This is not intended as advice, medical, legal or otherwise, and is to be used solely for educational purposes. See Program Agreement for further disclaimers and release of liability.
Dear People,
Countless numbers of people have found enormous pain relief, safely, using cannabis. We hear about others who have successfully healed their cancers. To my and the entire industry’s knowledge, no one has ever died from using just cannabis. They might have had a terrible, not-soon-forgotten emergency room experience. But they haven’t died. Before the 1920’s-30’s, it was regularly prescribed in small amounts for pain and nervous disorders by family physicians. In the 30’s it became demonized by the Rockefellers and the nascent pharmaceutical industry, eventually making cannabis so illegal and propagandized as evil, people were jailed for the rest of their lifetimes just for having the tiniest amount in their possession. However, it must be used responsibly and with mindful purpose. Some cancers it might aggravate instead of heal. Some people have allergic reactions of various types using cannabis.
So, you see all the disclaimers scattered around my cannabis topics. I hear you. Many are in so much pain, are desperate for relief, and have been around the medical establishments’ merry-go-round so many times that the disclaimers no longer matter. But here on this site, please know that in any of my cannabis topics as you review them and might start doubting again, hold your despair at bay a bit. I want to let you know that even if cannabis also ends up being not for you, this site is loaded with tons of alternatives that so many others have successfully used to reduce their pains WITHOUT any cannabis at all, or with just the slightest amount one time a day. I so encourage you to continue to explore the rest. Perhaps you too will be one of those truly free from all the drugs! Please give yourself a chance.
Cannabinol (CBN) Dangers
CBN, also known as cannabinol, is one of the more than 200 cannabinoids naturally found or formed in the cannabis plant, whether that’s the marijuana cannabis plant or the hemp cannabis plant.
And now it’s currently being marketed along with CBD products as a sleep aid.
CBN can cause SERIOUS sedation and drowsiness!
CBN is formed when THC degrades into it either from excess heat or light.
It has not been well studied. But CBN, especially in combination with a little or a lot of THC, is known to be highly sedative in varying amounts for most people.
That sounds great for people with insomnia! But wait….
The problem is CBN “has not been well studied”. No one knows how much CBN per any individual person can cause the sedation, or how much sedation (can’t wake up?).
No one knows how much THC needs to be combined with CBN to cause the sedation. But there is conjecture that CBN isolate, or pure and only CBN is not so sedating (though it’s also being marketed as a sleep aid!).
Except anecdotally, no one knows it’s other effects, how long it lasts in the body, what happens when it wears off.
And because CBD from hemp is legal in most states, anything that can be wrung out of the hemp plant, extracted and concentrated, has been fair game to the manufacturers of the thousands and thousands of CBD products now in every shop and street corner.
Hemp plants contain THC. Yes, in much smaller amounts than marijuana cannabis, but hemp cannabis has THC. So it’s being extracted. It’s being concentrated. And it’s being degraded to bring out the CBN. And it’s then concentrated again to add into the various products.
And sold as something special in whatever odd mg per serving anyone wants to put on the label or in the product.
What I know about it personally, and have seen other experience is that it makes the medicine “really strong”.
When I talk about storing cannabis medicines out of ANY heat, out of light, never re-heating the Recipe to strain it, that this will change the medicine into something most people will not want, I’m talking about what happens to inactive or activated THC when it’s heated too much, heated a little or a lot again, exposed to light.
It becomes, or some of it, or most of it, who knows…CBN (still combined with some or a little or who knows how much of THC).
Then when someone takes the regular cannabis medicine dose they have worked to acquire with their GO LOW, GO SLOW experiments, their dose that helps the most with the pain with reduced or no THC side effects, wham.
CBN can knock people on their butts. It can cause people to yes, fall asleep but then to be too groggy trying to wake up… after unknown numbers of hours for everybody, that it can be frightening and put people off cannabis as medicine.
From accident (letting the coconut oil harden too much overnight instead of straining it sooner as I describe, and then reheating it to strain it- DON’T DO THAT!) as I was learning to make the Recipe for myself, from being new with cannabis years ago, from no studies being done to watch out about it, I have experienced these problems myself.
I would think, oh, this batch of Recipe is so strong after taking my regular dose. Thinking to myself, well, I’m going to bed so that will be just great.
Only to wake up (thank goodness!) like normal in the night having to pee but unable to open my eyes as I’m stumbling to the bathroom. And then oversleeping, and then being groggy for the first few hours of the next day. This is NOT how cannabis medicine normally works!
So I just point out that CBN is not any miracle drug. Be extremely cautious purchasing it in CBD products and dosing with it.
There just is not enough solid information around it to know what it changes into when ingested and it goes through the gut and liver like what is known about THC and CBD. No one knows how much of it does what to our bodies.
Please use caution when choosing cannabis CBN and other products.
