Catch-up post: If this were Trader Joe's, there'd be free samples, I'm just sayin'

[slipjig3]

hypnagogie and I visited our first marijuana dispensary in Maine a few weekends ago, which for a child of the Nancy Reagan era such as myself was an extended exercise in cognitive dissonance. Maine is fully pot-legal, but going to a dispensary still requires a medical weed card. CBD-related products, though, can be bought over the counter with adult ID, and hypnagogie has a chronic pain thing, so off to the hippie wilds of Ye Olde Down East we went to see if some CBD cream would help.

Nothing much to say about the experience, really, which might be the weirdest part of all—medical marijuana proponents are well aware of the image problem they need to throttle, so everything looked healthy (read: like a Minnesota Reiki studio) and smelled healthier (read: like getting groped by a lavender bath bomb). Aside from the ID check at the reinforced doors and a run across the street to the ATM because cash only, natch, everything ran Safeway-smoothly. That, and both customer service folks and the one other guy there all looked like the sorts who use "dude" as conversational punctuation, but that might just be southern Maine talking. Thing was, it was an unremarkable, quotidian transaction that took place at a cabinet with weed in it, which still feels wacky-alternative-timeline to me, the sort of thing in a Doctor Who episode that would make you yell at Russell T. Davies because come on, man. We stepped back into the parking lot with our little brown grocery sack, I looked around and went "...welp, that was a thing that happened," and thus ended the experience. Things change.

Report on CBD cream: didn't work. Booooooo.

Comments

[brujah]

I'm hoping to try the CBD oil for chronic pain, too. They're lobbying, recently, to legalize marijuana for medical use here and I hope I qualify. The CBD oil I can get now, I just have to speak to my hemat team to make sure it's okay for me to use.

Quasi-related: If you have Netflix, you could continue the complete Just Say No culture shock by watching a single episode of Cooking On High.

[slipjig3]

*reads description of Cooking on High*

*blinks*

I...I need to go sit down for a bit....

And I hope the CDB oil works for you. Not sure why it didn't for hypnagogie, but I'm guessing it's Just One of Those Things. (Also, go, legalization, go!)

CBD resistance and liver processes

[flamingsword]

*puts on medical nerd hat*

About 1 in 3 people are resistant to CBD - and we are not sure why. I am one of the unlucky third, of course. Argh, why. Anyway! To make sure that you are giving it a fair shake, make sure that the area you are applying it to has been scrubbed and rinsed off so that any applied CBD cream is not just acting as a moisturizer to a layer of dead skin cells. Make sure that the brand you purchased it from has a website with dosage listed, and independent testing or names a supplier who does have such bona fides.

If you are taking it internally: my mom's doctor took her off CBD when she went on blood thinners because it does mess with your levels of any drug metabolized by the liver, including most heart and vascular medicine. CBD is a big molecule and uses a fair number of the liver's chemical pathways to break down, so it competes with other metabolites and leaves you with slightly higher levels than you should have of those medicines. And doctors can't exactly calculate the dose response, since every liver responds differently to cannabinoids.

Any questions, while you have a huge nerd wandering by?

Re: CBD resistance and liver processes

[slipjig3]

Thank you so much for the info! I suspect the CBD experiments are ending here for now, given the high price point (pun noted but unintentional), but knowing there's a one-in-three chance that she's resistant makes it easier to move on. Your nerddom is greatly appreciated and looked upon with honor, comrade. *bows*

[rubian77]

Can't say I'm surprised that the cream didn't work. I've got a sneaking suspicion that a lot of manufacturers are on the big C bandwagon and cutting corners to increase profits.

There's also a possibility that people have varying levels of cannabinoid receptors, just as they do opioid receptors...for instance, opioids do nothing for me.

[slipjig3]

*nods* flamingsword said something to that effect as well, that some folks are effectively immune (see comment-to-comment above). Oh, well, back to ye olde drawing boarde.

[rubian77]

I see that! Nice to have a little confirmation of a suspicion. ;)

[johncomic]

Hmm yeah, I've tried CBD cream and didn't notice much effect. Gotta say, though, that the one I used smelled really nice and for a long long time.

[slipjig3]

I wonder if it was the same stuff we used. Was yours so far over into the lavender spectrum that it crossed over into the dark chocolate realm?

[johncomic]

Naw, that sounds more intense than my experience. Mine was subtle but had legs.

[atalantapendrag]

I'm super curious about CBD - pot itself isn't legal here, but CBD is - I saw a few CBD products today at the farmers market! But the price tag always puts me off.

[slipjig3]

Yeah, the price point is considerable, and there's the non-zero chance that it'll do nothing. Do they maybe have tester jars you can try? It takes a little while for it to take effect, but that'd still be a way to see if it's worth the cost.