The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: CBD

  • Solutions: the eco store on the plaza

    Solutions: the eco store on the plaza

    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.

  • Queen Bee of CBD body care

    Queen Bee of CBD body care

    Natural soap line Queen Bee Naturals’ biggest fan is Shannon Kraucyk. Kraucyk met the creator of Queen Bee in high school, where the two became friends and have kept in touch ever since. When she learned her friend was starting a soap line, she was one of the first to try the soaps and she loved them.

    “I’m personally in love with her bath bombs,” Kraucyk said. “It hasn’t affected my eczema, unlike those with harsh fragrance.”

    Violet Crane, 23, started making soap and a plethora of other body products in 2016.

    Crane uses natural materials and fragrances, but her line is known for its CBD oil. Cannabidiol, according to Project CBD, “is a cannabis compound that has significant medical benefits […] and can actually counteract the psychoactivity of THC.” Crane heard and read of its many benefits and healing abilities, and wanted to try it in her products.

    Starting with soap, Crane’s products expanded to bath bombs, shower gel, bubble bars, massage oil, lip balm and other fun products like shower frosting (a fluffy moisturizing shower soap) and “sugar daddy,” which is a body scrub.

    “I think that’s it,” Crane said, speculating the vast varied line of products she has made over the past two years.

    Crane then remembered her face and hair masks, nearly all products made with CBD oil from Humble Roots Medicinal.

    Currently, she sells Queen Bee Naturals at Zen in Arcata, Blue Ox Boutique and Otto + Olive in Eureka. She also has a Facebook page with over 1,100 fans and a group with 1,750 members, where she can directly sell her products, as well as share sneak peaks of her upcoming products. In addition, her fans can post their hauls of her items and bathtub pictures of her bubbly colorful products.

    Having a lot of fans takes dedication and help. Crane not only has a successful small business, she also has two children. Her partner, Danny Corrales, helps her balance her work and family life.

    “I make everything,” Crane said. “He delivers everything and helps with the kids.”

    Their 3-year-old daughter, Ariel, is used to sitting in the car on their weekly ride from Ruth Lake to Humboldt for product delivery. Crane recently had her son, Benjamin, two months ago, and quickly went back to making new products.

    This included a collaboration with Lost Coast Roast, a local coffee roasting business known for their cold brew coffee that she loves. She contacted them, and after talking, she started making soap with their coffee grounds.

    One of the obstacles Crane faced when making her products was copycats. She brought her items into a former friend’s shop to sell. Later, that person started making nearly identical items with CBD oil and using the name Crane put on her items, “CBDQUEEN,” as the name of her product line.

    Crane was then accused of not using legal CBD oil in her products by that person. To prove to that person and her customers, Crane took the CBD oil she uses to the Leaf Detective, a Eureka business that tests cannabis potency. She learned that it contained less than 3 percent THC, and a second test proved to be nearly 0 percent THC.

    “I was hurt at first,” Crane said, “but I’m focusing on bigger things for myself.”

    Crane wants Queen Bee Naturals to grow, not just in Humboldt, but possibly beyond Northern California.

    She wants to have a warehouse with employees to make her products so she could spend more time with her family.

    With the legalization and acceptance of cannabis in California, Crane would like to expand her line to legally put THC in her products and put them in her future dispensary. Queen Bee Naturals is only growing from here.