Did anyone have any positive results with CBD products?

THC is illegal, at least for now. That's what they're aiming to change at the moment.

It truly matters who you source it from, biggest lesson someone new needs to learn

Really it depends on the results you are looking for. I think the THC portion helps my wife with the "forget about the pain" part, but what she makes for me is substantially higher CBD. Technically all of it has some percentage of CBD and some percentage of THC, it's a sliding scale depending on the strain, and what I use is nothing like what she uses. So you probably want to start out with strains that are much higher in CBD, especially if you have to go to work while medicating, and see what effect that has for you. What worked for me was taking more and more until I felt the effects, then backing off and realizing I didn't really need that much. It's probably similar to diabetics, knowing where their blood-sugar is at and if they eat a certain thing it will balance them out without needing a shot, you just figure out over time what helps you, and just like any other medication taking too much has negative side effects. Luckily with THIS medication you can't take enough to actually kill you.

Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention... If you are taking edibles, then already having food in your stomach will have an effect on the results, most notably taking longer to do anything. And different strains can also kick in at different speeds. Since I eat my cookie after dinner, it takes around two hours before it actually starts to do anything. If I ate one on an empty stomach it could be 30 minutes or less. Previous food also makes it ramp up slower, meaning that I might start to feel some effects from the THC portion, but I wouldn't be able to go to sleep yet because the CBD portion hasn't really started working yet. Hope that makes sense? You may not have noticed the effects when you tried CBD before because maybe it took longer than you expected to start working so you weren't paying any attention by that time?

Of course if you don't already have some decent experience with it, then it's best to start on the weekend so you don't have to do something crazy like drive to work the next morning. It's possible to get to the point where you can take higher THC strains later in the day -- there are telltale signs that let you know when it's not safe to do things that might be dangerous, but again this takes a lot of experience and the ability to stop and honestly evaluate your current state. The problem here is that it will literally sneak up on you without any warning. I can be sitting at my computer for hours after eating a cookie, writing code or doing something else that requires some pretty focused thought, and have no idea the cookie ever kicked in... Then I stand up to go to the bathroom and realize I can't keep my balance without hanging on to the wall! Even with mine, while I was learning the effects there were a couple mornings I had to call in sick because I could feel that off-balance still nagging at me and didn't want to take any risks. Sorry I keep mentioning this but you definitely want to be careful so nobody gets hurt.

Online store. It's Finnish and CBD's not strictly speaking legal here, but it's not exactly illegal either and authorities have outright said they don't know wtf they should be doing with this stuff – so they have the label "small batch collectible product, not for consumption" on their products to cover their asses 😄

Absolutely. I am glad I did the research myself and stumbled across this fact, because when I was prescribed this drug I bought a lot of CBD chocolates, thinking they would help. I was surprised that sooooooooo many prescribed medications use CYP3A4 as a pathway to enter the body, and how this isn't discussed more often. I really haven't seen very much discussion at all about how CBD can inhibit the effectiveness of a whole host of prescription drugs.

Anyway, cheers, glad to be sharing the info!

If your medication says to avoid grapefruit, then you probably should not take CBD

I didn't even make that connection, but yeah, exactly! Grapefruit inhibits the exact same enzyme. That's a really good way to know, I'm going to add that to my post.

Pain is a really interesting thing, and there's an undeniably subjective aspect of it. My wife has had a chronic pain condition since 2008, and one thing I've noticed it's that her pain is worse when she's stressed, PMSing, or whatever. There's no objective way to measure pain, and I think at least part of what's happening is that her ability to deal with one level of pain gets better or worse depending on her mental state.

I think of it like going out and finding you have a flat tire. If there's not much going on, you're not rushed, you had a good night's sleep, etc., you might just think "Well, that's annoying," and deal with it. If you're sleep deprived, your kid is sick, and you're under a bunch of pressure at work, you might just want to sit on the curb and cry. Same situation, but your ability to deal with it is different.

Pain is like that, I think. If you're in a bad place, things seem to hurt more because your ability to deal with the pain is less.

Okay I'm freshman enough to this topic to ask: how do you know what balance you aim for with regards to pain killing?

I think the important distinction here is the percentages of THC present with whatever you're taking.

If you and @danielton are just talking about getting stoned with cannabis, well yeah it's going to get you high.

