If I had fear, it wasn't overwhelming. It didn't stop me. And then, it seemed that it all went backwards completely and reached new levels when I got sick.

I still remember that after I got sick, I was meeting new practitioners weekly - finding new ways to deal. My anxiety was horrible but I had no agoraphobia. Then suddenly, one day I'm walking to my bus and I was overcome with this fear, this horrible, irrational fear, of meeting this person. I turned and walked home. And it never stopped from that moment. I usually take Lorazepam to deal with new situations. It's the only way I manage to get myself there. Let's see what happens this week. I'll get there somehow!

Oh Baby, and you did all that without someone like me beside you .....

People are intimidated by you. They want to "fix it" and they're frustrated because nothing works. It creates a momentum of its own.

It's nothing but brain chemistry and it doesn't define who you are at all. I never lost sight of my sparkling daughter in all that anxiety. I knew in my heart there was an answer, and somewhere along the way we'd find it. We did. For us it turned out to be as simple as growing a plant, making an oil, putting that oil into some capsules and having her find her personal sweet spot. We live a blessed life, in great part because we have expectations of that.

Your brain's misfiring, and the cannabinoids in cannabis can help restore the balance without side effects, until your ECS is strong enough to do that on its own. It'll take a bit of trial and error. It may take a little time, but it'll come. My daughter shares your hyper-response to any medication. So far, she's had no problems with cannabis and no interaction with the mild psyche drugs she does take. She takes Effexor, I believe. A mild dose. It was only meant to keep her from becoming suicidal.

It's easy to beat up on yourself for behavior that's being guided by your brain chemistry. You can learn not to do that to yourself. I can help you with that. Your caregiver will help you find the level of cannabinoids that your body needs to assist healing in the mix that fascilitates your lifestyle. So you're going to get there Sara. In time. When you can accept that, and grab onto that delicious feeling of knowing it's going to happen, you accelerate the healing process.

It's an incremental thing, like life. No one expects you to get there overnight, but I think it's obvious to everyone in this room that you, my dear, are on a strong healing path. I think part of my purpose here is to teach you how to laugh your way through this. Lol! I don't demean what you're going through at all, but my daughter has told me that she survived this because we kept laughing.

And we always understood the value of a good hug. Hugs are a healing force all their own.

​

 

[Danolo]

Sue, not sure if this posting belongs here or elsewhere. If you want me to delete it and repost elsewhere, let me know.

Well, a bit of a break-through for my wife. A couple of days ago I bought a syringe from my favourite dispensary. It was advertised as XXXXX Rick Simpson Oil. I XXXXX'ed out the brand name, cuz I think I'm not supposed to promote, right? If you are curious, PM and I'll tell you the brand name and website.

In any event we reviewed the instructions on tacking (thanks to you guys) and this morning we tried it. I got a grain of rice sized dab under my lower denture. One thing that worried me was that it was not thick. It had the consistency of cooking oil. It is almost black in color.
Because it was so runny, it did not really tack. I got the impression that real RSO or CCO is almost gummy, right?

Then I dabbed a bit on my wife's lower gum line, under her denture.

It took about 1/2 hour before I felt anything... we both sort of shrugged and said, "oh well". The effect was not high, nor stoned, just a mild background buzz.

Then my wife decided to have a nap and she was comatose for about 4 hours. I lay down and napped for an hour too. Now, 6 hours later she feel fine with little pain from her RA. Yahoo!

I'm hoping this reaction is from this oil.

Another reaction my wife had was a mildly upset stomach.. shortly after she swallowed

So, whether we tack it or ingest it, this oil seems to be beneficial and we are going to continue with it.

Cost wise it was $30CDN for a 1 ml syringe.

 

[KingstonRabbi]

And we always understood the value of a good hug. Hugs are a healing force all their own.

​

What's that in the sky?! A smiley face with open hands... It's the SweetSue Signal!

Quick! Nug Wonder, to the Bud-mobile!
[sound of squealing tires as we speed off. Visual of winding mountain road and steep cliffs. Switch to visual of Google Maps app.]

Okay, left. Now right... no, other right! STOP! Back up three blocks!

Okay, We're here!

​

Healing Hugs delivered!

Now let's go find The Toker. (she usually has the good stuff)

 

[Canyon]

Sara,
With your hyper sensitivities, you may be better served if you approach cannabis on an as needed base. You have an analytical approach to what is happening to you. Your body and mind will let you know when you need it an when you have had as much as you need or sadly in your case (at least for now) want to tolerate.

