Thursday, April 23, 2015

Hyper weed vs sleepy weed (head high vs couch-lock high): CBN pills as an alternative to marijuana for sleep?

For those of you who have smoked various kinds of marijuana, you will understand this post's title.  To explain it simply to those who haven't experienced the difference:  some batches of marijuana will make you energetic, clear-headed/focused, and motivated while others will make you want to sleep, not think very well(in some cases you will feel stupefied), and pretty lazy.  It is often a misconception that all weed smokers become lazy right after they smoke, when it depends on certain variables.  Though, in essence of how the body metabolizes and responds to certain cannabinoids, some degree of sedation and a kind of "winding down" will usually happen.

Why does this happen?  Well, to put it simply: depends on the strain, growing and harvesting practices, and age and storage of the final product itself.  Different strains have different phytocannabinoid profiles.  A perfect example of this is the difference between: the high THC % + low CBD % type strains (psychotropic strains) and the low THC % + high CBD % type strains (commonly called hemp).  I've seen a recently emerging trend of selective breeding transitioning from favoring THC strains to THC:CBD:CBN (1:1:1) strains (which is nothing terribly new, just more prominent and profitable now).  Growing and harvesting techniques gets complicated as you address the different variables that can affect the plant's phytocannabinoid profile.  Easiest way to explain this is to demonstrate the diverse "tricks" that can be employed to manipulate a plant.  Generally, it's a pretty terrible idea to shock or cause excessive trauma to any plant, but in some instances, it can be a great thing for cannabis.  Some examples for vegetative plants are: trauma and shock early in a cannabis plants life can kill it or even shift it's sexual preference (generally cannabis favors hermaphroditic, both reproductive parts, identity and various common environmental mistakes can induce this-hermaphrodites and males generally contain far less THC);  mistakes involving water, fertilizer, temperature, neglect, or light can severely stunt a plant, leading to its death or making it difficult to work with and possibly affecting yields;  even the wrong kind of light (poor intensity and/or color/composition) will ruin a grower's crop.  Those were some problems with growing a plant and can also affect the composition and amount in the yield, but here are some nifty tricks for making a superior end product:  light timing manipulation (you can easily trick the plants into working harder during the flowering stage, increasing mass and quality); light composition (HPS, high pressure sodium, lights are the kind we use to light streets, and though, when used as the sole source of light, usually increases the weight of the harvest it isn't the best if you want more resin and a higher potency final product; use MH, metal halide, lights or another configuration that provides enough UV-B light); the list goes on and on.  Another trick used to produce a final product with a purple coloring (yes, some strains do it anyway) is careful treatment of the plant in a certain point in the flowering stage with cool air (notice I said cool and not cold) and increasing potassium levels in the fertilizer can also do this, but that method is undesirable.  All these things can affect chemistry, quality, and yields.  The THC-killer is this part: THC degrades to CBN and many factors shift the reaction to be more favorable of CBN; like havesting too late, storing final product improperly (ie. UV-intensive light, heat, air, time, or a combination of those).  There is so much more I didn't mention because there is so much and would entail writing a book and not a blog post.

I'm sure you're thinking- What about CBN pills.  CBN is a very sedating component in poorly managed cannabis and unless you live somewhere that you can buy it you best bet is to force the degradation of THC in the cannabis you can locate it (CBN is not scheduled and is available in US states that have legalized cannabis enough, BUT even though it's not specifically mentioned in the Controlled Substance Act and doesn't get you high, the chemical structure is similar enough to THC to qualify it as "implied" illegal in the Federal Analogue Act.  Not to mention, most CBD oil products are, by virtue of having ANY THC, also illegal(lower than 0.3% is overlooked, but more than 0% is technically illegal).  A thing to remember is that the "umbrella law" nature of the FAA can be argued in your favor in some cases.  These CBN pills are offered exclusively to those who live somewhere that there is some level of protection to use them.  There isn't a lot of information about how effective they are, but if they work at all, it sure would beat the medicines a doctor might put you on.  But take it with face value, you won't know if a CBN pill will really work for you until you try it.

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