If you guys are talking about taking CBD compound supplements with THC present, that's very different. THC at low percentages have little to no actual psychoactive effects (talking sub 10% which is way higher than any CBD-specific product can legally be sold as). THC only acts as a catalyst in this fashion.

CDB, CBG, CBC, and CBN, which all occur in different stages of degradation of the THC and CBD compound molecules. CBN is one of the last stages of degradation of THC and is associated with the almost-narcoleptic like sleep and is generally responsible for times that weed knocks you out, which is what I'm guessing happens for you! Not to be one of those vocal enjoyers, moreso highlighting the science behind why you felt the way you have with various strains. It's certainly the high doses of THC affecting you, but without any CBD compounds there's nothing to ease the THC.

It's similar to how we can take an NSAID and an analgesic. Of course we can just have one or the other to get the specific effect, but taking them combined delivers a wider range of effects that go beyond what they were originally meant for. edit The difference is that we have an endocannabinoid system that's meant to be active and using these theoretically helping prevent the issues in the first place - whereas NSAID and analgesics something we take as a suppressive.

Good to know. I tried three different types of it three different times, and one hit and my anxiety was ramped up to 1000. I hated every minute of it.

People I know all tell me marijuana is this universal Good Thing™ that mellows everybody out so I definitely felt like a freak of nature.

Funny you should say that. She was prescribed Xanax in the short term to get her to the point where we could find a long term solution. And much like you described, it was great for the few hours after she took it. But her body craved more after that, and it made it so she couldn't sleep without it. It completely fucked her mood. It was awful and terrifying. She got off of it, but it was a long and painful process. We luckily had an amazing friend who had gone through the same thing come live with us for 2 months to help take care of her. And the doctors were so good about giving her a weaning plan.

She's now on an antidepressant as a long term solution. Idr which type. And she has been off Xanax for 9 months.

I have not. As I eluded to, I haven’t tried any of the news classes of drugs, as I found something that worked well for me, before they became available.

I was in the same boat though. I’ve seen more neurons than I can count over my multiple decades of life, and all of them just throw their hands up and say they tried but can’t help me. The last one, left it as you’ll do Botox or I’m done with you.

Thankfully, for me, I just need to have small hit every night ( not enough to even see psychoactive effects) to mostly keep them away.

As for abortive, there are a few strains I know will almost always stop anything in its tracks, and if for some reason it doesn’t, well being stoned out of my gourd works too.

Honestly, I don’t even need to get stoned for it to help. Just a small puff off the vape, once a day, and I’m good to go. I haven’t bothered to try playing with the not thc stuff.

The rare instance a migraine starts, at least weed is an incredibly predictable thing. A migraine can range from “eh I can power through” to “hmmm Half the vision in my right eye is gone”. I’ll take being stoned lol.

proviso: I am not medically trained and most of what I’ve picked up has been informally through the American cannabis communities and legalization efforts

and options for dealing with pain in the US are a hot topic item – you need a medical professional that is knowledgeable about ALL the options but doctors get their licensing at the federal level, not the state level, so they risk their license to even talk about cannabis

from what I’ve stumbled across, opioids work better on acute pain (ex. fractures) and cannabinoids work better on chronic pain (ex. fibromyalgia, stress) – ie. cannabis will help with aches and tension, allowing you to get a night’s sleep – but for direct pain from the fracture, you might be stuck with NSAIDs which have their own slew of issues

I know almost nothing about the other pain systems, but Wikipedia generally has some good starting points

• cannabinoid
  • “Before the 1980s, cannabinoids were speculated to produce their physiological and behavioral effects via nonspecific interaction with cell membranes, instead of interacting with specific membrane-bound receptors. The discovery of the first cannabinoid receptors in the 1980s helped to resolve this debate. These receptors are common in animals. Two known cannabinoid receptors are termed CB₁ and CB₂, with mounting evidence of more. The human brain has more cannabinoid receptors than any other G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) type.”
• endocannabinoid system
  • “The Endocannabinoid System (ECS) regulates many functions of the human body. The ECS plays an important role in multiple aspects of neural functions, including the control of movement and motor coordination, learning and memory, emotion and motivation, addictive-like behavior and pain modulation, among others.”
  • CB₁ receptor
  • CB₂ receptor

