Get Ready for CBD Week
THC is the most famous molecule found in Cannabis. It is the most abundant cannabinoid found in the plant, and it’s the key ingredient that gets you high. However, people are starting to talk more and more about another major cannabinoid, one that doesn’t get you high, but does have a lot of medicinal potential: cannabidiol, or CBD. In fact, “CBD” has become one of the most highly searched terms on Leafly, and there has been an explosion of research associated with this molecule in recent years (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Total number of CBD-related research studies returned by a PubMed search for each year since 1970. PubMed is a free search engine and database maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. A total of 5,449 CBD-related studies published between 1970 and 2015 appear in the database.
But how does CBD actually work and why does it have so many potential medical applications? This week, in a special series of articles, we’ll begin to explore these questions, focusing on CBD’s actions within the central nervous system and how they relate to its lack of psychoactivity and its potential for aiding the treatment of disorders of motivation, such as anxiety and addiction.
Here’s a preview of what’s ahead:
On Monday, I’ll kick things off with an article about CBD’s actions in the brain, “CBD and the Brain: What does it do and what is it good for?”. After that, Leafly’s deputy editor, Bruce Barcott, will answer the question, “Why is CBD Not Psychoactive?” and we’ll learn even more about CBD biology, and what’s going on in the research world, from a Q&A with Dr. Yasmin Hurd, professor of Neuroscience, Psychiatry, and Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics at Mount Sinai Medical School. Later in the week, Leafly contributing writer Jeremy Kossen will tell us about CBD’s anti-anxiety properties, and Leafly editor and strain expert Bailey Rahn will close off the series by telling us what role CBD might play in the treatment of opioid addiction.
Keep an eye out for other CBD-related content, including strain recommendations and content in our politics section. All of this content will be labeled with a “CBD Week” tag on their graphic (similar to this one).
