The Science of Cannabis | Dr. Riley Kirk

Key Takeaway

Understanding cannabis dosing is crucial for safe use. For CBD, research supports doses of 200+ milligrams for anxiety relief - much higher than most commercial products contain. For THC-sensitive individuals, mixing with CBD flour or using very low doses can provide benefits without panic attacks. Cannabis is a complex living plant with 400+ compounds, requiring personalized experimentation to find what works for your unique brain chemistry.

Episode Overview

Dr. Riley Kirk, a natural products chemist, discusses the science behind cannabis, including proper dosing, the difference between THC and CBD, and how to use cannabis products safely and effectively. The conversation covers the plant's history, from its evolutionary origins as insect protection to its modern medical applications and the racist history behind its criminalization.

Full Transcript

Transcript of The Science of Cannabis | Dr. Riley Kirk from 10% Happier. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

Hearing a voice can change everything. So AT&T wants everyone to gift their voice to loved ones this holiday season because that conversation is a chance to say something they'll hear forever. AT&T connecting changes everything. Dr. Riley Kirk, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me on. I'm so stoked for this conversation. You've you've already used the word stoked. I mean, you're just like a That's just the beginning. Uh, so I'd just love to get some background on you first. What what made what got you so interested in cannabis in the first place?

Yeah. So, I mean, I was one of those people who started consuming cannabis quite young, and I'm not advocating for this, but, you know, I was probably 14 years old when I first consumed cannabis. And immediately I kind of felt something in my brain shift. And it wasn't until a bit later, maybe late high school, early college, where I realized that, you know, I was having seizures and I stopped having seizures once I started regularly consuming cannabis. And when you start to research it and when you start to talk to people, there's almost always like a preconceived notion about cannabis that's not always backed in science.

It's often backed in stigma or propaganda. So I really wanted to learn about the science so I could learn more about how to communicate and how to use it myself for the most medicinal potential possible. Um so I started to like it was kind of my hyperfixation for a while and I just dove deep into the science and then in school I was studying natural products. So, I was studying different medicinal plants and then I was able to start studying cannabis in a professional setting and that's really when I became just absolutely infatuated with this plant because it really is special compared to other medicinal plants.

It has so much potential with the way it works on the body and the just multitude of purposes that we can use it. So I wanted to be an advocate for the plant and start to discuss the science in a more professional setting so people can take the plant a little more seriously, not just as you know something for stoners to use, which we love the recreational purposes, but we also need people discussing the science so we can take it as seriously as we take other medicines because it should be taken seriously.

I have so many questions about the plant and the science, but let me just stay with you for a second. You you mentioned that um your seizures stopped. What else did did uh weed or cannabis, whatever you want to call it, do for you interpersonally and intrapersonally? Yeah, I would say it definitely helped me socialize and like connect with people better. Um especially other people using cannabis. I I was always kind of a social person, but using cannabis really helped me like look deeper into people and connect on a deeper level and not feel kind of distracted when you're having those conversations.

You kind of just wanted to deep dive and just honestly enjoy life more. You know, being outside and looking at the trees and the grass and just seeing things in a different light that wasn't um you know, you don't feel kind of messed up like you do on other substances. you just feel a little closer to yourself and to the environment and like you can almost feel energy a little bit stronger when you use cannabis. And that was a really positive effect for me and really helped shape the way that I'm interacting with the world.

the world. the world. It's interesting you said your initial experiences with cannabis were so positive. I also started quite young and I also don't recommend this. Um I think I started at 13 14. Um, actually one of my friends moms, and this is really crazy, uh, would sell us weed that we would then that I would then resell. I would sell $2 joints. Yeah, I was not the best kid. And I guess I had I must have had some positive experiences with it cuz I kept using it.

But my first panic attacks of my life were on weed. It's kind of common. And they were really really traumatizing and horrible. Yeah. And unfortunately, that is quite common, especially now because cannabis is so strong. Like we're currently breeding to breed cannabis with as much THC as possible. And typically panic attacks are happening with these quite high THC percentages. And THC can work in what we call a bifphasic manner. So if you kind of picture like a curve, at low doses, it can absolutely help with anxiety.

And low doses are almost like micro doses of THC. But if you're using too much THC, it can absolutely cause anxiety and give people panic attacks. And I think that's a little confusing to people cuz they're like, "Well, weed helps with anxiety." And it's like, dose dosing is really, really important. Like, you know, if you use a really low dose of THC, if you use CBD products, that can help with anxiety. But if you're smoking a full 25% joint, that's not going to help with your anxiety like ever.

um it's almost always going to make it worse. So I get that it really is dose specific and I think every human has a dis different tolerance and so it's it's it can get quite nuanced. I will say though, I almost never smoke weed now because I've had so many experiences of panic with it over the years, including a couple of years ago when a friend of mine who's in the cannabis industry gave me a sleep gummy that was, he said, very, very low THC and I ate a third of the sleep gummy and an hour later panic attack.

attack. attack. Yeah. So, you're probably extremely sensitive to THC, which we can get into how cannabis works in the body and why some of us are, you know, much more sensitive to it. But in your case, like I would stay away from THC products in general or always mix them with CBD products cuz CBD can help protect your brain from being overstimulated. So, for people who are really sensitive to THC, I always recommend like buying hemp flour. And I think hemp gets kind of a bad name because you might see the headlines where it's like, you know, we have this new cannabonoid that's developed on the hemp market, but hemp flour can be extremely like smokable flour.

Like this is a nug of of hemp flour. This is CBD flour, and it still [snorts] smells really great. It still has all of these beneficial compounds, but it's CBD dominant. It's not THC dominant. So, you can still roll a joint with just CBD flour. You can vape CBD flour. You can use CBD products either alone or with THC products to really bring down the amount of THC that you're ingesting and help balance out that ratio so it's not all THC entering your brain. You have CBD there to like protect it.

protect it. protect it. I think what you're saying is that even for people who are super sensitive but are looking for something to reduce their anxiety or help them fall asleep, there are ways to use this plant that might minimize one of the active ingredients, which is THC, which is the stuff that gets you high. and get some of the benefits of the plant without the detriments. detriments. detriments. Exactly. Yeah. So, um you know whether that's using CBD products, using really low THC products, but even strain specific effects.

Some strains give people anxiety whereas other strains do not. So, I think part of this conversation which is going to keep coming up is we often think of weed as like weed is weed is weed. It's all the same. If you're smoking weed, you're smoking weed. But there are so many changes that you can make and that you can be in control of as the consumer. But it takes a quite a bit of education to get to the point where you can curate your experience. But we have all the tools to do it.

