New Year, new you – everyone attempt to do a personal make-over with resolutions. The most popular include:
Improve fitness.
Improve finances.
Lose weight
Make more time for loved ones
Stop smoking
The 5th one is very common, since millions still smoke cigarettes, unfortunately it is also one of the hardest to keep. Tobacco is one of the top causes of heart disease and cancer and causes a variety of lung ailments. In the U.S. alone, more than 40 million adults have a nicotine addiction. Worse yet, tobacco addiction therapies don’t seem to be efficient, for the most part.
Smoking cessation drugs don’t bring assured results in the long run. But there is a promising solution to this problem. CBD (cannabidiol) is an active ingredient derived from the hemp plant and widely used for medical purposes today. So can it cope with tobacco addiction? How to quit smoking cigarettes with the help of CBD oil? Read further to find all this out.
Is CBD Addictive?
As most of us know, smoking marijuana leads to addiction. Is CBD addictive then? In reality, it’s not. Cannabidiol belongs to non-toxic cannabis ingredients and doesn’t alter your brain function. Therefore, you can’t develop a CBD addiction. Additionally, cannabidiol can alleviate the psychoactive effects of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the main active ingredient of recreational marijuana.
How CBD Helps You Quit Smoking
Photo by Michal Wozniak via Unsplash
1. CBD Battles Tobacco Withdrawal Symptoms
Nicotine is as addictive as hard drugs like cocaine. That’s why it’s so hard to quit smoking. Once you try to cease this deadly habit, you will face an almost impenetrable barrier of withdrawal symptoms. It’s not just the urge for another cigarette. Tobacco withdrawal develops within several days and involves headaches, increased appetite and irritability, anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure, and depression.
The worst part is that you may feel this nightmare for weeks. If it was easy to withstand this period, smoking would not become a global concern.
So how can CBD help you overcome nicotine addiction? The matter is that CBD regulates the sleep/wake cycle, pain, mood, and satiety. It combats headaches, promotes restful sleep, and regulates blood pressure. Given that, CBD can relieve some physical symptoms of nicotine withdrawal, helping you get through this period without much struggle.
2. CBD Cigarettes Can Ease Tobacco Cravings
You pull out a cigarette from the pack, light it, and take a peaceful, long, and warm puff. You have been doing this for years, day after day. Stopping this is unimaginable: this ritual is engraved in your mind. It’s a part of your identity. But you could try a CBD cigarette instead of a regular one if you feel a desperate urge to smoke. It can become your first step toward overcoming tobacco addiction. Additionally, CBD prevents most nicotine withdrawal symptoms from devastating your body and mind.
Therefore, you can preserve the smoking habit while replacing regular cigarettes with a much healthier alternative. It’s much easier to quit smoking this way than just bring a sudden drastic change to your routine.
Photo by Irina Kostenich via Unsplash
3. CBD Helps You Relax
Cannabidiol has evident, well-studied anxiolytic properties. Both animal and human studies show that CBD reduces anxiety equally to diazepam, a common sedative drug. For instance, CBD brings relief to people with public speaking anxiety. Also, cannabidiol shows immense efficiency against post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
All in all, it’s a powerful stress-relieving supplement that will help you cope with panic attacks and depression resulting from smoking cessation.
4. CBD Reduces Cigarette Consumption
Researchers revealed a direct dependence between CBD intake and cigarette consumption. Thus, a study showed that tobacco-dependent individuals reduced cigarette consumption by an impressive 40% while taking CBD. Furthermore, CBD minimizes the pleasure of smoking cigarettes. In other words, nicotine won’t give you that pleasure if you take CBD.
Another study has shown smokers who took CBD felt less motivated to smoke cigarettes.
Under this trial, 30 smokers took 800 mg of CBD after overnight cigarette abstinence. The participants reported that they felt less pleasure from watching other people smoking. In other words, it was easier for the participants to ignore cigarette stimuli.
As for cigarette cravings and withdrawal, there was no significant difference between CBD and placebo treatment whatsoever.
However, researchers investigated short smoking abstinence periods (11 hours). It’s an insufficient time for the most physical nicotine withdrawal symptoms to occur. It might be a possible reason for such observations on CBD efficiency against tobacco withdrawal within this study.
Photo by an dooley via Unsplash
How to Take CBD for Tobacco Addiction
So, as we’ve found out, CBD helps you quit smoking. But how to take cannabidiol to overcome nicotine addiction? Here’s a step-by-step guide:
Choose High-Quality Products
There is one rule you should always follow: buy CBD cigarettes, tinctures, vape oils, and other products from reliable and reputable brands. For this, you have to check:
The THC content in each product. It must be less than 0.3%.