Another thought would be to try cannabis and lorazepam together or spaced apart at different times. I suspect one would have an effect on the other. Good or bad, best guess is,............ it depends.

Best wishes
canyon

 

[Tennessee Tim]

I found a very interesting article about cannabis from somebody prone to anxiety, talking about how what is relaxing to most people will be horrible for a select few anxiety prone people. It talks specifically about my state and how the market doesn't support the medical side as much as the recreational side, which is exactly what I've found to be true.

** I wanted to add an edit that it seems my anxiety-reaction is not mental. It's mainly physical. I have mental irritation, but not mental anxiety - like I don't feel paranoid or start having anxious thoughts. My body goes into panic mode and then my mind follows with fear of what it's doing. I'm not sure that's the case he's talking about**

Want to Relax? Don't Let Them Talk You Into High-THC Weed - Features - The Stranger


"For every weed smoker who wants to get as high as possible, there's someone else who has a light-duty panic attack–or maybe a heavy-duty panic attack–whenever they try cannabis. Most of these people eventually just decide they're "not a pot person." They want to relax, and even the strains that are said to be relaxing don't help them relax. Many of these people wholeheartedly support the legalization of marijuana, but they aren't getting to enjoy its benefits.

I'm one of them, and it sucks.

While I used to love pot, and want to love pot again, it hasn't been easy to do. Ninety percent of the time, I get super high, much higher than I would like, and it is a terrifying experience for me. Instead of enhancing life, it sends my mind spinning into a tornado of anxiety and paranoia. Recreational budtenders will tell you that sativas are the high-energy strain of weed, giving you a "head high" that's perfect for daytime, and indicas are the relaxing strain of weed, giving you a "body high" and preparing you for sleep, and but even trying a range of indicas didn't work for me. They made my heart pound and my mind race. Since there are now so many varieties of legal weed available, I've been looking for a way to fit pot back into my life, but I kept failing to find anything anywhere near calm enough for me.

My friend Nick, a local DJ who also doesn't partake as often as he'd like to, summed up the search perfectly.

"I'm looking for some dad weed," he said. "Like, weed you can smoke and still pick somebody up at the airport."

He's not alone. There are plenty of people out there looking for weed they can smoke that doesn't cancel their plans. They want to go hiking, they want to read and comprehend literature, they want to be able to relax, they want to ride the bus without feeling everyone's penetrating gaze–they want to do all manner of other normal fun stuff. They want to be lightly stoned. They don't want to be thunderfucked.

Though there is a lot about weed we still don't know, it's generally agreed that the THC in weed is what makes you high. And both indicas and sativas in the recreational market usually have about 18 to 25 percent THC in them. Why is there so much THC in weed? Because in the old days, on the black market, the higher you got, the better the weed was considered to be–the more bang for your buck–and black-market weed plants were the foundation for most of the weed now grown and sold in the recreational market. Most of the customers in the recreational market still have that mentality: If two products cost the same, and one of them has more THC than the other, that's what customers will buy.

But THC is just one of many cannabinoids in marijuana, and now that the state is filled with expert cultivators, some growers are cultivating for other cannabinoids–including cannabidiol, commonly referred to as CBD. High-CBD products are primarily associated with medical marijuana, as CBD has fantastic painkilling and epilepsy-fighting properties. It isn't psychoactive the way THC is. It doesn't turn your brain into a bouncy ball the way THC does. In fact, it's thought that the CBD in a plant is what regulates the THC high. A plant with high CBD levels and low THC levels is awesome for anybody who is looking to enjoy some of the many benefits of pot sans mental debilitation.

"I recommend CBD to all novice users," said Dr. James Lathrop, founder of Cannabis City, the city's first recreational pot store. Lathrop is a doctor of nursing practice and a third-year PhD student at UW with a research focus on cannabis. "Certainly for people who are prone to anxiety, someone who doesn't want that high-THC effect, the high-CBD strains can really do it."