Whether you're purchasing hemp flour, whether you're maybe you're really sensitive to smoking, but you can take an edible and feel really good. Maybe you need I'm going to use the terms indica sativa, although those are, you know, a little those need a little nuance, too. But if sativas give you a lot of anxiety, maybe you need to stay away from sativas because the profile of sativas is making your heart rate faster because it's kind of like an upper. Whereas if you had some more of like a calm weed, you wouldn't have that same anxietyinducing effect.

effect. effect. Okay, let's pause for a second and define some terms because we've used a bunch of terms without defining them. People may know anyway, but it's just worth I think uh disambiguating here. THC, CBD, hemp, indica, sativa. So, at least five terms. Can you just give us a glossery? glossery? glossery? Yeah. Start with THC versus CBD. These are the two like kind of famous compounds in the cannabis plant. THC gets you high. That is the compound that gets you high. And that is really what dominates the legal cannabis industry is THC products that are going to be used for either medicine or for adult use purposes, recreational purposes.

Then you have CBD. CBD does not get you high, but it has a ton of medicinal potential. So, I mentioned anti-anxiety. That's one of the most studied reasons that people use CBD products, but also things like inflammation. CBD can be amazing for inflammation and for autoimmune conditions. So CBD is very medicinal, but it's not going to make you feel high. It's not going to change your perception on the world. It's really just a medicinal product. And then we won't get into it right now, but there's even more in this category beyond CBD and THC um that you can use as tools in your toolbox of cannabis.

Um but that's kind of like the advanced lesson on on cannabis and active ingredients. So then we have um hemp [clears throat] products. So hemp products are nont products. So typically we would think of like CBD products as hemp. And there are also also also other dominant products that are have let me start that over. Um we usually think of CBD products as hemp, but there are also other active ingredients in hemp products that are not CBD but still medicinal but still don't get you high.

So, I held up the product earlier that is cannabis flour. So, that is a CBD hemp product. You can also buy hemp vapes which do not have THC in them. But this is where it gets really confusing and people are really confused about this because the hemp industry also synthesizes products in a laboratory and does make products that get you high that start off being made from CBD. So, the starting material CBD, which doesn't get you high, then they go in a laboratory and they make new compounds that are technically synthetic compounds, and those can get you high, but they're not produced in the plant.

And that's kind of the weird part of the hemp industry that I'm not like super supportive of, but I think it's worth talking about. THC, I think everybody's clear on that's the [ __ ] that gets you high. Uh CBD I feel like at least a few years ago there was this massive wave of hype around it. It was just being advertised for everything. This thing will whatever it fix any anything you got CBD will in every form possible like a bath bomb lotion pillow like there was CBD products everywhere.

products everywhere. products everywhere. How do we separate the hype from from the reality? the reality? the reality? So um there's a couple ways. One is following brands that actually do research and are like very reputable brands. But I think the the the divide here is dosing. And I don't I don't want to get like too into the science of dosing, but a lot of products have CBD in them, but at really low doses. So like 5 milligrams of CBD, 10 milligrams of CBD. that no research supports that 5 milligs of CBD does almost anything for you.

You need almost 200 milligs of CBD to get some of the benefits that we see for things like anxiety, for things like seizures, um the most researched ways that we use CBD. And very few products on the market are actually at the doses that the research supports. So that's I think where we're seeing this big divide is companies are making products not backed in research. They just know people are like oo CBD that helps with something. I'm going to buy that, you know. So they just buy it and not I mean I wouldn't say it should be on the customer to understand exactly what the dose of CBD is that they need.

But unfortunately these brands know that people don't know that. So, they're just tossing a little bit of CBD in everything and hoping that people just, you know, hop on the hype train and just get it because it has CBD and they're not putting enough of it in to actually get the medicinal benefits from it. So, if we're considering a CBD product, we should just make sure it's got more than 200 mill. Yeah. 200 or more milligrams of CBD. That is what I would highly recommend. And CBD is incredibly safe.

As I mentioned, it it's not going to get you high. So you're not going to have that um that like is this too much? Am I going to like overwhelm my brain? It's very safe even at high levels. So I would personally recommend starting at 200 milligrams of CBD and then you might actually notice a difference in something like your anxiety if you're taking it at those doses that are like backed in research. Okay. So then hemp flour uh is is a CBD product. Is that what you were saying?

But that sometimes in the lab uh they synthesize cannabonoids that are not found in nature but will get you high. And so you want to be careful for that. that. that. Yeah. And that's not going to be in flour products. The reason I really love flour is because typically if you're smoking or vaping flour, you can actually smell it and hold it and see it and it is the plant, right? But I'm talking about more of like vape carts or edibles that you sometimes see on the hemp market.

They might say like HHC, THCP, kind of these really weird acronyms that you might be super unfamiliar with. And that's because they were made in a laboratory. They're they're acronyms of new cannabonoids that were made in a laboratory. And I'm not saying that these are inherently unsafe, but they are not under the same testing regiments that our legal industry is. So, um it's definitely not something I would recommend and especially for people who are really new to cannabis and exploring it for the first time. I would not try any of those um hemp products.

What is the difference fundamentally between CBD and hemp or is hemp just a delivery mechanism for CBD? Hemp is what we would call like the flour essentially that's what it started as like the flour version. So you have marijuana and hemp essentially of marijuana is the THC dominant one and then hemp is the CBD dominant one. Got it. So you can get a nug or a bud of either marijuana or hemp. And the hemp is going to if you smoke that is not going to make you high.

It will just make you less anxious because it has CBD in it. in it. in it. Exactly. Yeah. And um you know the term marijuana like I use it because a lot of people that's how they refer to THC dominant cannabis, but that term I know a lot of people have problems with because it's rooted in a lot of racism. That's how we got to marijuana. Um the the term because it is essentially used to target Mexican-Americans. So, I'm saying it here cuz like that's usually the way we reference it, but typically I'm just calling the plant cannabis um in in other situations just for like a little reference of the discussion.

So, cannabis So, cannabis So, cannabis as opposed to hemp. Those are two different types of flowers. You could either call cannabis marijuana if you want to be a little racist or just call it cannabis and then hemp. Yeah, that that would be a good way to discuss it. And you know, the reason this is so confusing is because there's so much overlap. And even in our legal infrastructure, like it's very loosely defined. So that's why we're kind of using all these different terms. And our legal infrastructure, we're still trying to figure out the the hemp industry versus the THC dominant cannabis industry.

Um because there is a little bit of overlap there that some people really like and some people really don't like. So, we're kind of we we'll see lobbyists going both ways for how to kind of settle out the different worlds of cannabis. of cannabis. of cannabis. We'll get into the history of the plant and and some of the lingering and pernicious effects of his of racism in the history of the plant in a second, but let's just stay with these terms. So, we've talked about THC, CBD, hemp, and then indica and sativa.

Those are two different strains of cannabis. No. Um they're not two different strains. Um, and like they're all cannabis sativa. All cannabis is cannabis sativa. The difference is, um, if we were to go way back in time to when cannabis was first being cultivated, your sativa type varieties were your really tall varieties that had very like like stringy leaves kind of and they were grown in different places than your indacica type varieties which were short and stout and had really fat leaves. And they're both kind of known for producing different effects in people.

So sativa varieties are going to make you really uplifted, energetic, you want to do a bunch of things. It sometimes gives people anxiety. Whereas your indica type varieties where people refer to them as indic. They're really really mellow. They're going to make you kind of just vibe out and kind of become part of your couch. Um, but the reason we say like these don't hold a lot of weight in today's legal market is because almost all cannabis that you're going to purchase nowadays is a hybrid.

