Introduction
If the word CBD still conjures up an image of testing positive on a cannabis (marijuana, mary-jane, pot, weed, etc!) drug test, rest assured we’ll explore this and some of the other ins and outs of CBD (cannabidiol) especially the topical use of it as a cream or lotion.
CBD is often taken by mouth dissolved in an edible plant oil such as hemp or coconut oil. It’s also increasingly popular as a topical product. The benefits can be very powerful for the health of the skin and scalp. CBD is a natural anti-inflammatory and can calm irritated skin. It also can relieve aching or painful joints and muscles in less than five minutes with the relief lasting for several hours if the cream or lotion contains sufficient CBD. At Alchemy Science, our topical products are intended only for use on unbroken skin and should not be ingested.
We recommend looking for a cream or lotion that contains at least 750 mg of CBD per fluid ounce to get this kind of lasting relief. Alchemy Science topicals contain 1000 mg of CBD per fluid ounce as well as three herbal extracts which enhance its effectiveness.
Unfortunately, most brands list the amount of CBD in the whole bottle, not per fluid ounce, which means the consumer has to do the math to figure out the concentration. Be ware of products that list menthol or histamine as the active ingredient and CBD as an inactive ingredient. The manufacturer is basically telling the consumer it’s not putting enough CBD in the product for it to be effective. Even in products with at least 750 mg per fluid ounce, CBD seems to be especially effective on knees, shoulders, hands and feet. It seems to work best on body areas where there is not much extra body fat.
Will CBD Make You Fail A Drug Test?
Let’s get back to our first question: Will you fail a cannabis drug test after taking CBD? The answer is–Perhaps. Although not likely, it’s not impossible. THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is the compound in cannabis that makes one high. CBD will not. While most of the THC urine tests don’t confuse THC and CBD, there is at least one test which uses a chemical called trifluoracetic anhydride, that will. So if you use CBD and need to be tested for THC, you’ll want to make sure it’s not this test! Certainly, using CBD on your skin in a cream or lotion will not cause you to fail the test as the CBD does not get into your blood or urine.
Both THC and CBD are part of a group of compounds called cannabinoids. So far, scientists have discovered over 100 different cannabinoid compounds. Many of them have healing properties.
There is a connection between THC and CBD, though. Originally, they both came from the flower of the cannabis plant. In 2011 a small group of people in California who were very excited about CBD’s healing potential decided to breed the THC out of the plant and breed more of the CBD in (link to the New York Times article, A Hidden Origin Story of the CBD Craze by Amanda Chicago Lewis, published May 23, 2020.) The new high-CBD strains became known as CBD hemp. Current strains of CBD hemp flowers often contain around 60-65% CBD in their resin while cannabis plants contain about 25% THC. By the way, the CBD hemp plant became legal throughout the US in 2018. To be considered legal CBD hemp, THC concentrations cannot be higher than 0.3% While CBD itself IS legal in most of the states in the US, the US government does not yet recognize it as legal, probably because it originally came from the cannabis plant.
Another interesting fact about both hemp and cannabis is that there are male and female plants!. The female plants make the flowers and if they aren’t pollinated by male plants, they make a sticky resin that’s very rich in cannabinoids. If they are pollinated, they produce seeds which don’t contain any. So flowers from “virgin” girl plants are where CBD and THC come from. Pollinated female plants will go on to make seeds, which in the case of hemp are tasty and are useful for oil and flour but don’t contain any CBD or other cannabinoids. Hemp seeds are rich, though, in the healthful omega-3 fatty acid, alpha-linoleic acid (ALA). By the way, the hemp used to make rope is botanically related to both cannabis and CBD hemp but looks taller and skinnier. It has very low levels of either CBD or THC.
In order to make CBD, it must be extracted from the flower’s sticky resin. The extent to which it’s purified, determines the end CBD product. Full-spectrum CBD is the least processed. Waxes and other impurities are removed, but minor amounts of other cannabinoids are left in with the idea they’ll contribute to CBD’s healing effects. In broad-spectrum CBD, all the THC is removed. CBD isolate is as it sounds, pure CBD. CBD isolate is nearly tasteless and is an excellent choice for products such as CBD-infused drinks where the “grassier” taste of full-spectrum CBD might be a problem.
