Comment by spraak | Hacker News Reader

Comment by spraak | Hacker News Reader

OK, this article is trying so hard to sound cool.

> The oil was the brownish color of a stagnant pond, and tasted like old bong water with a hint of lemon.

It sounds like they haven't actually tried bong water, unless the CBD tincture they had was actually incredibly poorly made. Bong water is... not something you just drop on your tongue. It's hard for me to illustrate but it's very disgusting, unpalatable.

> After ingesting it—perhaps, I will admit, because I really wanted to believe—I thought I felt something

I think it's possible that some people feel effects from CBD alone, but most people probably need a more whole spectrum cannabinoid profile to benefit. I.e. the "entourage effect":

> First described in 1998 by Israeli scientists Shimon Ben-Shabat and Raphael Mechoulam, the basic idea of the entourage effect is that cannabinoids within the cannabis plant work together, or possess synergy, and affect the body in a mechanism similar to the body’s own endocannabinoid system. [1]

> I told him that I had tried CBD in coffee

Not the author's fault there... these substances are very opposite.

Finally I'd like to say for anyone wanting to experience the healing effects from cannabis without getting high should look into raw cannabis, or THCA and CBDA, which are the acid forms of THC and CBD and in studies I've seen provide anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer etc. effects (as THC and CBD are claimed to) but without the psychoactivity.

[1] https://www.medicaljane.com/2014/05/14/thc-cbd-and-more-the-...

> Bong water is... not something you just drop on your tongue. It's hard for me to illustrate but it's very disgusting, unpalatable.

Start with water from rotten potatoes, add fish oil.

Ever been inside a Frat house.. it smells a bit like that

THC and coffee is so popular there is slang for it - https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Stoner%20spe...

It's been called a hippy speedball for much longer.

I've been sampling CBD oil from a few different sources the past few months. I just received a bottle from Bluebird Botanicals (as the author did). Their website warns you before purchase about the taste, and after sampling three other products, I just ignored the warning.

I received it yesterday and WOW it tastes AWFUL. It's really bad.

under the tongue intake ?

I'm wondering if it's possible to inhale CBD with the old bowl of near boiling water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUxOdFJEDdg

Dissolving under the tongue, for like 1-2 minutes, is the most common application advice I've seen with CBD oils.

But does it actually make any difference?

Absorption through the mouth skips a large portion of the digestive system.

Just use a purpose designed cannabis vaporizer?

I recommend mixing it with honey! My favorite drink with it is CBD + honey + matcha green tea + ice.

How much do you mix in?

Until you can't remember how much you put in.

do you think there's a market for flavorless CBD products?

Definitely. While I appreciate the fact that their oil is a natural plant-derived supplement, many people would be turned off by this oil for their first try.

"Good Vibes" by Sabaidee is as close to "flavorless" as I've come across, but my favorite thus far has been Green Mountain CBD, which has a "chocolate mint" flavor.

There's a huge market for edibles and ingestibles. It's only a matter of time before "CBD CannaButter" is available in grocery stores for cooking.

> I received it yesterday and WOW it tastes AWFUL. It's really bad.

As weird as it might sound, I prefer that with "medicine", it's also one of the reasons why I "enjoy" drinking chamomile tea: It tastes so bad, it gotta be healthy.

> it's also one of the reasons why I "enjoy" drinking chamomile tea: It tastes so bad, it gotta be healthy

Each to their own, I really enjoy the taste of chamomile tea :)

Agreed that it's a good thing for medicine not to taste 'good' though, especially for medicines that happen to enhance appetite...

This is probably quite common. Cough syrup being a typical example where the the taste seems to be largely down to how they think they can make it taste enough like what people expect cough syrup to taste like, given the long list of completely awful but completely different tasting syrups.

It's a pet hate of mine, as it's getting hard to get some of the typical ingredients separately as pills - e.g. guaifenesin (expectorant) used to be commonly available separately in the UK, but is now usually combined with paracatemol (acetaminophen) and phenylephrine hydrochloride if you want it in pill form, sometimes additional things too, like caffeine - it seems like the market basically is split in a "must suffer for this to be real medicine" segment and a "I just want everything possibly related in one pill whether or not any individual one of them will do anything" segment.

If you prefer to actually choose specifically what active ingredients you consume, then you're stuck with the mostly foul syrups (I've found one that isn't actively offensive to my tastebuds)

Just a note, I've read that CBD actually suffers from first pass metabolism by the liver, so taking it orally is extremely inefficient. Anecdotally, I've found the anxiolytic effects to be more significant from smoking it than eating it. I also find vaping flowers more pleasant than consuming oil, and gives me more control over dosage.

How is THCA not psychoactive? THCA generally undergoes decarboxylation when the environment shifts (acid, base, temperature), and just naturally over time anyways, so it autoconverts to THC, and even probably requires that conversions to touch the receptor.

THCA requires heat to be activated into THC. In fact most strains of cannabis contain hardly any THC at all; it’s almost entirely THCA. That's why eating raw buds won’t get you high. Only when you ignite or vape the plant material does it get converted.

That's also the reason why vaping is considered that much more efficient compared to smoking.

With the smoking, most of the active ingredients literally just burn up, which includes producing the nasty stuff like tar and the smoke particles. Which is something tobacco smokers kinda crave for.

While good vapes have very precise temperature controls, allowing for evaporation of different cannabinoids and terpenes without literally burning up the plant.

Well, I don't know how THCA is not psychoactive vs THC, but you said yourself how THCA converts to THC. If you get very fresh cannabis, it will have undergone very little natural decarboxoylation.

And as for the receptors, THCA has been found to act on different receptors, i.e. not on CB1 or CB2, and that the effects on those receptors is different. I am not explaining the science well, but it's easily searchable.

>> I told him that I had tried CBD in coffee

> Not the author's fault there... these substances are very opposite.

Well depends on the strain, right?

Sativa + Coffee probably has a enhanced little buzz.

There isn't really a connection to cannabinoid profile and sativa vs indica, that I've seen. E.g. Harle-Tsu is a high CBD sativa strain, but it's not going to be like most familiar THC sativas. So I mean that it's the actual cannabinoid profile that determines that, and from I've read, CBD is more calming vs THC and caffeine are more hyping.

Yeah for depression and PTSD the entourage effect is really important, the high is a part of the relief for those who use it for depression and PTSD.

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