So, it's a sativa and indica bred together to produce something unique. So, it's not like you're going to get a product that is a pure sativa on the legal cannabis market. Same thing with a pure indacica. So, right now when we reference indica and sativa, we're really talking about what effects we're after. If you're looking for sativa type effects, you're looking for that uplifting type effect. If you're if you're after indica type effects, you're after those mellow, you know, low chill type effects. Um, but we're usually using them to describe effects and not really like the plant anymore.

How much do you smoke or ingest generally? Are you high right now? I'm not high right now. Um, so I would say I used to consume multiple times a day, every day using different consumption methods. So I would smoke, I'd vape, I'd dab, I'd use edibles, topicals, all of it. Although I recently had a baby just a few months ago, so I have not been using THC products. I use a lot of CBD products right now. So, the reason I had this hemp flour with me is cuz that's really what I've been consuming right now cuz I'm still breastfeeding and you know obviously I don't want to be like too incapacitated when I'm taking care of my little baby.

So then what are you consuming for? Yeah, mental health of 100%. I had a pretty traumatic experience bringing little baby into the world and I've never been on a pharmaceutical medicine. So, for me, um, cannabis is always my medicine, and I feel very comfortable dosing, um, for that. So, I've been using CBD products just to supplement my mental health, make me feel more like myself, uh, make me feel social, make me want to get out of the house, and just make me feel a little more relaxed and calm compared to where where I was at before.

One of the points you make in your book that I think is really interesting is that cannabis is not a pharmaceutical product. It is a living plant and that makes it in many ways much more interesting but also much more complex to navigate as a consumer and a user. I chose function because it's the only health platform that gives me data most people never get and the insights to start doing something about it. inside function. You can get access to test over 160 lab tests annually from hormones to toxins to markers of heart health, inflammation, and stress.

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That's my guy. AT&T wants everyone to share their voice over the holidays. So send a voice note, leave a voicemail, call someone because that conversation is a chance to say something they will hear forever. Happy holidays from AT&T. Connecting changes everything. everything. everything. Yes. And this is why it's so difficult to figure out exactly what product is going to work so well with yourself. Cannabis is a living plant. So I think a lot of times we want to think of it like a pharmaceutical cuz we're like, "Okay, this is a medicine.

This is a drug," you know, and we're used to thinking of a drug as like a little pill that's just one thing. But cannabis is, you know, 400 things. It's it's a living plant that has so many different compounds in it. And every strain that you may try has a different ratio, a different presence or absence of these molecules of these drugs. So, and and we are living living beings as well that we're all different. So, my brain chemistry is different than your brain chemistry, Dan.

So, we're going to react to things really differently. And then we have the plant where, you know, maybe we're smoking the same thing, maybe we're smoking different things. There's a lot of variability which can go into our cannabis experience. So unfortunately, I think I I won't say unfortunately, I think it's fortunate that we have to learn a little bit about ourselves and the plant before we can really lock in on our ability to use the plant in the right way. Um, but once you respect the plant and study the plant and learn the plant, I think it's one of the best medicines in the world.

um because you really do have control over what's going into your body and how you want to feel and you can curate your medicine. You can use a different product in the morning compared to the afternoon. You can say okay how do I feel right now and what product do I want to take right now you know to either help how I'm feeling to you know supplement how I'm feeling to be in a social situation to watch a movie you know you have control over that which is very different than a pharmaceutical which is very one-sizefits-all one-sizefits-all one-sizefits-all take this pill it's going to make you feel better period so um there is the reason we're having this conversation is there's so much nuance behind it and there's so many layers that you can continue to dive dive down to personalize your cannabis experience.

And once you lock in on that, it's like the most gratifying thing in the world. I can imagine, just to play devil's advocate, I can imagine some people listening to this and thinking, "Oh, you're using cannabis products all day long, every day. You're an educated consumer, but you're still using it all day, every day. Isn't that dependency?" What's the line between what you're describing and drug addiction? The line is actually by definition on how your body reacts to addiction. Um, so you have addiction pathways in your body and cannabis does not activate those addiction pathways like highly addictive substances do like heroin, fentanyl and compounds that actually do cause addiction.

But there there is definitely some dependency on cannabis for a lot of cannabis consumers. But I would also say for anyone taking a SSRI every single day, there's a lot of dependency on that as well. So I think I mean I depend on caffeine as well, right? We're dependent on a lot of things in our life. And as long as cannabis isn't causing harm to you, to your family, to your finances, to your life, in my opinion, it's okay to lean on the plant a little bit.

It has helped so many people in so many different ways that it's okay if your brain does need cannabis. There's a lot of people, including myself, whose brains act and react a lot better on this plant. And I think that we think of this as a negative thing because of the stigma associated with cannabis. We say, "Ooh, you can't you can't use cannabis every day because, you know, then you're a drug addict." Well, I say the same thing about people who take pharmaceuticals every day. It's like you're dependent on that.

That is something that your brain is dependent on and that's okay. As long as it's improving your quality of life, depend on it. It's great. We have tons of resources in our life. Use them. I think one definition of of addiction, and I could be wrong about this, but I believe I've heard that one definition of addiction is continued use despite adverse consequences. adverse consequences. adverse consequences. Yes. And that's why I was saying like as long as it continues to benefit you in your health, in your life, in your relationships, then it's a positive.

But there's there's definitely a level of cannabis use that is not healthy and it can be seen as definitely on the addiction side of things. If you can't, you know, socialize, if you can't leave your house, if you can't eat, if you can't do anything without cannabis, you're probably leaning on it a little bit too hard. And that's when you kind of have to reel it back in and say, "Do I need to lower my dose? Do I need to see a therapist? Do I need to dive a little bit deeper into what's going on with myself?

Am I using cannabis as escapism instead of as a wellness product? So, there there are levels to it. And I've seen people that had a very negative relationship with cannabis. So, I'm not saying all cannabis use is um you know positive and therapeutic, but for a lot of people, especially daily consumers, it's what we think of as our medicine and it can be sustainable despite what you know some physicians think. think. think. We'll get more into the risks uh coming up. But let let's step back for a second and go into something I probably should have started with, but um you just said so many interesting things and I followed you.

I'd love to know a little bit more about the history of the plant. And one of the things I think you talk about, and I believe I knew this, but it it's just interesting to be reminded of it, that some plants create drug-like molecules, including cannabis, but also um psilocybin and Iwasa. Uh some plants create these molecules for self-p protection against bugs. bugs. bugs. Yeah. So this is like this is my whole background as a natural product chemist is um most plants are producing these compounds like THC like um codine and morphine and the opium plant they're producing them uh to protect themselves against bugs.

So bugs and plants kind of co-evolved so they're always kind of like working with each other to try to combat each other because bugs are always munching on plants trying to lay their eggs in plants all of the different things. So, they're plant's kind of biggest enemy. And bug brains are actually more similar to our brain than you would think. They have a lot of similar pathways. They produce a lot of similar compounds. So, we're almost like giant giant bugs. And in the case like I always use the example of um tobacco and nicotine.