The Chemical Identification of CBD
CBD was initially isolated in the 1930s by two scientists. However, its chemical structure was first identified in 1965 by Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, an Israeli biochemist and medical scientist. Dr. Mechoulam, considered the “father of cannabinoid research,” is now in his nineties and still conducting cannabinoid research. Among his many accomplishments, his research group at Hebrew University has synthesized a cannabinoid called HU-331 which is a potent anti-cancer drug with less toxicity than many other currently used chemotherapy drugs.
A Look at What Are CBD Products?
Just what are CBD products? These days, you can pretty much find CBD in anything! Drinks, gummies, lotions, creams, cosmetics, pet products etc. You name it, and you can probably find that product with CBD in it. We’ve even found a wart medicine with CBD! Many of these products have very low concentrations of CBD–especially the cosmetic products. It’s unclear whether the CBD is effective at these low doses and whether it represents anything more than marketing so–buyer beware! Particularly with topical products, make sure you’re buying a product that has enough CBD to do the job. As mentioned earlier, at Alchemy Science, our topicals contain 1000 mg per fluid ounce. We invite you to compare our products for price and CBD concentration at Alchemy Science Product Comparisons .
If you have not taken CBD orally before and don’t know your personal tolerance, proceed cautiously. A too large dose may leave one feeling lethargic for a few hours or give one diarrhea. Many people need to slowly build up their dose. If you are new to CBD and don’t know how your system will react, it’s good to start with a dose of 2-5 mg and see how it affects you. The effects of oral doses–both desirable and undesirable effects–typically take a few hours to experience because it takes a while for the CBD to make its way through the digestive tract and into the blood system. Be sure to give the dose some time to work.
Gummies typically come in doses of 20-25 mg. If new to CBD, start with about 5 mg or about a quarter of a gummy. If all is good, increase your dose next time by another 5 mg and so forth. Tinctures, which are really not tinctures* but CBD dissolved in a plant oil should be approached similarly. The term tincture is actually defined as a substance dissolved in alcohol, not oil. In any case, a one fluid ounce CBD tincture bottle that contains 1000 mg of CBD usually contains about 1 mg of CBD per drop – usually droppers are usually included with the bottle. Start with anywhere from 2-5 drops and build up as you find your personal tolerance. People also often find that with repeated use they acclimate to CBD and will be able to increase their dose comfortably over time if they want to.Â
The effective dose of CBD varies with both the person and the condition. Certain conditions, such as anxiety, may need surprisingly high doses. Studies on anxiety have used doses ranging from 30 mg to 600 mg. (Blessing EM, Steenkamp MM, Manzanares J, Marmar CR. Cannabidiol as a Potential Treatment for Anxiety Disorders. Neurotherapeutics. 2015 Oct;12(4):825-36. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26341731/) Usually smaller doses are needed for many conditions such as improved sleep.
Medical Research on CBD
Medical research on CBD has exploded since 2018 when CBD hemp became legal throughout the US. It’s now much easier for scientists to obtain legal CBD. Yet, as of now, there are few large randomized clinical trials. Randomized clinical trials are the most reliable type of research study. Animal and smaller human research studies suggest CBD may be useful for the following conditions but larger clinical trials will be necessary to confirm this. The conditions where CBD may be of benefit include:
- Pain and Inflammation
- Arthritis
- Anxiety
- Sleep
- Nausea
- Fighting Cancer
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Gastrointestinal Health
- Psoriasis and other dermatological conditions
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Controlling Epileptic Seizures and Other Neurological Disorders
- Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Forms of Dementia
- Recovery from Drug Addiction
- Schizophrenia and Psychotic Disorders
If you are interested in locating medical articles on these topics references are given on the Alchemy Science website in the CBD Education pages. The link is: Medical Studies on CBD’s Effects.
Of these, perhaps the condition with the most research to back up CBD’s effects are two severe forms of childhood epilepsy —Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome. In 2018, the FDA approved a purified CBD product called Epidiolex for treating these conditions.
The FDA is aware that many Americans are using CBD, and hasn’t yet decided how to regulate it. As mentioned earlier, although CBD is legal in most states, CBD is still not federally legal even though the CBD hemp plant is legal. Pharmaceutical companies would very much like it to be regulated as a drug as this could be very profitable for them. Consumer organizations advocate it should be regulated as an herb.
For now we at Alchemy Science recommend that you purchase only CBD products that have laboratory tests for each batch on the brand’s website, with a batch number on each item for sale. The laboratory tests should tell you in plain English whether the product has the amount of CBD the packaging claims it has.
