Men’s Journal – September 2019

082 SEPTEMBER 2019 MEN’S JOURNAL photograph by FIRSTNAME LASTNAME

SCIENCE

Recent testing has also found that CBD

signif icantly reduced seizure rates in

patients with tuberous sclerosis complex,

a disease t hat causes tumors to form in t he

brain and other organs. Brazilian scientists

have found that CBD reduces anxiety. A

study published in May by the American

Journal of Psychiatry found that heroin

addicts who were given CBD experienced

signif icantly reduced heroin cravings. And

researchers at King’s College in London

discovered that giving patients with a

high risk of psychosis 600 milligrams

of CBD helped normalize parts of the

brain that become dysfunctional during

psychotic episodes. These are just a few of

the many promising, early-stage studies

into the effects of CBD. But again, these

are all early-stage studies, so we don’t

know how effective it is or what the right

dosage might be.

SO WHY IS IT EVERYWHERE?

Until 2018, cannabis, along with heroin

and ecstasy (to name a few), was consid-

ered a Schedule I drug, making it illegal

to produce, sell, or use. But last Decem-

ber, President Trump signed a bill legal-

izing industrial hemp farming. The new

law allowed for the nationwide sale of

CBD extracted from hemp, as long as

it contained less than 0.3 percent THC.

Within months, CBD products appeared

on shelves in CVS, Walgreens, Rite-Aid,

Nordstrom, and GNC, as well as on the

sites of hundreds of online retailers. Even

Carl’s Jr., the fast-food chain, sold a CBD-

infused burger as a marketing ploy. Celeb-

rity endorsers, including golfer Bubba

Watson, Mike Tyson, and Lamar Odom,

began promoting and even selling CBD

products, as did Gwyneth Paltrow on her

massively popular Goop website.

IS IT SAFE?

Good question. Because cannabis was

banned for so long, CBD hasn’t undergone

rigorous enough testing to know if tak-

ing it regularly might be good for you—or

terribly bad. “There is no data on toxic-

ity,” says Daniele Piomelli, the director of

the University of California Irvine Center

for the Study of Cannabis. “Drugs have a

strange way of coming back to hurt you,

especially if you use them for a very long

time. If you take aspirin for a week, it’s a

great drug. If you take it for two months,

you’ll need to replace your stomach.”

A recent animal study found that

three-quarters of mice that ingested a

human-equivalent dosage of Epidiolex

were dead or dying within four days,

you’re taking CBD derived from hemp,

which has only trace amounts of THC,

the chemical compound in cannabis that

produces a high. CBD products made from

marijuana plants still contain some THC,

though, and there might be enough to get

you a little stoned.

WHAT DOES IT DO THEN?

No one really knows. How CBD interacts

with the human brain and body is a bit

of a mystery. One theory holds that CBD

increases levels of serotonin, a neurotrans-

mitter that inf luences a host of human

functions, including mood, appetite, and

pain. Another possibility is that CBD pre-

vents the destruction of endocannabi-

noids, which help regulate, among other

things, inf lammation, a culprit in hun-

dreds of diseases.

Whatever the mechanism, CBD does

seem to help relieve cer tain ailments. In

June 2018, the FDA approved Epidio-

lex, a CBD tincture, as a treatment for

Lennox-Gastaut and Dravet syndromes,

two severe childhood seizure disorders.

they will hit nearly $22 billion, according

to estimates by the Brightf ield Group, a

Chicago research f irm. But is CBD the

panacea consumers are being sold? Is

taking it even safe? And is it legal? We

tapped researchers and industry experts

to answer all those questions and more.

FIRST OFF, WHAT IS IT?

Unless you’re invested in a CBD com-

pany—and let’s be honest, that’s entirely

possible given how many companies are

rushing into the market—you’d be forgiven

for not knowing that CBD is an acronym.

It stands for cannabidiol, a chemical com-

pound that can be extracted from mari-

juana and hemp plants, two kinds of

cannabis. The extracted resin can be put

in almost anything: oils, salves, edibles,

shampoo, deodorant—you name it.

WILL I GET HIGH IF I TAKE IT?

No. Well, you’re not supposed to. Again,

CBD is extracted from cannabis plants.

There’s no chance of getting stoned if