So, if we think of the tobacco plant, it's producing nicotine and that acts as an insecticide. It can actually kill bugs that are eating it. But since we're kind of giant bugs and we're a lot bigger and a little bit different, that nicotine when we ingest it, it's still going to act on the same receptors in our brain or really similar receptors in our brain as it did the insect, but we're so big, it's not going to kill us. It's just going to make us feel a little weird, a little different, a little something.

because those compounds have co-evolved to act on similar brains. So, we have the receptor for it, but in almost all cases, it's not going to kill us. It's just going to make us feel a certain way. And then we as pharmaceutical scientists started to kind of lean on that a little bit and say, "Okay, all these plants co-eolved with these bugs. These plants are producing these really cool molecules. How can we use these for our medicine? How can we start to use these to heal ourselves?

And because they're acting on receptors in our body and a lot of diseases are caused by dysregulation, which links back to receptors. So, because we're kind of big bugs and because plants produce really cool compounds, we're able to utilize that medicine. So, we have examples. I mentioned the opium poppy plant, the nicotine plant, the cannabis plant, iawasa, cava, cratom. There's so many different medicinal plants that are producing these really unique compounds that we use as medicine. So, can you tell us a little bit about the specific history of uh cannabis within this context?

the the co-evolution of cannabis and and insects that and then how it was discovered by humans and used by humans and uh then studied by scientists and outlawed and demonized and now it's it's gone from um from hysteria to hype like I'd love to hear that whole journey from your perspective. perspective. perspective. Yeah. So, it's a very long story and um the first uses of cannabis as medicine, we see them in in traditional Chinese medicine where they typically would use the seeds actually, not the not the flour.

They'd use the seeds and the oil in the seeds um typically hemp. And all of these products were really really low THC that they were using as medicine. They were not like the plants that we see today on the legal market. They were mostly CBD with a little bit of THC. And same thing um these plants grown in Afghanistan and in these mountains these um Hindu mountains that we've seen these cultures have used cannabis at really low levels of THC. They started actually by throwing the plants on fire and then breathing in the smoke and realizing that that made them feel a certain way because you have to actually like ignite cannabis to make it to feel the the effects of it.

You can't just eat a nug. you won't feel anything if you eat a nug of cannabis. So, it took a little while. You know, people were cultivating, people were using the the oils of the seed and the plant, but they weren't getting high from it. But once we started to learn that introducing fire actually makes you feel a different way, um that kind of started the smoking trend of cannabis. And then we have kind of cultures, not western cultures, but cultures around the rest of the world uh really started to use cannabis.

We think of Jamaica a lot. Jamaica's cannabis culture is still incredibly thriving. It's part of their spirituality. It's part of their religion there. Um, so cultures around the world start using cannabis and then eventually it starts to reach the western world and especially in the realm of, you know, jazz music is really when cannabis became popularized because musicians were using cannabis to just kind of vibe and let loose and like feel the music coming through them. And you know, it was part of that counterculture of music.

And this is kind of where the racism came in. Well, it's kind of been there for a while, but this is where it became normalized in America because it was typically African-Americans who were using cannabis product because that was where the jazz scene was. So, um, especially our legislators start to associate cannabis use with African-Americans and with this like counterculture of of drugs and at nighttime and kind of these like clubs and stuff. So that's when we kind of started to think about outlawing it, which um did eventually happen.

And the term marijuana came up. And then we had all of these kind of propaganda schemes telling us that cannabis is going to make you stupid and lazy and you're not going to be a member of functioning society if you start to use cannabis. You might have seen like the images of people melting in the couch or like a a woman like using cannabis and it's kind of like a pinup but it looks evil. uh we see a lot of those kind of propaganda type um uh what are they called like posters emerging and then you know the war on drugs really started where cannabis became a schedule one drug not based on any science but really to prohibit Mexicans Mexican-Americans and African-Americans African-Americans African-Americans um from using the plant because they were the ones that were mainly the face of cannabis so to target these populations we made cannabis a schedule one drug because they were typically the ones that were holding the cannabis, that were smoking the cannabis.

And we were able to put these populations in prison for using the product because that's typically what we associated with. And um then we weren't able to research the plant. We were really unable to study the plant because it was a schedule one drug. and the United States kind of fell off for any research relating to cannabis while other countries like Israel really started to get a lot better at [clears throat] researching cannabis. One of the best known cannabis scientists ever is Dr. Raphael Mishulum and he's the one who actually discovered THC for the first time.

And discovering THC eventually led to discovering the receptors in our body that THC binds to. And that was discovered in the United States by Dr. Alan Howlett. And she's still doing research to this day. So this was not that long ago that we discovered how THC works in the body. And when we discovered how THC binds to a certain receptor, we named that receptor the cannabonoid one receptor, named after the cannabis plant. And then eventually we discovered the um the CB2 receptor or um the second cannabis receptor in the body that other compounds bound bind to.

And eventually this kind of started the the revolution of studying cannabis, how it works in the body and how our own body produces cannabonoids as well that bind to these same receptors, which is really the basis of how cannabis works in the body. It was great. And I I I do want to follow up on how it works in a second. Just to say, you know, in the hysteria, anti-weed uh anti-cannabis hysteria phase, there was a famous movie that I remember watching as a kid, Reefer Madness, which is of course the inspiration for your the name of your book, which is Reefer Wellness.

You're kind of taking taking it back. Um, and just to say on on the racism, my understanding is there are some really ugly residual effects of this where you have people in prison now uh who got there for selling or distributing or um uh uh growing this plant which is now increasingly legal. It's bananas to think about that people are still in prison for cannabis as we have this multi-billion dollar cannabis industry in our country. It's it's really sad. And there are nonprofits completely dedicated to getting people out of prison associated with cannabis charges.

You might have heard of the Last Prisoner Project. That's probably the the best known one um where they're really trying to advocate for getting no more prisoners um related to cannabis. And it's still black and brown communities that are at a much higher rate of getting charged with cannabis related felonies um because of the racism and the stigma associated with the plant. So when we tell these stories of cannabis and the history of cannabis, this was not a long time ago. This is just a few decades ago.

So, you know, this is recent history that we're talking about. So, it's still very much relevant and we need to care about this still so it doesn't continue to happen. Um, so it is extremely sad that we still have people in prison for it. And you know, it's something I think about every time I'm giving a lecture at a university, on a podcast, all these different things. Like the privilege we have um being in the legal industry and still having people in prison is it's it's kind of heavy on everyone that is still um representing the plant out there.

What is the legal picture right now? Is is marijuana marijuana? You can keep saying it's okay. I just wanted to put the context out there that I think if you're using the term marijuana like and just referencing cannabis, it's okay. But some people use it the wrong way. So, I think it's still okay, but I just wanted to put it out there about where that word came from. [snorts] [snorts] [snorts] Got it. I got it. And where it came from is it's uh it's that's marijuana is Spanish.