Strains like Sour Tsunami, AC/DC, or Charlotte's Web are primarily CBD, often containing less than 1 percent THC. The plant you see on the cover of this magazine, being grown in a greenhouse in Ellensburg, is Life Gardens' high-CBD Blueberry Essence strain. The strain's THC content ranges from below 1 percent to as high as 5 percent, with CBD content ranging from 5 percent up to 15 percent. The ratio of CBD to THC varies, but it is never usually lower than three to one, said Rachael Lowatchie, administrative director at Life Gardens. While these strains aren't very psychoactive, meaning you won't feel more than the faintest head high, they still have profound effects. People love CBD, and for good reason. In addition to being an extremely promising medical compound–one that caused CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta to change his tune on cannabis and come out in support of legalization–it's got a whole host of more mundanely awesome benefits.

"I find it to be a really beautiful molecule because I'm not somebody who likes to be out of sorts," said Lathrop. "I like to be in control. I don't like to get drunk and I don't like to get super high. CBD gives you a clear head, it relaxes you, it calms you, it's mellow, it helps with pain, it's a good anti-inflammatory, and it's a natural cancer preventative as well. It's like broccoli. It's like a health food on top of everything else."

Lena Davidson, marketing manager for botanicaSEATTLE, a cannabis processor in Seattle, said that trying CBD was a revelatory experience for her.

"It has transformed my relationship to cannabis," she said. "A petite drop of CBD oil turned to vapor gives me an immediate sense of physical ease and well being with only the gentlest edge of psychoactivity."

Even some stoners who do smoke a lot of high-THC weed swear by CBD. Carl William Larsson, a line cook at King's Hardware and a smoker of regular pot said that, despite his high tolerance for THC, he was a big fan of CBD strains for their more curative properties.

"I smoke recreationally on weekends and at night mostly," he said. "But if I have a headache or I'm just feeling kind of worn down, I'll smoke CBD, especially earlier in the day."

Jeremiah Wilhelm, a budtender at Dockside Sodo who smokes plenty of THC-rich weed, was similarly enthused about CBD as a headache remedy, albeit for a more specific kind of headache.

"For hangovers, it's a fucking godsend," he said. "Or if you get too high or if you binge-ate the night before. It lives in the weed ecosystem in a very complementary way [to THC products]."

Lathrop said, "The CBD basically counteracts the THC side effects–getting high, and secondary to that, anxiousness, paranoia, or whatever," he said. "With a balanced CBD weed, you won't get as high. It's a nice buzz and you won't get whacked-out."

Zachary Iszard, chief chemist at Redmond pot lab Confidence Analytics, concurred. "CBD fights both in short-term and in long-term many of the negative side effects that are normally associated with THC," he said. "Cognitive impairments related to short-term memory and spatial reasoning. It eliminates anxiety and mitigates depression. It does all these sorts of things when it is present in recreational weed. It's almost like CBD is weed vitamins!"

Informed of my own issues with anxiety, Lathrop said, "For you, CBD would be a magical molecule."

Here's the bad news: Low-THC, high-CBD marijuana isn't terribly common. Most of the consumers who would benefit from it don't even know what to ask for. Most people still think that the more THC weed has, the better weed it is. Even budtenders who are asked for a relaxing weed still aren't very well acquainted with high-CBD weed.

This is because most of the pot on store shelves is bred to do one thing: get you higher than a kite. Super-high-THC strains are coveted above all, and since that's what sells, many stores won't even bother looking at anything that tests under 20 percent. Many growers, seeking to make as much money as they can in a highly taxed new industry, want to grow the weed the stores want and customers say they want. Recreational consumers have been trained by the black market and years of weed culture to seek out the most potent, mind-melting pot possible.

Because we know so little about the myriad other cannabinoids in pot, THC numbers have taken top billing. Lathrop pointed out that THC and CBD are the only cannabinoid molecules we even test for, out of more than 100 different ones. There's a lot more going on in there.

Lauren Downes, who manages Ponder, a new pot shop in the Central District, pointed out that it's not just THC that has an impact on how high you get. She said that without the aid of terpenes, the molecules responsible for the distinct aromas of pot, THC itself wasn't all that jazzy.

"Terpenes are the true magicians when it comes to getting high from cannabis," she said. "THC itself is energetic and cerebral. It is only in conjunction with terpenes that you begin to feel the variety of effects. For example, limonene is what is responsible for citrus smelling strains. It actually thins the blood brain barrier and enables your body to absorb more terpenes and more THC, thus producing a stronger high."

Nick Mosely, one of Confidence Analytics' cofounders, agreed that the ratios of "cannabinoids to terpenes" are as important as the ratios of THC to CBD. "This is not a single molecule drug, this is a very complex drug," he said.