The hemp source. Prioritize brands with in-house hemp fields in the US or Western Europe.
Certifications and drug tests. It’s always better to choose certified products that meet the US hemp cultivation standards and undergo regular third-party lab tests.
Adjust CBD Doses Gradually
‘How much CBD should I take to combat my tobacco addiction?’, you may ask. The accurate dosage depends on your metabolism, weight, and the intensity of cigarette withdrawal complications like headaches, poor sleep, high blood pressure, etc.
Thus, you should consult your practitioner to decide on the initial dose and increase it slowly for better results. You can start with 12-15 mg of CBD per day to see how your body reacts to cannabidiol. If such a dose works fine for you, you can begin taking more CBD to reduce salience of cigarette stimuli.
CBD can become a viable solution for cigarette quitters. First, cannabidiol fights several tobacco withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, insomnia, headaches, and high blood pressure. Second, it helps you ignore cigarette cues. Third, CBD cigarettes can become a temporary healthy alternative to regular cigarettes on your way to smoking cessation.
Finally, CBD reduces stress, helping you cope with the emotional pressure. Given that, CBD is your option to break the suffocating chains of addiction and breathe freely in all senses of this word.
States are starting to scramble with looming budget deficients, but marijuana is a boon to some – especially one state.
The new federal administration is revamping how the government operates. With Doge, they are changing agencies and reducing services and support of states, which has left budget deficients in many. But some states have legal marijana and it has been a boon, for like alcohol…people are still consuming. States who are fully legal are making more money on weed than booze and this state’s cannabis revenue keeps pouring in. Missouri, the show me state, is being shown unexpected revenue.
“Due to a strong cannabis market and effective, efficient regulation of that market,” Amy Moore, director of the Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation, told The Independent this week, “the funds available for the ultimate beneficiaries of the cannabis regulatory program continue to outpace expectations.”
Funds will help veterans and other key projects. The other benefit is as seen in data from legal states, teen use is down so it frees up some other funds. Legal states are seeing benefits from legal cannabis including lower teen use and crime reduction.
States with legal cannabis are experiencing a significant boost in tax revenue, surpassing those generated by alcohol sales. This trend highlights the economic benefits of marijuana legalization, as cannabis markets expand and mature.
In California, cannabis excise taxes have consistently outperformed alcohol-related taxes, bringing in over double the revenue. Colorado has seen even more striking results, with marijuana tax revenues totaling seven times those of alcohol. Similarly, Massachusetts has collected more tax revenue from marijuana than alcohol since fiscal year 2021, marking a notable shift in state finances.
Nationally, legal cannabis states generated nearly $3 billion in excise taxes on marijuana in 2021—20% more than alcohol taxes. By 2024, total adult-use cannabis tax revenue exceeded $20 billion, with states like Illinois and Washington reporting record-breaking contributions. Illinois alone collected $451.9 million from cannabis taxes in fiscal year 2022—one-and-a-half times the revenue from alcohol.
The funds are being put to good use. States like Illinois are channeling marijuana tax dollars into mental health services and community programs, while Colorado has invested nearly $500 million into public education. California has allocated millions to nonprofits addressing the impacts of the war on drugs.
This growing revenue stream underscores the potential of cannabis legalization to support vital public services and bolster state economies. As more states embrace regulated marijuana markets, the financial benefits are expected to continue flourishing.
Not everyone has access to marijuana to help them sleep – good news, hemp is available.
it’s estimated 50 to 70 million Canadian and American adults experience sleep disorders or disturbances, and about one-third of adults don’t regularly get the recommended amount. Hemp has emerged as a promising natural remedy for those seeking better sleep. With its calming properties and potential to address various sleep-related issues, hemp-derived products are gaining popularity among individuals looking to improve their rest. Here is how hemp helps you sleep.
Hemp contains several compounds contributing to better sleep quality. Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive component of hemp, has shown potential in promoting relaxation and reducing anxiety, which can often interfere with a good night’s rest. Studies suggest that CBD may help individuals fall asleep faster and experience fewer sleep disturbances throughout the night.
When formulated and used properly, preliminary research and user reports suggest that hemp gummies improve subjective sleep quality. Users of quality hemp sleep gummies report feeling more rested, a better quality of sleep and fewer awakenings in the night. However, clinical research has shown that over consumption of THC negatively impacts the quality of sleep, especially with long term use.
