CBD is Cannabis' new Queen - Is THC relevant?

von Constance Finley

In 2013, I wrote a blog that is still frequently read: “CBD for Sale but Who Needs It?” . Who needs it are people with anxiety, migraines, low grade pain, ADHD, bipolar disease, menstrual cramps, depression, etc. CBD is proving to be a broadly useful compound even when separated from its natural cohort THC. CBD’s structure was discovered by Raphael Mechoulam in 1963, about the same time his group identified THC’s molecular structure. For decades, THC was the only face of cannabis. Now, in 2018, CBD is the Queen of the cannabinoids, nudging THC off center stage.

In 2009 and 2010, when I bought the first fragile trays of Harlequin clones, a CBD rich strain that was the first we had access to in Northern California, Harborside Dispensary Oakland staff gave me several free each time, “nobody wants these anyway – we can’t sell them”, they said apologetically. At ICRS last year in Montreal or at IACM in Cologne this winter, the number of CBD research abstracts equals or exceeds those on THC. CBD is now ruling over her brother THC with a heavy hand.

Why? Puritanical, restrictive forces throughout the world that distrust psychoactivity, mistakenly equating it with escapist pleasure only, unabashedly push unscientific notions of harm from THC. Forced to look at the dramatic healing occurring from cannabis compounds, they opt for pushing CBD forward as a solution to their discomfort. In effective misrepresentations and distortions of fact, CBD is posited to be the “good” part of cannabis and THC the “bad”. CBD is definitely the “good part” of cannabis, as is THC and about 110 other minor cannabinoids, whose identity and benefits are just now being discovered and utilized.

Psychoactivity makes rigid people and systems uncomfortable. The evidence and proof of cannabis’ positive effect on mammalian health poses quite a quandary to the repressive agenda. Promoting CBD without THC is a position conservative groups support, but it will be tragic if the evidence of cannabis excludes the medicinal workhorse of the whole plant, and specifically THC, because it makes people uncomfortable. As I discussed recently in Tel Aviv at CannaTech, we will fail, if we don’t allow broad based use of THC.

Constance Therapeutics approves of CBD, THC, and many other lesser known cannabinoids that make up the Whole Plant Cannabis Extracts that we pioneered over the last decade. Modern clinical herbalists unlocked methodology of whole plant exploration. When I began studying cannabis and working with it in 2008, I looked to herbal knowledge and practice to guide me in learning how to concentrate the bioactive compounds in the plant for healing. Thankfully, that knowledge educated me about the difference in approach between synthetically derived and isolated compounds in traditional allopathic drugs, the medicines your doctor prescribes and the ones you buy in a pharmacy. The philosophy of pharmaceutical research is that one isolated compound, reproduced usually from petrochemicals into a molecularly identical entity, that will do ONE thing in a mammalian body, is in contrast to that of clinical herbalism, in which synergy is described. Synergy illustrates that a plant-based compound can be highly effective in affecting a medical condition or a biological process. If one of the multiple active bio compounds in the extract is removed, the compound can be rendered completely inert. For instance, 20 active ingredients may help dramatically, but 19 of those substances do nothing without the 20th. The 20th does nothing by itself, either. In cannabis research we have come to call this “The Entourage Effect”. Ben-Shabat coined the term in talking about researching cannabis and that the compounds in the plant were more efficacious when allowed to exist naturally, together.

Ethan Russo, past Medical Director of GW Pharma, popularized the term in cannabis science. Roger Pertwee’s brilliant research at the University of Edinburgh illustrates it brightly. Professor Pertwee showed whole plant extracts to definitively trump phyto and endocannabinoids and even more so synthetically reproduced cannabinoids against glioblastoma cancer cell lines in vitro.

In a 2009 review of synergy research in plant medicine, investigators found a rationale for the apparent “pharmacological and therapeutic superiority of many [herbal drug combinations in traditional medicine] in comparison to isolated single constituents.” They define four basic mechanisms of whole plant extract synergy that can be applied to cannabis.

As MedicalJane.com reports, these are the

• Ability to affect multiple targets within the body

• Ability to improve the absorption of active ingredients

• Ability to overcome bacterial defense mechanisms

• Ability to minimize adverse side effects

One of the most satisfying accomplishments in my life occurred when I successfully extracted CBD rich cannabis concentrates and experienced potent focusing, rather than euphoria producing cannabis extracts with a profile of helpfulness distinct from that of THC’s. I will be very disappointed if I and my company Constance Therapeutics, as pioneers of CBD and medicinal THC extracts are not able to carry the message to you, the emerging consumers of modern evidence based cannabis, that THC is the workhorse of cannabis and the worthy partner in any whole plant CBD extract. Imperceptible levels of THC vastly improve the efficacy of CBD rich products. Our California legal CBD rich extract is the 20:1 ratio, with which we pioneered, it consists of 68% CBD and 3.07% THC. Consumers don’t experience the “high” of the THC but they do experience the efficacy of its synergy – vastly improving the results of the CBD.

It’s time for the King and Queen of Cannabis to be allowed to play together again. Whole plant extracts containing meaningful amounts of both THC and CBD make both cannabinoids more effective in humans. If you live where you can legally purchase THC, try a CBD extract with at least 3% THC. The synergy of cannabis will amaze you!