What Happens When a Longtime Sober Person tries CBD for Five Days?
I was never a good stoner.
I did not experience any “high” from smoking marijuana. Instead, I just got paranoid and hungry. So I smoked my last joint in the summer of '87 and have never gone back to it.
For years, I had some very strong opinions about cannabis. I’ve been clean and sober since I was 21 - almost 30 years now -and the general opinion in the recovery world is that marijuana is a drug - like any other illegal drug - that can ruin lives.
In fact, I was so turned off by pot that I once asked a tour manager to pass a note to Willie Nelson asking the singer to join my band for a couple of songs after his show. We were playing upstairs as part of an after-show for the legendary performer's concert in Amsterdam. Even though I had full access to him and really wanted to meet my idol I did not want to stand there marinating in his crew's pot smoke in order to do it. In other words I was willing to give up a meet and greet with Willie in order to avoid a contact high. "No honey," drawled his affable road manager. "You'll have to give him a hug and give it to him yourself."
So I stood there with tendrils of pot smoke spinning slowly around my head shooting the shit with Willie's crew until the coolest person on the planet finally came off the stage after five encores. And thank God that I did because a very smiley Willie gave me the promised hug and posed for a photo that I still treasure to this day. And he seemed like he loved every minute of it, probably thanks in no small part to all that pot.
Skipping forward a decade or so
I've been sick with Lyme for a long time, lost my musical career and my marriage to this dreadful disease that has wasted my body and made it impossible for me to digest food properly and get much nutrition into my system. I've been in pain for a decade. But I'm hopeful now because raw foods are helping me balance my weight and feel better.
One day I meet a woman by a pool in Central Oregon and she begins to tell me about her dispensary in a suburb of Portland. She mentions medical marijuana and my eyes start to glaze over.
I try to relate, telling her that I have Lyme disease and know that people with Lyme are using medicinal marijuana but that I could never do that because I have been clean and sober for 28 years and can't jeopardize my sobriety. She patiently explains that there are new strains of hemp called CBD containing virtually no THC (the psychoactive component of marijuana) and that they do not give you the “high” of THC but can help significantly with pain and low moods/anxiety associated with Lyme and other chronic illnesses. The plants are not even considered marijuana but rather industrial hemp.
I am a little bit interested but file the information away in my brain for a few years.
Then, a few months ago, someone in my little raw foods universe on Facebook posts something about ordering some full spectrum hemp oil (aka CBD) for symptoms like mine. Despite my clean diet and years of various protocols I'm still experiencing some nerve and joint pain and headaches. I order the smallest bottle possible and decide to try it for five days - and then give it to a friend if it doesn't work for me.
It arrives a week later and this is what happened:
Day 1. I break the seal on the bottle and put two drops in my mouth and hold it under my tongue for 90 seconds, per the instructions on the label. Within a few minutes I feel a soft warmth spreading through my body, kind of like ethereal honey coating my nerves. Maybe I'm imagining it? All I know is I'm no longer afraid of this herb. I sense a growing mellowness.
Day 2. I put a full half dropper of the oil under my tongue. This time nothing happens, maybe because the CBD from the day before is still in my system and I already feel pretty good. But as I drive through traffic to pick up kids I notice I am not feeing the normal level of stress. In fact, I'm not sure I'm anxious at all. The drive was actually…relaxing. What the heck is this stuff?
Day 3. I try another half dropper under the tongue. The rush hour drive is uneventful, even placid. It occurs to me that it is not what CBD gives me that is valuable but rather what it takes away. The hemp oil seems to reduce inflammation so that pain is reduced. And it seems to take away the anxiety and the bad moods that come with an inflamed body. I'm also sleeping like a rock.
Day 4. The experiment is going well so I decide to increase my dosage and add another dropper in the afternoon. I continue to feel relaxed and upbeat throughout the day and realize I am no longer experiencing the Lyme-induced numbness and pain that I sometimes would get in my right arm and leg, especially if I’ve been working a lot. This is getting more interesting each day.
Day 5. Two droppers again. Still feel good. No manic “high” that you get with some herbs and no herxheimer reaction that you can get with some Lyme killing supplements. Just a nice mellow feeling throughout the day. Yoga is even more relaxing than it used to be.
The rest of the month.
Over the next month I research more. CBD is short for cannabidiol, the name of the active element in cannabis. But unlike the other active element - THC – there is no psychosis involved when it interacts with the body. So CBD, it seems, is the perfect for my particular constitution, which craves serenity rather than the high. And, the article says that CBD is thought to be as effective as a benzodiazepine (think Ativan or Xanax) minus the pesky side effects.
There's even more exciting news related to Lyme. The short version is that CBD oil is thought to be a powerful anti-inflammatory agent that not only reduces pain but also HEALS the nervous system. And I learned there were people who were using CBD as an antibacterial to kill Lyme. And there seemed to be some science to back that up.
The five-day experiment is over but CBD is the gift that keeps on giving. Among other things, I no longer dread driving and I no longer have daily anxiety. And I no longer judge the cannabis!
This particular CBD has turned out to be a perfect fit for Lava Love line of lava-based products due to the fact that the full spectrum hemp plants that produce the oil are grown in in volcanic soil and because there were a huge variety of terpenes (flavors) available from natural plants that happen to be native to Oregon.
I'm so excited to share Lava Love Full Spectrum CBD oil with the world. If you have any questions please send me an email at the address below or LIKE Lava Love on FB and follow on Instagram and message me there.
Many blessings to you on your healing path!
Elisabeth (links below)
CBD for Lyme
http://www.impactcannabis.org/lyme-disease
Healing benefits of CBD from Dr. Axe (click NO THANKS to read)
https://draxe.com/cbd-benefits/
Lava Love CBD oil website
www.lavaloveusa.com