Expect to experience the entourage effect
Okay, this maybe sounds a bit odd, but it is actually fairly easy to explain. The thing is, there is a difference in ingesting your CBD as a capsule, oil, or whatever else, and getting it by smoking a bud roll. Products like oils, capsules and what have you tend to contain only CBD and little more than that (or even outright nothing else). This is fine if that’s all that you are aiming for, but the most benefits (and the most enjoyment) can be reaped if you use the actual plant.
The actual plant features hundreds of different cannabinoids, and these compounds all come together to enhance the effects of CBD. Some of the most well known ones are flavonoids and tannins, but there are piles of others too. Get the facts about this awesome herb in more detail, if you are looking for some in-depth information. For a TLDR though, just remember that cannabinoids work in concert to improve your experience, and that this is called “the entourage effect”.
No need to worry about getting high
Hemp and marijuana are very closely related, but are definitely not the same plant – event though people often tend to confuse the two. Not everything from the cannabis genus of plants is psychoactive, remember. What makes them able, or unable, to alter your state of mind is THC, or lack thereof.
Marijuana has relatively high levels of it, so marijuana gets you high. Hemp buds have only a miniscule amount (less than 1%) so they will not get you high even if you try for it. The most that you can hope for is a sense of bodily relaxation and mental clarity – which is lowkey awesome for anyone with anxiety.
You will get results quicker
Smoking the buds (or the leaves, too) will produce effects much more quickly than ingesting a pill or an edible product featuring hemp. This happens because the cannabinoids get into your bloodstream much faster via smoke.
When you eat a hemp brownie, for example, or ingest some CBD oil in whatever way, it has to be digested first. It goes into your stomach, and then all along the entire digestion process until it gets to your intestines and can be absorbed into the blood along with all the other nutrients you hopefully took in too. To learn more about how these molecules move in your system (the term for this is “pharmacokinetics, by the way”), you might want to read this awesome article.
When you smoke, though, the CBD molecules are carried on the vaporous currents into your lungs, and from there are directly absorbed. There is no digestion involved, no “processing pitstops”. Thus, the substance is minimally altered and you get the most of it at the fastest possible rate, with their original potency almost entirely intact.
Always heat up your buds before use
Have you ever heard of decarboxylation? Sounds fancy, but it is a fairly simple thing. Decarboxylation is a chemical process necessary for hemp buds to be of any use to you. If you have ever wondered why smoking and vaping the plant and its more notorious cousin, marijuana, are the most popular ways of using them, this is your answer. So what is it?
It is a chemical reaction that serves as a sort of “activator”. The cannabinoids in the buds and leaves need to be activated, i.e. supplied with external energy, in order to amount to anything. This energy is necessary in order to expel the carboxyl form the molecule, which in turn makes the molecule capable of interacting with your own system. In a nutshell, heat the stuff thoroughly for the most efficient absorption rates! Learn more about how this whole process works at this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decarboxylation
Know how to buy the right stuff
To make certain you are getting the best you can for your budget, pay attention to these three things before you finalize your purchase:
1.Organically grown hemp means lesser risk of ingesting pesticides.
2.The higher CBD content, the better effects you’ll get.
3.High terpene level = stronger entourage effect.