What is CBD?

CBD - three little letters that have had a rather large impact on society in the last few years.

What is CBD? CBD stands for cannabidiol, which is a compound (essentially a natural ingredient) found in the cannabis family. Yes, “that” cannabis! - the word many people stumble on or whisper. The word everyone associates with marijuana and getting high. But, that is actually not the complete truth.

Unfortunately, the word “illegal” still comes to mind when people hear the word cannabis, which is why articles such as this one are helpful.

Sometimes, even the word Hemp can cause alarm with people. Both Hemp and Marijuana are part of the same family of plants, known as the cannabis sativa family.

The cannabis plant itself contains over a hundred compounds, or cannabinoids. Although both hemp and marijuana are similar and both of them contain CBD, the one compound they don’t have in common is THC (which stands for tetrahydrocannabinol), the thing that gives you the high. THC has been bred out of industrially-produced hemp, but it stays in marijuana.

CBD also happens to be a naturally occurring substance in our bodies, but we don’t actually produce enough of it. Scientists have found that the CBD our body needs could be extracted from the hemp plant. Although companies that produce CBD can’t make specific claims about exactly what health benefits the product may have, recent scientific research into CBD has indicated it has the potential to improve metal health issues, including depression and anxiety, as well as, provide relief from pain and a large amount of other illnesses.

And, if you could help someone you know, who is going through a painful time, suffering various ailments, dealing with ADHD, anxiety, depression, etc., wouldn’t you want to help? Most people would and that is exactly why so many are now getting into the business of producing hemp and creating CBD products.

Marijuana has the same, helpful CBD in it that hemp does, but you must remember - it also has the THC and because of that, it is not used to make the CBD oil.

CBD is completely legal if:

1. it is being used for medicinal purposes and

2. it has been derived from an industrial hemp strain

In many CBD oil products, you’ll see the word “extract” on the bottle. This means that the compound CBD was scientifically extracted from the hemp plant - taken out of its natural environment - and placed into oil (usually coconut or MCT, a combination of coconut and palm oil).

When production, sale and use of marijuana was banned in the 1930s, hemp was brought down with it. Although there was nothing “bad” about hemp, just because it is in the cannabis family, and because those who signed the constitutional act wrote it as - cannabis - it became a Schedule 1 drug, or illegal, and that made the sale of hemp illegal along with marijuana.

As mentioned above, legal restrictions mean companies selling CBD oil are not allowed to make direct health claims about it. But, scientific research indicated that CBD could be beneficial to people, mostly children with epilepsy, which is how hemp came to be declassified as a Schedule 1 drug.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Epidiolex (CBD) oral solution for the treatment of seizures associated with two rare and severe forms of epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome, in patients two years of age and older. So, Epidiolex became the first FDA-approved drug that contains a purified drug substance derived from cannabis. But, in order to use it in the oral solution, they needed to declassify hemp as a Schedule 1 drug.

And that is pretty much how CBD re-entered our society as a useful substance!