Wana Brands has launched a hemp sleeping product nationally, Mike Hennesy, Vice President of Innovation shared the following about how it works. Naturally hemp-derived sleep gummies contain the same cannabinoids like CBD, CBN, and THC as cannabis or marijuana. These ingredients interact with receptors in the body’s endocannabinoid system, which plays a role in regulating mood, stress, and sleep-wake cycles. For example, CBD may promote relaxation and reduce anxiety, CBN can relieve discomfort and reduce awakenings, while THC can shorten the time it takes to fall asleep, especially at low doses. Together, they may help ease the mind and body into a sleep-ready state.
The best sleep products don’t rely on just one cannabinoid like CBN but instead use a combination of cannabinoids, terpenes, and other sleep-supporting ingredients such as melatonin. This is because the reasons for sleeplessness are multifaceted, and include trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, chronic, pain and anxiety. Each ingredient targets different root causes as well as synergizes with the other cannabinoids and terpenes for the best night sleep.
Longer lasting formulations can actually help reduce awakenings in the night. CBN has been shown in recent research to reduce the number of times you wake up in the night. Combined with other cannabinoids they can synergize to reduce discomfort and anxiety helping consumers stay asleep.
If you do wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep products including CBD and CBG to reduce middle of the night anxiety and racing thoughts that can keep us awake, and they have only 1mg of THC so you wake up refreshed and not high in the morning.
For most people, hemp-derived cannabinoids are considered safe and non-intoxicating, with a low risk of dependence. When THC is included in small amounts, it can produce mild effects and can help us fall asleep faster. It generally poses a minimal risk when used in moderation, but there is a potential for dependence if overused, just like with any sleep aid. Adverse events are far more prevalent in pharmaceutical and even over the counter sleep aids than with hemp-derived cannabinoids.
The key is responsible use, including starting with a low dose and taking breaks when needed. If you rely on it every night at high doses, your body may adjust, and it can be habitual. But when used in moderation and with a well-balanced formula, cannabis can be a sustainable part of a healthy sleep routine.
The administration has spent very mixed signals…will consumers turn to hemp if marijuana is outlawed again?
He is one of the most globally well known figures and now he has health issue. The Pope resides in Vatican City, the world’s smallest country, and given its unique status , there is no healthcare system, medical centers, or hospitals. All patients must access clinics and hospitals in Rome for care. One of the most ancient cities in the world, Rome has a robust healthcare system. It includes the renowned Policlinico Universitario Gemelli, which is considered one of the largest private university hospitals in Europe and the best in Italy. But it isn’t global known like the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, or Toronto General. Thinking outside the box, could medical marijuana help Pope Francis?
As the Pope continues his recovery from pneumonia and mild kidney issues, medical experts are exploring innovative treatments that could potentially aid in his healing process. One such treatment gaining attention is medical marijuana, which has shown promise in addressing various health conditions.
Medical marijuana might offer relief for Pope Francis’srespiratory challenges. Certain cannabinoids, particularly CBD, have demonstrated anti-inflammatory properties that could help reduce lung inflammation associated with pneumonia. While smoking cannabis is not recommended for respiratory conditions, alternative delivery methods such as vaporization or edibles could potentially provide therapeutic benefits without irritating the lungs
As the Pope recovers, pain management is likely a key concern. Medical marijuana has shown potential as a pain adjuvant, potentially reducing the need for opioids in patients with chronic conditions. This could be particularly beneficial for elderly patients like Pope Francis, who may be more susceptible to the side effects of traditional pain medications.
Recent studies have explored the relationship between cannabis and kidney function. While more research is needed, some evidence suggests that cannabis does not negatively affect kidney function in healthy individuals. For patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), careful monitoring and dosage adjustment may be necessary to ensure safe use.
Medical marijuana has been associated with improvements in various symptoms that could enhance the Pope’s quality of life during recovery. These include better sleep, reduced anxiety, and increased appetite. Such benefits could contribute to a more comfortable and efficient healing process.
While the potential benefits of medical marijuana are intriguing, it’s important to approach any treatment the same caution as any elderly patient. A personalized treatment plan, developed in consultation with medical professionals, would be essential to ensure safety and efficacy. As the world watches the Pope’s recovery, the consideration of medical marijuana as a complementary treatment option offers a ray of hope. While more research is needed to fully understand its effects on specific conditions, the potential benefits for pain management, inflammation reduction, and overall well-being make it an intriguing possibility.