CBD and My Mosquito Bites
One of the cool things about working with startups is being in front of the curve when industries begin to grow. And you’d be asleep if you didn’t know what one of the fastest growing industries in the US is cannabis. Over the past five years I’ve advised cannabis dispensaries, secure vending machines, a laser spectrometer for detecting purity, and several hemp products initiatives. We are just getting started understanding the uses of the cannabis sativa plant, because despite legalization in thirty-three states and the District of Columbia as of the end of 2018, marijuana remains controversial. Pharmaceutical companies are reluctant to invest in a product they don’t know if they can patent and sell.
Let’s pause right here and let me tell you that a byproduct of the cannabis sativa plant took away the itching from some pesky mosquito bites I got last night, and I didn’t get high either. That’s because the product I used, from NoBordersNaturals, is derived from a different strain of the cannabis plant than the one I used to smoke. That seems to be the direction the industry is taking.
Plant -based research is widely used by the main stream pharmaceutical industry, which is constantly studying folk medicines and other unusual plants to find out what it can run through the FDA and patent. The only plants that are exempt are the ones declared Class I drugs by the Controlled Substances Act. This act simply assumed there was no medicinal use for marijuana.
That’s what happened to the cannabis plant. Until 1937, marijuana was not illegal. My parents smoked it in night clubs. Then FDR signed the Marijuana Tax Act. Timothy Leary challenged that act as a violation of the 5th Amendment in 1969, and it was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1970, but only to be replaced by the Controlled Substances Act.
Nobody bothered to think about that fact that the cannabis sativa plant has two main strains. One is the subject of misperceptions like those in “Reefer Madness,” but the other is boring old hemp. Because of its connection with a Class 1 drug (we can debate whether marijuana deserves this classification) hemp has had an undeserved bad reputation. from which it is finally recovering.
Both strains of cannabis sativa contain chemical compounds called cannabinoids. There are many different cannabinoids, but the most important ones to know about are CBD and THC. In the marijuana plant, CBD is found along with THC, the chemical in marijuana that gets you high. In hemp, there is almost no detectable THC (less than .3%), but there is still CBD.
Some background about marijuana and hemp. Industrial hemp was first woven into fiber as long as 10,000 years ago. Wikipedia says
it has been grown in Europe to make a variety of commercial and industrial products including rope, textiles, clothing, shoes, food, paper, bioplastics, insulation, and biofuel. The bast fibers can be used to make textiles that are 100% hemp, but they are commonly blended with other fibers, such as flax, cotton or silk, as well as virgin and recycled polyester, to make woven fabrics for apparel and furnishings. The inner two fibers of the plant are more woody and typically have industrial applications, such as mulch, animal bedding and litter. When oxidized (often erroneously referred to as "drying"), hemp oil from the seeds becomes solid and can be used in the manufacture of oil-based paints, in creams as a moisturizing agent, for cooking, and in plastics. Hemp seeds have been used in bird feed mix as well . A survey in 2003 showed that more than 95% of hemp seed sold in the European Union was used in animal and bird feed.
Finally, regulators have disentangled hemp, and allowed the industry to diversify. Hemp Oil and Hemp Extract are legal all across the U.S when sold as dietary supplements. I am vegan, and the protein supplement I take almost every day is hemp protein.
Because it isn’t a drug, hemp and its products have been studied. The most important active ingredient in it is CBD. CBD has been prescribed for patients with severe epilepsy, because it is a seizure-reducer. However, no medical benefit or use can be claimed for CBD products as a class.
This has led to a lot of anecdotal uses and claims, and to the growth of CBD use in everything from shampoos to dog food.
Working with NoBordersNaturals has broadened my own anecdotal experience with CBD, because I was given some free samples:-) First I tried the rub on my sore knee, and found it moderately effective for pain relief. Then I tried the tincture under my tongue. Actually, that method of getting it to my body was even better. I’ll spare you the details about carrier oils (NoBordersNaturals contain emu oil, which is a “carrier” oil.)
I then decided to try it on my friend’s dog Blu who is 15). It helped him, too, although he hates taking it from the eyedropper. NoBordersNaturals is developing edible pet products after Blu gave his feedback.
But last night’s mosquito bites were the clincher for whether CBD “works” or not. I had been testing a prototype Atmotube air quality monitor, and my preliminary results showed me I had toxic air quality in my house after it was cleaned. So I threw open the windows (and threw out the cleaning products, but that’s another story.) And in came the mosquitos.
Once I felt the itching, I got up and went to the medicine cabinet to see what I had in the house to relieve it. But since Arizona is not known for mosquitos, I had nothing on hand.
I did, however, have a jar of NoBordersNaturals rub. So I rubbed it on the bites, figuring the worst that could happen would be nothing. But even though they were three large welts, the CBD rub soothed them immediately, and the next morning they were completely gone.
I thought I’d invented this use until Joe Snyder, the CEO of NoBordersNaturals told me his wife had already successfully used it on their kids.
Until the federal government legalizes marijuana across all fifty states, and real medical research can begin, consumers will have to continue expanding the uses of CBD products on their own. Since hemp is already in our food and in our environment, I’m not going to stop using it on my mosquito bites.