Spanish. Spanish. Exactly. It's the Mexican word for weed. So that's kind of part of how it was being used to target Mexican-Americans by saying marijuana is bad. Marijuana is going to cause you to, you know, have all these issues, blah blah blah. Um, that was kind of part of the campaign and it was very purposeful to use the term marijuana. Um, because it made people think about Mexican people, kind of otherizing the people and the drugs simultaneously. Um, how legal is it now? Cannabis. Um, I live in New York.

You can't walk down the street without smelling it everywhere. Um, but what's the status federally? How many states still have it criminalized? What's the picture? Yeah. So, it is not federally legal. It's still a schedule one drug in America, meaning it has a high potential for abuse and no medical purposes at all, which is absolutely bananas. um when we think about that and think about especially the whole no medical no medicinal potential because we have I mean over 30,000 publications on cannabis the endockanabonoid system how it works in the body the different medicinal benefits of it so um that's just a clear like purposeful the government does not want to acknowledge that cannabis is used as medicine we also have two pharmaceutical drugs that are actually from the cannabis plant two drugs one is based on THC, it's called Marinol, and one based on CBD, and it's called epidalects.

We have two pharmaceutical drugs from cannabis, but we're still saying that it has no medical use, which is it just drives me insane um right off the bat, but it is still a schedule one substance in the United States. So, um we cannot sell across state lines. Um individual states, I need to check on the exact number of states that have legalized at this point. Um, but the majority of states do have a legal cannabis market. And the ones that don't have a legal cannabis market is typically where you see these synthetic hemp compounds still available because people don't have access to the plant.

So instead, they do whatever is the next best thing and they use these kind of sketchy products because they want some sort of cannabis and they just don't have access to the tested plant products in the legal industry. Um, so it is, um, you know, we have so much data that the people want cannabis. You know, we've taken maybe it's 65 to 70% of Americans want to see legal cannabis across the United States. But, um, I think there's also a lot of big players trying to keep it not available to people.

When we think about big pharma, when we think about big tobacco, when we think about big alcohol, in all of these cases, cannabis use causes a decrease in their profits because it makes you want to stop drinking. It makes you want to stop using tobacco products, makes you want to stop using pharmaceuticals. So, um I think if we dig a little deeper, we'll see a lot of money going to these lobbyists and to these other industries, um to try to keep it exactly where it's at because it's not based on research and it's not based on any of the experts opinion on this subject.

It's just based on a couple decision makers in Washington trying [snorts] to keep it at bay. bay. bay. Okay. So, let we've been circling around this for a while, so let's go straight at it. How does cannabis work in the human body? Yeah, and this is where it gets pretty sciency, but like in my opinion, I think when people learn about this, they actually kind of get a little addicted to learning about it because it's so cool cuz it's in your body. So the basis of how it works is all of our bodies, you, me, my cat, my dog, almost every animal on earth has what we call an endocanabonoid system.

So this is an endogenous meaning inside our body a system that produces cannabonoids. They're different from the ones in the plant. But these cannabonoids act on our cannabonoid receptors in our body and then they cause a ton of different things to happen. So some of the best known reasons that the endocanabonoid system is occurring in our body is to help us regulate things like sleep, like appetite, like mood. And all of these things are the same things that we use cannabis for because it's acting on the same receptors.

So our bodies, whether you use cannabis or not, no matter if you use it or not, no matter if you've never smelled it or never touched it, you still have an endocanabonoid system. And the whole purpose of the system in our body, I mentioned it, it's related to sleep and appetite and pain and all of these different things. But the purpose of the endocanabonoid system, which I'm just going to call the ECS, the purpose of the ECS is to maintain balance in the body. So this is also called homeostasis or just balance in all of our different systems.

So it's interacting with our dopamine system, our serotonin system, our GABAurgic system. it's interacting with all these other systems in our body. And when one system becomes maybe overactive or underactive, your endocanabonoid system kind of turns on and brings regulation back to that system. So, it's kind of the master regulator in the body and it's incredibly important for us maintaining balance in our body, which is why cannabis is good for so many different things. Is it because it acts on this system that controls almost everything in our body?

So, it's also part of the reason why, you know, if if somebody has a certain condition or disease and they use cannabis, it's going to react with their body a little bit different because their body's disregulated in a different way than my body is going to be disregulated. So, that's kind of part of the individualistic experience as well. That was very even I understood that. So, bravo. Well, I'm stoked to talk about uh this next subject, which is um given what we know about how it works, how this plant works through the endocanabonoid system, the ECS, what are the health benefits?

And I'd be curious like where is the the science the strongest? Because you hear about I'll just list them. You hear about cannabis uh as being um helpful for chronic pain, uh cancer, which has been referenced, insomnia, inflammation, nause nausea, which of of course can come along with cancer treatment, migraines, appetite, multiple sclerosis, seizures, mood enhancement, also things like creativity and productivity. So that's a long list. Is that a legit list? And where is the science the strongest? absolutely a legitimate list. I think those are some of the the best examples.

So, some of our science is the strongest. I will say um because we do have two pharmaceuticals from cannabis, there has been a lot of research done in those realms. So, um marinol, which is the THC pharmaceutical u was used for HIV and AIDS and for patients that needed appetite stimulation and pain reduction. So, a lot of research has been done in pain as well as appetite. You know, you or I might think of the munchies as a negative thing associated with cannabis, like, oh no, I'm watching my weight.

Like, I don't want to eat a lot. But for cancer patients or HIV AIDS, um, typically they need appetite stimulation. So, this is actually one of the medicinal benefits of cannabis that's backed by quite a bit of science. Um, but for chronic pain as well. Um, I mentioned that the ECS, when we activate the ECS, it can help bring balance to our body. So in the case of chronic pain, it's your body sending too many pain signals. So it just keeps sending pain signals even though you might not have something painful happening to you, your body just keeps producing those pain signals.

So in the case of of THC and activating your endocanabonoid system, your body can actually stop some of those pain signals from being sent to your brain so you don't feel as much pain. So, there has been a ton of research in the chronic pain world, in the appetite world, and in the seizure world. Um, I mentioned Epidillex is the other pharmaceutical that is a CBD product. Epidilelex is just straight up CBD and, um, it is used for rare and severe forms of seizures. So um it is one of the best seizure medicines we have and it's sometimes used in isolation and sometimes it's used with other seizure medicines but CBD has been studied extensively um for seizures.

Now cancer is kind of a tough one because cancer is an umbrella term right it doesn't mean one thing like there's there's a hund different types of cancer. So in some forms of cancer we have more research um like testicular cancer um or pancreatic cancer we we know that cannabis could be good for but in other cases we either have no data or maybe it hasn't shown to help extensively with other forms of cancer. Um so that's kind of we have some data but not like enough data to say cannabis helps with absolutely every form of cancer.