Lathrop said that breeding strains to get the highest possible THC definitely comes at the expense of diversity: There are so many different kinds of plants out there that are all being bred for one cannabinoid, the one that gets you as whacked-out as possible–THC–which means we're potentially missing other chemical combinations that would have different effects. "One of the interesting things about the plant is that it has only so much energy that can go into producing cannabinoids," he said. "That basically tops out at about 20 to 25 percent. After that, it can't really make any more cannabinoids. What we've done with the street strains, just by economics, is we've washed out all of these other cannabinoids." As a medical student, he's particularly curious about those other cannabinoids, which is why he's studying them–because there's still so much we don't know.

"If you push that THC to that 20 percent and beyond, you've lost all the other cannabinoids," he said, including CBD. "When you're like, 'That's got only 12 percent THC,' it's probably got other cannabinoids in there that haven't been washed out. They're not tested for, they're not on the label, but that's what you're paying for. You're paying for this whole product, not just the THC."

Despite the ostensible benefits one misses out on when you go for a 25 percent THC strain, we don't seem to know enough about what we're missing to even miss it.

"CBD is not a fully understood component of cannabis at this point, especially CBD and THC consumed together," said Alex Cooley, who owns Solstice Cannabis, a grow in Sodo. "As people become more educated on it and engage with it and experience it more, I wholeheartedly believe that it would become a larger segment of the marketplace."

However, that's still a long way off, as things stand. Stoners have been trained for years to get the most bang for their buck, and, as far as they've ever known, THC is that bang. Thus, it continues to be the deciding factor for many.

"Without a doubt, easily 80 percent of the people who come through the door are looking for the hottest, newest, dankest weed you can get," said Wilhelm, the budtender at recreational store Dockside. While it may turn heads in the medical marijuana world, CBD is no one's darling in the recreational market.

The consumer fetishization of THC has lots of consequences. A recent analysis of publicly available testing data by Dr. Jim MacRae, of Straight Line Analytics, noted that the cannabis testing labs that consistently returned the highest THC results were most popular with growers, suggesting a financial incentive for labs to nudge their THC numbers. This led to the formation of new industry group, the Washington Cannabis Lab Association, that will enable labs to double check one another's work, ensuring that everyone plays by the same rules.

Meanwhile, there's an artificial supply-side deficit of high-CBD pot. Because THC-rich weed is so sought after, it takes the lion's share of the state's canopy space. Cooley, of Solstice Cannabis, said that, while he's a huge fan of high-CBD pot, the market for it isn't there. Plenty of growers grow great high-CBD stuff–Cooley noted that many CBD strains grow "like a weed"–but it isn't exactly their cash crop.

"We'll harvest 20 pounds of [high-THC pot], and it'll be sold in a day. Whereas we'll harvest 20 pounds of Sour Tsunami, and it'll be sold in eight weeks," said Cooley. "That's the Washington market."

April Roth, the store manager of Uncle Ike's, confirmed that low-THC weed was hard to move. "Recently, one of my top vendors had some beautiful weed that tested at 11 percent THC," she said. "It's so pretty, I took pictures of it. And it's as great to smoke as it is to look at–but if I hadn't put it out at a lower price than comparable, higher-testing strains from the same vendor, it would have sat on the shelf for a long time."

Life Gardens devotes only about a tenth of its canopy to such strains. Lowatchie, their administrative director, said, referring to retailers, "Even if we happen to have a coveted strain, if it's not high-THC, they're not interested."

Life Gardens still grows high-CBD strains, said site director Matt Begni, because it's not any more difficult or expensive to grow than regular high-THC strains, but they don't grow more than the market can bear.

"We don't lose money on it, because usually retailers that do like CBD come along and buy it all," he said.

Because of the low demand for high-CBD stuff in recreational stores, growers tend to minimize those strains in favor of big-ticket (i.e., higher-THC) varieties, leaving even those CBD-interested retailers that Begni sells to in the lurch at times. While there is a significant amount of high-CBD weed out there, it's not exactly an endless supply.

After Lathrop and I chatted about the benefits of high-CBD pot in his office at Cannabis City, we went downstairs to find an evenly balanced THC to CBD strain he'd been recommending. They were out. They were also out of Life Gardens' high-CBD stuff. In fact, they were down to just one high-CBD strain.

While most recreational stores carry at least one high-CBD product these days, and many places strive to carry more, it's still an afterthought.

Many budtenders, when faced with a customer complaining of weed-induced anxiety, don't even think to recommend high-CBD strains as an alternative.

