CBD products and their benefits
The Arcata plaza is a quirky place. The stores that surround it each have their own flare, and no two are alike. Of those stores on the plaza, that definitely screams the image of Humboldt is “Solutions.” Solutions is an eco-store that has been there since 1990 and is owned and operated by Kevin Johnson.
“Everything we have here is the more eco version of a toxic version [of a product],” Johnson said. “Whatever can be made with CBD, we’re trying to have.”
Cannabis has been the talk of the town, especially after legalization, more specifically is cannabidiol, also known as CBD. CBD oils have been proven to be a natural remedy that has started to become more popular. To put it simply, CBD and tetrahydrocannabinol or THC are different from each other but come from the same plant. THC is the psychoactive, mind-altering compound of cannabis, but CBD is an extraction from hemp and is anti-inflammatory. According to healthline.com, CBD has been proven to help with inflammation (especially in seniors), controlling pain, nausea and mental disorders.
“What people are doing now is they are taking hemp plant varieties, crossing it with the cannabis and breeding the CBD up and the THC down,” Johnson said.
Because CBD is gaining popularity, the people that grow to make these different products have altered the way they grow the marijuana plant, knowing that many people prefer the non-psychoactive part of the plant.
HSU art history major Sam Oetinger, said he has never personally bought CBD oil but has used it in the past with his lacrosse teammates after games.
“We felt that it helped with muscle soreness and recovery,” Oetinger said.
However, the repeating argument that goes into CBD is that the success stories outnumber the actual scientific evidence. There are many people that swear by CBD and cannabis as a whole, but because it is still so unknown there are yet to be studies done that weigh out the benefits and the drawbacks.
Miles Kinman is an environmental studies major at HSU. Kinman said that his family uses CBD oil as a less expensive alternative medication to help with his sister’s arthritis.
“My sister had side effects from arthritis medication combined with other meds which she doesn’t have to deal with when using CBD,” Kinman said.
CBD comes in many variations; Kevin Johnson explained that Solutions carries lotions, cosmetics, chocolates and some fabrics made from hemp. Despite CBD being a controversy, the plant itself is a more sustainable form of creating these products as opposed to unsustainable factories.