Um so those are kind of the big ones and then sleep. We have a lot of data on cannabis for sleep. Um, especially, you know, we know that using cannabis, especially THC or CBN products. They can help you get to sleep faster. They can help you stay asleep longer, but sometimes it does affect the quality of sleep that you're getting. So, you might not be getting as much REM sleep. Even though you're still getting more hours of sleep, it might not be as much deep sleep.

which is part of the reason why if you use cannabis a lot, you might not dream a lot anymore. You might, you know, you might be sleeping really well, but you might not have dreams anymore. And that's because it is interrupting how much REM sleep that you get. get. get. You know, AT&T believes hearing a voice can change everything. And if you love podcasts, you get that. The power of hearing somebody speak is unmatched. It's why we save those voicemails from our loved ones. They mean something.

For me, when I need a a one-on-one holiday boost, I know who to call. My friend Joseph Goldstein, my meditation teacher, this is a guy who is just every time I got a problem, I can call him up and he talks me off the ledge and gives me practical and profound advice. AT&T knows the holidays are the perfect time to do just that. Share your voice. If it's been a while since you've called somebody who matters, now is the time because it's more than just a conversation.

It's a chance to say something they will hear forever. So, uh, spread a little love with a call this season. Happy holidays from AT&T. Connecting changes everything. But I've had sleep experts on before who talk about the crucial difference between sleep and sedation. And I know people who use uh cannabis products every night to fall asleep. And I do worry a little bit that long term that might not be awesome given the fact that it is, as you indicated, not the highest quality sleep. quality sleep.

quality sleep. Exactly. And we actually do have some data that depending on how long you use cannabis and your tolerance is going to develop over time that at the beginning you're not getting as much quality sleep. But as your body balances out, you might start getting more REM sleep later on after you've been using it for, you know, say 6 months or so, but that data is still a little kind of up in the air. I think there's only been one publication on that. Um, but to your point, too, cuz I've um I've helped a lot of women experiencing menopause use cannabis products, and for these women, they're not getting any sleep.

So, they're just getting zero sleep if they don't use anything to help them sleep. So, in my opinion, even getting less REM sleep, but you're still sleeping is extremely beneficial over getting no sleep because getting no sleep can absolutely mess you up. You're going to go into like borderline psychosis if you stop getting sleep. So, um I would agree if you're just like using it before bed every night just for funsies, like maybe that's something to be aware of that it can kind of mess up your quality of sleep.

But if you're using it because you can't sleep, I think any sleep is better than no sleep. Say a little bit more about pmenopause and menopause and how cannabis can be helpful. helpful. helpful. Menopause is your body's going through a lot of changes and uh whether it's sleep or hormonal imbalance. Your body is kind of at the baseline disregulated at that at that time. So you're experiencing hot flashes, you're experiencing mood swings, you're experiencing issues with sleeping. And a lot of women will start to seek out cannabis at this time because nothing else is working for them.

And honestly, if we think about what cannabis is good for, bringing regulation to disregulated systems, it's one of I think the best times in a woman's life to use cannabis products because it can help your body bring back some regulation, can kind of help balance out your hormones and your mood and your sleep and allow you to feel a little bit more normal. Um, but at the same time, I'm almost always recommending relatively low doses of cannabis. Um, especially if you're still quite naive to cannabis or you've never used it your whole life and you want to start using it during menopause, start low and go slow.

Start with just maybe CBD products, add in a little bit of THC, see how it feels, and go from there. there. there. We also mentioned creativity and productivity. Is there any real evidence beyond the anecdotal there? there is like survey based evidence um but there's not a lot of laboratory type studies but a significant amount of people will say that cannabis helps them especially with creativity and this kind of goes back to like the jazz musicians um writing songs and playing music um using cannabis as a tool for that same thing with a lot of artists um you're in New York City there's a lot of artists there and I'm sure a lot of them are using cannabis to just feed their brain and and sometimes it's it's really Not like it like turns on a creativity button in your brain.

It's more like it kind of turns off these other things in our brain that might inhibit us from being creative where we're like, "Oh, I have to feed my cat. I have to go for a walk. I didn't go to my I didn't call my doctor. I didn't do all these things." You kind of can push those out of the way and just let your brain kind of flow a little bit better. It helps a lot of people get into the flow state. So whether that is for creativity or whether it's for exercise, a lot of people use cannabis um for exercise.

They use it as a preworkout before the gym um to help them get into the flow state and it actually does increase blood blood flow throughout your body. It's a vasoddilator, so it makes your blood vessels a little bit wider, which is how preworkouts work. So it's um it's not a crazy concept. And a lot of people hid that for a really long time because they're like, I don't want people to know I'm getting stoned before the gym. Um, but now that we have more research going out and more people are kind of advocating for it, you're seeing more and more people actually use it as a pre-workout, which I think is a really interesting use of cannabis.

It is really interesting and surprising to me given the whole in in couch. You got to use the right variety for sure. Um, if you can find like uplifting sativa type varieties, um, they're probably the ones that are going to help you the most. But you also need to be careful of your dosing. And I'm going to say this like way too much. But, you know, if you use too much cannabis, you also like might feel a little lightaded or you might get to the point where you're not, you know, super motivated anymore.

Instead, you kind of reach that point where you just want to chill out. So, I think a lot of people are using just like a low dose before the gym, just getting themselves into that flow state, getting those blood vessels, you know, a little bit wider, blood moving a little bit better, but they're not like, you know, taking 10 rips of the bong before running on the treadmill. That may be the first reference to bong rips that we've had on the show. Um, which I love.

Um, okay. So, let's talk about the risks. What are the downsides and potential pitfalls of the cannabis path? path? path? Yeah, so we talked about anxiety a lot and I think that's probably the number one adverse effect that people are going to experience from cannabis. Um because you know I mentioned it like helps people get in the flow state, helps kind of get their brain working a little a little better. But in some cases if you have all of these thoughts flooding your brain at the same time that can be extremely anxietyinducing.

It can make people feel paranoid. It can give people anxiety attacks. Um, and that can be really scary for people. So, anxiety is definitely something that we need to look out for, especially if you experience anxiety in the past, you're much more susceptible to feeling anxiety um from using cannabis products. And especially if you don't have a tolerance to THC, you know, as if you are an everyday cannabis consumer, you're going to build a tolerance and you're going to start to feel less and less anxious when you consume.

So the, you know, quote stoners, stoners feel anxiety a lot less than people who are a little newer to cannabis or use it more sporadically. If you use it more sporadically, you're more susceptible to getting anxiety. And I can go into the biochemistry of that if you want. Um but there are um there are other adverse effects too. Um I think a lot of people talk about schizophrenia um when they talk about cannabis and this is this is something that needs to be part of the conversation because it is definitely actually linked to your endocanabonoid system.

There's been quite a bit of data that shows that people who are schizophrenic have different levels of endocanabonoids in their body. What exactly does that mean? I don't know. But we also need to frame the conversation around schizophrenia um a little differently because I hear people talking about it like it's the common cold. Like like I used cannabis and I caught schizophrenia. Like what do you mean? That's not how it works. So you definitely need a genetic predisposition of schizophrenia to be at risk of schizophrenia.

So, I would not recommend using cannabis products because the data shows that THC does not cause schizophrenia, but it can decrease the age in which you experience your first episode related to schizophrenia. So, if the average age of schizophrenia onset is 25 years old, then people who use cannabis may experience that at 22 or 23 years old instead of 25 years old. So, it can decrease the age in which you experience it, which can be really scary and it can make, you know, the the episodes worse with schizophrenia.

