It seems that CBD is everywhere these days, with major
celebrities and everyday consumers alike flocking to CBD products in
unprecedented numbers. The ongoing CBD-craze is so profitable that analysts in
the cannabis industry have argued that CBD products will soon be generating
billions of dollars in economic activity every year, yet many people still have
little to no idea what CBD is, anyway.
Why is everyone taking CBD all of the sudden, and how does
it relate to cannabis? Here’s everything you need to know about taking CBD
products for recreational and medicinal purposes, and why they’ve become so
popular in the past few years.
No, CBD Won’t Get You
High
You can remove “because it gets you high” from the list of
reasons why people are using CBD products. That’s because CBD, unlike
recreational marijuana, doesn’t generate psychoactive effects that create a
“high” sensation in users. This can be confusing to many people, especially
since CBD is often found in conjunction with THC, the well-known cannabinoid found
in marijuana that’s been popular for its psychoactive properties. At the end of
the day, THC and CBD are derived from the same plant (cannabis) but are
actually very different from one another.
Whereas recreational marijuana produces a certain psycho-euphoria
because of its THC-infused nature, CBD is generally calming and soothing in
nature and does not overload the body’s senses. This has made CBD an incredibly
popular target of researchers who want to uncover novel ways to treat age-old
symptoms that have plagued humanity for generations. According
to the Epilepsy Foundation, for instance, CBD is now being harnessed to help
those who suffer from seizures. The cannabinoid has proven so successful with
epilepsy patients that the FDA recently approved of Epidiolex, a plant-based
formulation of CBD, as a treatment method for seizure patients.
Besides being used to treat seizures, CBD is also proving
popular with those who suffer from insomnia and anxiety. Generally speaking,
its calming effects have helped many people find relief from conditions that have
otherwise caused stress and more serious bouts of anxiety. These days, even
major athletes are beginning to endorse CBD products, which is one of the
reasons they’ve been flying off the shelves like hotcakes.
A U.S.A triathlon recently warmly
embraced CBD, according to reporting from the New York Times, demonstrating CBD ability to ease the symptoms of
muscle, back and join pain – in addition to its stress relieving properties. Whereas
cannabis was widely shunned in the world of sports just a few years ago, CBD’s
growing popularity is helping accelerate its mainstream potential.
Growing Popularity
The fact that CBD is free from THC, and will not case users
to fail a drug test or bring about a ‘high’, is exactly why it’s so popular in
the first place. Whereas many people are uncomfortable with recreational
cannabis, they’re perfectly willing and even eager to embrace CBD’s practically
side-effect free medical benefits. Similarly, the widespread eagerness with
which consumers met the earliest CBD providers led many entrepreneurs to jump
right into the market. As a result of that commercial explosion, CBD products
are now available in a huge variety of forms, from oil to shakes to creams and
shampoos, further enabling their spread to new consumers.
Companies like CBDMedic
and Endoca have sprung up to offer people
CBD tinctures, oils, lotions, salves, creams, edibles, and vaporizers, for
instance. CBDMedic, for example, has also recently partnered with NFL legend
Rob Gronkowski who says the products are a game-changer for muscle and join
pain management. It can be mind-boggling to assess just how many CBD products
are really out there these days, given that just a few years ago cannabis was
still widely prohibited across the United States and carried with it an immense
social stigma that’s decades old. Given that the American public is rapidly
warming up to recreational cannabis, however, we can expect both
recreational THC-infused marijuana and medicinal CBD products to keep catching
on in the near-future.
Between athletic sponsorships, their widespread availability
on digital marketplaces, and the decay of the social stigma that once
prohibited users from openly talking about their cannabis usage, CBD products
are more popular now than ever before. Everyone seems to be taking CBD, and
it’s fast-becoming an accepted part of the mainstream marketplace. As time goes
on, we can expect CBD to become more widely embraced across the world.