The Meteoric Rise of CBD and Edibles
Do The Two Go Hand in Hand?
I can’t help but think they do!
I can still remember the first time I heard of CBD. It was my first time ever smoking from a friend’s volcano vape, and he came off as borderline obsessed with it. He talked a lot about using vaped weed to make edibles, and claimed that those edibles would leave you with a crazy body high. Honestly, it felt a lot like he was trying to justify what was probably a $400+ purchase at the time. As college students living in a dorm, it might’ve been the most expensive thing he owned.
That was my first exposure to the concept, a couple of years before legalization. The next time I heard about CBD was when my friends decided to make edibles, and once again they touted the various benefits of higher CBD percentage in the edibles they planned to make. Prior to legalization, those were the only two encounters with the acronym I had. Today, it’s difficult to read about or research marijuana without running into blog posts, ads, and even companies that solely offer CBD extracts and related products.
In the past, CBD was little more than an attractive sidepiece to the real star of the show: THC. In the past few years, however, CBD and other cannabinoids commonly found in marijuana have been getting more attention. I think it’s worth investigating why that is, and I can’t help but think that the increase in the use of edible cannabis products is entirely unrelated.
Well, You’d Better Hurry Up And Get There, Then
OK, OK!
One of the reasons that CBD seems to be turning up everywhere has to do with regulations about how and where cannabis can be advertised. I think that using an example might be helpful here, so let’s just go with Facebook. Facebook has famously rejected cannabis-related advertisements on their platform, even in countries where adult use of marijuana is federally legal. However, even though they don’t allow advertisements for cannabis, Facebook does allow some advertisements for CBD products.
If that seems strange to you, you’re not alone! The distinction made by Facebook’s Public Policy is that marijuana and/or THC-containing products are “illegal, prescription, or recreational drugs.” CBD can be purchased over the counter, isn’t typically used recreationally, and isn’t illegal. CBD is still classified as a ‘drug,’ however, so even CBD ads are occasionally taken down by Facebook. Still, they’re far more likely to be approved and left active on the site than advertisements for traditional cannabis products.
You Forgot About Edibles
Did I?
The rules concerning marijuana advertisements are prohibitive, but there are other factors that have helped to shape the rise of CBD to superstardom.
Federal legalization of adult use in Canada opened up a lot of doors for growers, extract junkies, and even patisseries to experiment with THC and CBD.
CBD extracts especially gained a huge amount of traction on the legal market, thanks to their varied effects. Research on CBD has shown it to be useful in the treatment of chronic pain, migraines, inflammation disorders including arthritis, and even seizure-inducing conditions like epilepsy.
CBD Oils and tinctures were the first to take off, but CBD-containing edibles were quick to follow.
These days, most edibles that you can get with THC inside probably also have a CBD variant, and there’s a whole lot of demand for those products. Take, for example, the Bonnie & Clyde line of edible gummies: their CBD mystery gummies are one of our best-selling products!
As I’ve expressed before, I truly believe that one of the driving forces in the cannabis industry post-legalization has been the drive toward novelty. I talked about this more at length in my post about vapes and their similar rise in the world of legal weed. We’ve been smoking for so long that lots of people are exploring and experimenting with new methods of ingesting cannabis. Lots of people had the chance to try a joint in high school, but how many had the chance to try pure CBD? As recently as a decade ago, I don’t even think that was possible. People are looking for something new, and CBD has proven to be one of the most popular new products on the North American cannabis market.
I’m Still Not Sure What CBD Really Does
Fair enough! Let’s get into that now.
I know that it’s a little late in the post to be getting around to this, but CBD is an abbreviation used to refer to the chemical compound ‘cannabidiol,’ which is found in both male and female cannabis plants. A portion of CBD on the market today is actually extracted from the Hemp plant, as the Hemp plant contains almost no THC. Hemp-extracted CBD is far more pure, and makes it easier for people to avoid potentially unwanted effects of THC. Personally, I don’t know why you would want to avoid those effects, but I can accept that some people don’t feel the same way about that. I love the effects of THC, but lots of people don’t! CBD has allowed those people to get the effects they want most out of cannabis, without the ones that might be frightening or negative for them.
There are a lot of people who can benefit from the effects of marijuana, but who might have been unable or unwilling to accept it due to their experience with THC. Lots of people have negative experiences with weed in their past, whether it was getting way too high and greening out or getting stuck in a paranoid loop with the wrong group of people. It happens! I think that CBD has helped a lot of people who had early negative experiences with weed to return to the fold, in a way.
The best example I can give is the fact that my DAD has tried CBD, despite not smoking almost his entire life. Aside from the times he caught me and sisters with weed and then smoked it himself, of course. That guy’s an asshole.
Still, if he was willing to dive in, I think that goes to show how wide the potential audience for CBD is when compared to THC. My dad’s the kind of guy who wouldn’t be caught dead smoking weed, but he’s down to pop a couple CBD pills every night before bed to help him get to sleep. It’s all just weed, but CBD has a unique appeal to people who might have been marginalized by the ‘stoner culture’ that dominated the discourse of cannabis prior to legalization.
Honestly, as far as CBD’s potential, I believe we’re only at the ground floor.
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