"I would say it's based on the environment," said Wilhelm, the Dockside budtender. "You have places that are more turn and burn, trying to do volume. People might not be as educated on the effectiveness of CBD because they don't use it, and they're just like, 'You wanna relax? Indica.' I can see the mental connection they make, but it's not correct."

It certainly isn't. If you're one of the unlucky few who doesn't react well to THC, a high dose of it can send your mind racing and set your heart rate on overdrive.

As Wilhelm put it, "It's like putting rocket fuel in a Datsun. You're going to go from 0 to 300 miles per hour, especially if you're more prone to anxiety."

Or as Iszard, the chemist, aptly put it, smoking pot that's all THC can be like "stabbing yourself in the third eye."

Lathrop, despite his temporary lack of inventory, said that, as a medical professional, educating consumers (and his own budtenders) about CBD was a high priority for him.

"Quality is not based on THC, neither is potency," said Downes, from the pot shop Ponder. "We have high-CBD and low-THC products in every category, and we buy based on quality, not THC. In fact, we really try not to purchase products with unrealistically inflated THC numbers."

While Lathrop, Wilhelm, and Downes are clear proof that low-THC strains have some advocates in the recreational retail sector, knowledge and inventory continue to be in short supply. Sadly, the hegemony of high-THC pot means that alternative options are often left off the table entirely.

So what can we do about it?

Well, growers could plant significantly more CBD crops, retailers could start asking for more CBD products at wholesale, and budtenders could make it a more regular recommendation. But it ultimately falls to the consumer. Money talks, and we're the ones spending.

Buying pot based on the outdated method of "highest THC for the lowest price" discourages growers from experimenting with new strains, encourages shady lab testing practices, and robs many of us of what could be a very positive experience with pot.

Ironically, it could be the least snobby potheads who bring about a change in the recreational market, by eschewing the "hottest, newest, and dankest" for some good ol' dad weed. For your own sake and the industry's, all of you anxiety-ridden, "tried it once and hated it" types should really give high-CBD pot a chance. I did, and I couldn't be happier."

Sara, Thanks for posting this. It shows me that you are engaged in learning about MMJ! I agree with the gist of much of this article. There has been far too much emphasis on boosting THC, at the expense of CBD , various Terpines and etc., that certainly play a very important role in how MMJ works and interacts with various users and their conditions. You are unique , as we all are in some ways! I am planning to grow a balanced THC/CBD variety that is 8% THC while also having 8%CBD for myself! That may be far too much THC for you, even with the balancing act, the CBD will do! While I have tended to think most of us need Both THC and CBD, that may not be your case at all! I do believe more conditions respond positively to a wider spectrum of active ingredients, than not , but having said that ,also I believe that in some cases this will not be the case! It may well be that a higher CDB percentage or even no THC will be best for you! THCa is a bit of a wild card for me to think about! I usually, also feel that whole plant therapy is good! But with all people being Unique this was bound to have negatives for some! Sara, you know what feels right for you. Try some low THC, high CBD product from a Plant grown organically! Use only the vapor or edibles if possible, in tiny doses at first,(the capsule method with a reduced drop) as before. Then try CBD predominate very low THC product, then no THC at all. You may find that by changing your diet and exercise habits you finally have success with or without Cannabis. The main thing is you feel better about yourself and learn to control anxieties before they cause major upsets or interfere with being happy!

 

[HashGirl]

I do believe the capsules are a success. I took one about half an hour ago and don't feel high but the pain I was experiencing is mainly gone and I could easily go to sleep. Mind you I was feeling tired before I took it so I could easily go to sleep regardless. Dancing with a 2-year-old this afternoon plum tuckered me out.

Okay, they're done. Now I just need to figure out how much is a dose. I blogged it with photos if you're interested:

Cannaoil Capsules - Take 1

 

[SL2222]

Hi Sara Im saddened by your update and I wish there was something I could do to help.

Thinking it would be helpful to know what you are taking. What concentration of thc cbd is in what carrier oil? Edit to add: Do you know how this oil is being made? You could be reacting to leftover solvents.

One reaction I get is like a tingle or a tickle in my joints. I'm wondering if that is the itch you feel?

Do you have allergies by any chance?

Thank you Oldbear. I was on my phone earlier, so I couldn't reply properly. Being here to read my posts and batting ideas back and forth is absolutely priceless. I'm very, very grateful.