So, it's something to be aware of, especially if you're genetically susceptible. Um, but if you're not genetically susceptible, it's not something you have to worry about like catching. Um, so I think that's just kind of something that we need to frame the conversation around because I've heard a lot of stigma and a lot of misinformation presented around that topic. So, it's something to be aware of, but you don't need to be like scared of, you know, catching it. Um, and then other adverse effects. I mean, obviously smoking anything is not necessarily great for your lungs.

So, that is something to be aware of, but smoking cannabis produces way less carcinogens compared to smoking tobacco products. So, they're not on the same playing field. smoking tobacco products, nicotine products, it directly produces carcinogens that we call nitrosamines and these are not produced by smoking cannabis. But smoking cannabis does still produce tar and tar can kind of clog up those really delicate um airway tubes that you don't want to clog up with tar over time. So, something to be aware of as well if you're a chronic smoker.

You know, if you start to feel like you're coughing up a lot of fleg or it's getting harder to to breathe or you can't, you know, do your exercises anymore, then that is absolutely an adverse effect from smoking because smoking anything is, you know, not recommended for lung health. Is a vaping healthier or or worse? Vaping I would say is healthier, but there are other there's a variety of types of vapes that you can use. So, [snorts] I think the healthiest way to inhale cannabis is using actually I have one right here.

So, this is a dry herb vape. Dry herb meaning you are putting cannabis flour in it. So, if you're watching the video of this, I'm holding it up. You can see that there's cannabis flour in the chamber. And then you close it up, you press a button, and it just heats it up to a temperature that's going to be able to vaporize your medicinal compounds in that flour. So your THC, your CBD, the flavorful compounds that we call tarpen. And then when you inhale it, you're only inhaling the vapor of those compounds.

So you're not smoking. You're not taking in all the byproducts of combusting all the other stuff in the plant. Instead, it's like a really selective process of only vaporizing what you want to vaporize. So I think this is probably the healthiest way to to inhale cannabis products. But there are also some vapes that I wouldn't recommend. So, um, some vape oils that you might get at a dispensary or a smoke shop. Um, you know, they're I shouldn't say they're not medicinal, but some of them are really made from what we call distillate.

So, it's just distilled THC. It's like pure THC and oil, and then you're just vaping that. And over time, we have data that you can vaporize some heavy metals in your vape carts. Um, and the [clears throat] distillation process really takes out a lot of the medicinal components of the plant. So, you're just like only only vaping THC. It doesn't have all these other beautiful components of the plant and it's in this oil that you don't really know how it was processed. So, for me, I always stick to cannabis flour because I like to smell the flour.

I like to touch the flour. I like to know where the flour came from. And then, you know, using a vape like this, you can actually still vape but use flour rather than some oils. But some oils are high quality, some of them are low quality. What about edibles and tinctures? Part of the reason people can't feel edibles is cuz when you like take a gummy, you chew it, you eat it, it's processed in your liver by certain enzymes. And for some people, they either are lacking that enzyme or that enzyme is a little bit different depending on your genetics.

So, it's not able to process that THC. So, some people can literally ingest a gram of THC, that's a thousand milligrams of THC, and feel nothing. They don't feel high at all. They just feel completely completely normal. So, for some people, edibles are not an option. And you know, tinctures can kind of help bypass this. If you just kind of absorb it under your tongue, um, but they do feel a little bit different than inhaling products. So, it kind of depends on what you're going for.

If you like the feeling of edibles, which is a little bit more of a body high, so you feel like a little more um, heavy typically from an edible compared to smoking, it's a little bit more of a head high or vaping. It's a little more like cerebral. It's in your head a little bit more. Um, so it's it's a different feeling. So I think this is part of like curating your cannabis experience. Do you like edibles? Do you hate edibles? Do you like smoking? Do you hate smoking?

Do you enjoy vaping? You know, it's it's kind of personalized medicine at that point. But it is still like a healthier option compared to um smoking where you're kind of putting in those those sticky substances in your lungs and over time that can kind of build up and cause some adverse effects. Let's just go back to the risk for a second. I'm specifically interested in the risks for adolescence. I have a soon to be 11-year-old um and uh you and I both started smoking weed at 13, 14.

Uh so this feels like a looming issue that I'm going to have to figure out how to deal with it. Is it so many young people smoke whether we like it or not? Are there special risks for young people with developing brains? There definitely are risks. There's been some data that it um changes the ratio of um gray matter to white matter in your brain if you are a really young consumer, which again, we don't exactly know what the lasting effects of that would be, but clearly it's not a great thing if it's changing the way that your brain is uh developing.

But I would say what I'd be most concerned about nowadays is that the cannabis that you and I consumed when we were 13 and 14 years old, um, you know, I don't know about you, but the stuff I was consuming, it looked like hay. It was really low in THC. It was it wasn't like a beautiful sparkling nug that we might see now. And it certainly was not a vape cart. And when young kids are getting into cannabis now, it's typically vape carts. That's typically the first THC product that they're going to use.

It's not cannabis flour. It's vape carts. And these are usually really high in THC. Like some vape carts can be 98% THC and have almost nothing else in them. So my biggest concern with the younger generation is not necessarily like what's going to happen to them, but like I I don't know what to expect when people are consuming vape carts this young. Whereas, if they're consuming really really lowd dose cannabis products like what we consumed, it's a little, you know, you're you're going to get high, but it's not going to be like you're overwhelming your brain with THC.

And like vape carts as well, it's um when we like smoke a joint, you have to put it in a grinder or, you know, hand grind it, roll it up, go outside, smoke it, light it up, chill, whatever. It takes kind of a long time, right? with vape carts. I mean, you can just hit it 10 times in your room, no problem. It's going to be way less smelly. It's a lot more discreet, and it's just an unbalanced product. It doesn't have everything that the plant has to offer.

So, I don't really know what to expect from younger people consuming vape carts at higher ratios than we've seen before, but um I think it's definitely a less sustainable, less healthy option for the brain compared to how people used to be consuming cannabis at young ages. What are you going to say to your kid as is it boy or girl as as he approaches the age at which you started using cannabis? What are you going to say to him? Oh, such a good question. One, you know, wait as long as you can.

Uh, two, I would rather use cannabis than any other drug out there if you do like if you need to use a substance. Like cannabis, I think, is the safest one out of the other options available to um, young people. But also, like I would really hope you would come to me first. And I know that's like crazy to think about because you're like, okay, you're obviously a new mom. your your kid's not going to come to you and be like, "Mom, should I smoke this weed?" Um, but I would I would just encourage like low doses of everything.

You can always take more of something. No, whether it's alcohol, whether it's cannabis, whether it's you tea, you can always take more, but you cannot reel back as easily. So, I think I will teach him the art of titrating your dose no matter what you're taking. And then hopefully that will be a harm reduction strategy in the future. no matter what situation he's in that hopefully he can take a low dose, see how it makes him feel and then um go from there and and hopefully prevent something bad from happening.