• most people (depending on tolerance) don’t notice much psychoactive effect from THC below ~5mg
• from Wikipedia, it looks like in Germany you have to get a medical pass to get access to whole cannabis or THC
• you will get a similar reaction from doctors in the US
  • in the US, doctors are licensed at the federal level, cannabis is legalized at the state level – doctors risk their license even talking about cannabis regardless of its legality in the state they operate in – no trained professional is going to risk their livelihood
  • most of the world is still victim of the US’s “reefer madness” propaganda campaign (thanks to Nixon and his “War on Drugs”) and it still bears the stigma of “the devil’s weed” – so, unless you find someone knowledgeable, you can expect the attitude of “asking for a roofie” to be the standard response

Weed in jar. Jar in freezer. 190 proof ethanol in freezer. Next day- mix, shake, freezer for one Netflix show, strain through strainer, strain through cheesecloth or coffee filter. Use an electric (NOT GAS!) appliance (rice cooker, crock pot, air fryer, dehydrator, or fan) to evaporate the alcohol. When you have a dark, sticky goo, add a little coconut oil for viscosity and heat to 250f, stirring occasionally until the tiny carbonation bubbles slow down.

Germany allows max 0.2% THC. Ie. might as well have no THC at all.

Realistically, I think CBD oil sold in much of Europe is a scam because of similar regulation.

You're better off buying actual weed, but adjusting the dose, than wasting your money on what they sell in health shops here.

IRC you can't even buy CBD oil with a significant amount of THC in Germany.

Honestly, if you live near the border with NL or know someone, you're better off smoking a joint or making some brownies, or buying actual cannabis oil with THC from time to time. It'll make you high if you take too much, but IME does actually work unlike CBD alone which has little scientific evidence of working.

Sure, drugs bad. But honestly, weed is far less dangerous than alcohol. IME also tends to wear off after max 4 hours even if you smoked far too much, unlike alcohol where you can be slightly drunk the next day, not notice, and end up driving drunk. Ibuprofen really isn't great used longterm. Neither is paracetamol. Be careful about interactions with other medication though.

Buy some actual cannabis oil, make some brownies, experiment how much is needed to get you high. Take a little less than that.

And hope Germany fully legalizes soon. Even if you never use weed, if some people smoke a joint rather than drink, it'll result in less vomit and fighting.

So I use CBG/CBD/CBN to get thru life

Mostly it’s for anxiety and stomach stuff but the inflammatory stuff is a great help as well.

But specifically for pain, I am unfortunately one of those people who gets kidney stones naturally (my whole family does). I almost exclusively drink water with citrus but no true escape. Anyway, I have been working a stone thru my ureter for the last 6 months or so and let me tell it it can be excruciating. Many ER visits many opioids etc. but the docs will not give you any pain meds unless you go to the ER, and what they give you spans a week max if you’re lucky.

In comes CBD and kratom, which have helped me greatly with managing the pain that comes with existing with a stone or two in a ureter smaller than said stone.

With the entourage effect CBG will potentiate CBD and together they have been a huge factor for my pain. CBN has been huge for my sleep as well

90 seconds of CBD tincture under the tongue and then another 90 of CBG and in minutes comes relief. It’s no opioid but it’s not nothing either. You mileage WILL vary but do not be discouraged!! Try different manufacturers, different cannibinoids (CBG/CBN/etc), different combinations of them, we each have a unique body which makes these things more complex than just swallow any kind of cbd

Thanks internet stranger, yes I'm not drinking anymore.

So now I'm remembering I had something wrong with my foot, or some sort of swelling somewhere. And it did help relieve the pain, but personally I wouldn't take it again for that because of the hangover.

Maybe, but ya know drugs affect everyone differently, and I can tell you it 100% felt like a hangover - like drinking, not like something I needed.

Well, the few times I tried THC I always have been invited, so I don't know the ratio. And the CBD I sometimes get is from Austria. They never said anything about THC on it, if I'm not mistaken. But from what I know, only female pants produce the THC, so it should always have been as THC reduced as the plant can grow it.

Edit: was hard to read, I made the sentences more easy on the eye.

Edit 2: just realized you're a Feddit.de user, too!

I refer to them as the CBD compounds. Like you said, these work with the entourage effect and so having just one isn't nearly as effective as getting the full, or at least a wider, spectrum.

Yeah I think I forgot these details haha

Thanks for clearing this up

It does for me, but I use pretty small amounts and not every day. Also, i have flower in all different strengths and i mix it up a lot. My son takes two hits on a 1:1 CBD:THC four times per day and says that amount works for him without needing to increase.