A Cannabis Researcher's Perspective on CBD

Wherever you go in the US today, you're likely to see products infused with CBD. There are cosmetics, vape pens, and, of course, the extract itself; there are even CBD-containing sexual lubricants for women which aim to reduce pelvic pain or enhance sensation. CBD has been hailed by some users as having cured their pain, anxiety, insomnia, depression or seizures.

CBD is short for cannabidiol, one of the compounds in the cannabinoid family which is found only in the cannabis plant. THC - short for tetrahydrocannabinoid - is the other highly abundant cannabinoid present in cannabis that's used today. Endocannabinoids play an important role in regulating mood, memory, appetite, stress, sleep, metabolism, immune function, pain sensation, and reproduction. THC is intoxicating and responsible for the "high" of cannabis, but CBD has no such effect. There are areas where they overlap - in preliminary animal studies, THC and CBD exhibit some similar effects, including pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory properties and anti-oxidant and neuroprotective effects. In some early research, they've even shown the ability to inhibit the growth of cancer cells, but years of rigorous studies need to be conducted before we'll know whether they have the same impact on humans.

The strongest evidence we have is that CBD can reduce the frequency of seizures in certain rare pediatric disorders - so much that a CBD-based drug called Epidiolex was FDA-approved in 2018 for this purpose. There is also preliminary human data from small clinical trials with dozens of subjects that suggests CBD may have the potential to be used for conditions like anxiety, schizophrenia, opioid addiction, and Parkinson's disease.

While CBD appears to be generally safe, it still has side effects. In children suffering from severe epilepsy, high doses of CBD have caused reactions such as sleepiness, vomiting and diarrhea. And while CBD use in the short term (from weeks to months) has been shown to be safe, we have no data on what side effects might be present with chronic use (from months to years).

So is CBD a cure-all or a placebo? The answer is: Neither. CBD is an under-investigated compound that has the potential to benefit many conditions. And thanks to a recent surge in research, we'll be learning a lot more about its capabilities and limits in the next five years.