Cannabidiol

There has been information about cannabidiol, or CBD, for many years. CBD is an extract of hemp or marijuana but without the psychotropic properties of THC. CBD is reported to have many benefits including:

1. Support of energy functions at the mitochondrial level. (Scientific American.) (Some scientists that study ME/CFS think dysfunction with the mitochondria is part of the CFS puzzle.)
2. Reduction of epileptic seizures in some cases. 
3. Treatment of bipolar or depression. 
4. Treatment of arthritis. 
5. Treatment of MS. 

Hemp oil is not the same as CBD, which is also different from high-CBD marijuana oil. People often confuse them. THC levels are not  high enough in hemp to make a person high. Some breeders are breeding for low-THC and high-CBD strains of marijuana.

Allopathic (typical family) doctors and mainstream science have a long history, hundreds of years, of ignoring the scientific method for various reasons, but especially when it comes to company profits.

The Dravet Foundation tells you they’re looking into uses of CBD, and they realize many families are inquiring, then they even offer physicians an application for submitting their research and suggestions. Coming in under the tradename “Epidiolex” from GW Pharmaceuticals, some pharma formulation of CBD is now in late stage trials. This is a deliberate attempt to monopolize and patent a version of a natural remedy so nobody else can sell any form of CBD.

Because CBD has worked so well on so many issues, the FDA is outlawing it by excepting it from the supplement rules.

“cannabidiol products are excluded from the dietary supplement definition under section 201(ff)(3)(B)(ii) of the FD&C Act. Under that provision, if a substance (such as cannabidiol) has been authorized for investigation as a new drug for which substantial clinical investigations have been instituted and for which the existence of such investigations has been made public, then products containing that substance are outside the definition of a dietary supplement.” FDA is sending out “violation” warning letters to CBD makers – saying they are selling “adulterated products.”

While growing hemp was banned from the US with the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, I am now seeing drinks and foods with hemp seed in them at the stores. Dr. Gupta in a 2013 CNN article wrote:

On August 14, 1970, the Assistant Secretary of Health, Dr. Roger O. Egeberg wrote a letter recommending the plant, marijuana, be classified as a schedule 1 substance, and it has remained that way for nearly 45 years. My research started with a careful reading of that decades old letter. What I found was unsettling. Egeberg had carefully chosen his words:

"Since there is still a considerable void in our knowledge of the plant and effects of the active drug contained in it, our recommendation is that marijuana be retained within schedule 1 at least until the completion of certain studies now underway to resolve the issue."

Not because of sound science, but because of its absence, marijuana was classified as a schedule 1 substance. Again, the year was 1970. Egeberg mentions studies that are underway, but many were never completed.

So they banned a substance where we didn't have hard evidence that it was dangerous, but it was thought to be dangerous. Yet the FDA doesn't assume substances are dangerous anymore, like Vioxx, glyphosphate, lead paint, DDT, Agent Orange, cigarettes, BPA, PCBs, thalidomide or asbestos. The FDA rules are inconsistent and so it's decisions cannot be trusted.

CBD can use some more study into how to dose it for different people. Laws could be reformed so people could benefit from a plant-based treatment. But hysterical, irrational senators and representatives prevent this from moving forward.

From National Congress of State Legislatures:

President Obama signed the Agricultural Act of 2014, or the 2014 Farm Bill, which featured Section 7606 allowing for universities and state departments of agriculture to begin cultivating industrial hemp for limited purposes.

Michigan, M.C.L.A. 286.841 to 286.844

• Authorizes the state department of agriculture and rural development and colleges and universities in the state to grow or cultivate, or both, industrial hemp for purposes of research conducted under an agricultural pilot program or other agricultural or academic research project.
• Establishes an industrial hemp research fund to support research into growing or cultivating, or both, industrial hemp and grants to colleges or universities in this state to conduct research into growing or cultivating, or both, industrial hemp.

Update: CBD oil legal in Michigan without prescription? As always, check with a lawyer to verify how legal it really is.

More updates will be here. 

2016-04-22. 
DEA approves way to smoke marijuana. The DEA green-lit a clinical trial of smoked marijuana for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in American military veterans, a spokesperson for the government agency confirmed to Fortune. Yahoo news. 


Sources

1. Hemp Farming Act of 2015 would allow US farmers to grow hemp. S.134 version from Senate. HR 525 from the House of Rep. Hemp defined as less than 0.3% of THC content.
2. Truth Wiki.
3. Wikipedia. Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009. Never passed into law.

More info

1. NIH search for studies. This covers all their collections. Last accessed April 21, 2016.
2. CBD legal in all 50 states? No law change was cited as evidence.
3. FASEB journal says CBD still illegal in the US as a class I drug. 2014. 
4. For dosage, this says 25mg a day, twice a day. 
5. MM forum.