Is it safe to drive uh after having consumed THC? consumed THC? consumed THC? We have some really interesting data on this. So the data that we know about THC and driving is that [snorts] people who are naive to cannabis, new users, it is not safe to drive. it messes up their hand eye coordination, their motor control uh quite substantially. However, people who have a tolerance to cannabis, people who are either medical consumers or been consuming for a long time, there was really statistically not a danger to the road.

Their hand eye coordination was fine. They were able to drive without being a risk. Um, so it's a it's really dependent on your comfortability with THC and how much it affects you. And I think this is really important though because this is a conversation around tolerance to to THC and the reason why people who have a really high tolerance to THC are at less risk of anxiety or have a better hand eye coordination when they're driving is because as you build a tolerance you have less cannabonoid receptors in your brain.

So THC has less things to bind to. So it's causing less of a reaction in your brain. So, if you have a really high tolerance, you're actually going to experience less of an effect of cannabis compared to somebody who's really naive to cannabis and they have a shitload of receptors in their brain that are already to be activated by THC. And then when you smoke or take an edible, all of those are going to get activated and you're going to feel a lot compared to somebody who's been using cannabis for 10 years and they have an extremely high tolerance.

And they just are also comfortable with the feeling of cannabis and what to expect from cannabis. It's much less of a surprise to them. It's something that, you know, they're experts in dosing themselves. They're experts in curating their products, and they're experts in understanding what their body's going to feel like. You and I are both on TikTok. Uh, it is not unusual for me to see videos of super high dogs who got into their um owners um stash. How safe or unsafe is cannabis for pets?

I I hate seeing dogs that are dosed on cannabis because it's not safe for them and we should not be giving dogs THC unless it is like a micro dose of THC. Um CBD has been shown to be safe for animals. uh but THC has not been and it's really important you know I mentioned that you me my dog my cat we all have endocanabonoid systems but we all don't have like the same distribution in our body of our endocanabonoid system so for dogs they have more of these receptors in the parts of their brain that control their movement and their bowel control so if you give a dog too much THC you might see um them unable to move for a little bit.

It's called static atexia. So, they're unable to move for a little bit. They might get a little nauseous. Uh they might vomit. They might pee. They might not be able to control their bowels. It's it's a really sad situation. And, you know, they won't die. You're not going to die from using cannabis. And your pet's not going to die from using cannabis, but it's going to be really uncomfortable for them. And they don't understand cannabis. They're going to feel like they're being poisoned, like they might, you know, that they're out of control.

It's it's a sad situation. So whether you're hotboxing your car with your animal in it or you're dosing your animal, like just don't do it. Uh you know, dose yourself. Don't dose your animals. Don't dose your friends. [clears throat] Um but it's it's not safe for animals. And finally, just in ter on a practical tip here, we've we've talked a lot about, you know, with THC, start low and go slow. Uh we've talked about the different delivery mechanisms, edibles, vaping, smoking, uh tinctures. What about sourcing your product?

Where what's the best and safest place to shop for this stuff? And what should we know as we're shopping? Yeah. So, I will say um I'd say the two best places to source products are either one, a legal dispensary where your products are tested and you can understand exactly how much THC, CBD, tarpen, all the different things are in that product. or number two, uh, grow your own or have a friend growing with you or for you because I'm a [snorts] huge huge proponent for homegrown cannabis because it typically is lower test.

So, it's not going to be like 30% THC. It might be like 10% THC. And that's going to be a lot more similar to the cannabis that you might be imagining in your head of like what we used to smoke 10, 15 years ago. So, it's usually a lower test. It's a little more balanced and you know exactly where it came from. If you're growing it, you know where that seed came from. You know what's in your soil. You know, you know, maybe you have a spiritual connection with that plant.

It's kind of all in one. So, huge proponent for Homegrow. And then, of course, yeah, your legal dispensaries are another great option. But a lot of dispensaries do not carry CBD products or like balanced onetoone THC CBD products. Um because you can purchase CBD online. So why would a dispensary spend all that extra tax money that they're going to get taxed on that like an egregious amount when people can just purchase it online? So unfortunately there's not a lot of incentive for dispensaries to carry CBD products.

I think this should change. Um, but I'd say those are your two best avenues. And then, um, yeah, I think everyone should start growing. You'll get a completely different appreciation for the plant when you're able to smell it every day, see what goes into producing quality flour, drying it, and then smoking something that you put all of your love and energy into. It's like a completely different cannabis experience than, you know, purchasing something from a farm that maybe you have no idea about the product at all.

Seems like the bottom line for anybody who's interested in using this plant, either somebody like me who might want to get reintroduced to it or uh an experienced user who's trying to figure out how to uh go even deeper or somebody who's totally new to it and and you know looking for some relief from chronic pain or menopause. Uh so it seems like the bottom line is this is really individual. You can you uh Dr. Kirk can can arm us with some information, but we need to be running careful tests in our own bodies.

own bodies. own bodies. Yes. And that's always my advice is like, you know, try a diff a few different strains, try a puff, try a little bit, see how it makes you feel, cuz it really is personalized medicine. And honestly, I get why people don't want to dive into this because it is like a lot of time and energy to learn how to use, you know, weed, which it kind of is a little counterintuitive to how we think about weed because it's like, oh, just spark it up, dude.

Chill out. But it's like if you really want to learn how to use it in a sustainable way, you kind of do have to dive deep into yourself and into the plant. But there's also a lot of dispensaries now will have somebody on staff who can help you walk walk you through this. So, it doesn't just need to be you on your own. Um, there are like actual professionals that can help you find products that work really well with your body. Um, so that's another um great avenue to go to and use your resources at the dispensary.

And talk to them and say, "Okay, I'm a really anxious person, but I also have fibromyalgia, but I have trouble sleeping, but I'm looking for a daytime product." You know, you're able to kind of talk through it with them, and they can either help you find one product, a couple products, learn how to dose yourself. So, you don't need to be on the journey absolutely alone. Um, there's definitely a ton of resources, especially in the legal industry that you can lean on. And of course, you can read Reaper Wellness: Understanding Cannabis Science, Culture, and Medicine uh by Dr.

Riley Kirk. And you can follow uh her on Tik Tok. You're on Instagram and other platforms. platforms. platforms. Yep, I'm on Tik Tok, Instagram, and YouTube. YouTube. YouTube. Anything else that you put out into the world that we should know about? I do have a podcast. It's called Bioactive and it discusses cannabis as well as other natural products, how they work in the body, talking to some researchers in the industry and kind of just getting a different perspective on it. And then I mentioned I also do research um through a nonprofit organization that I co-founded.

It's called NAP. Um, so if you want to check that out, we do a lot of research with cannabis consumers as well as um other natural products like cava andratom, how people are dosing themselves and what medicinal benefits that we're seeing. Anything else uh you want to say before I uh let you go on with your day? No, but I would say like cannabis can be extremely safe and effective medicine. Um, so I would highly recommend people explore it. uh because of the way the ECS works, it can be good for almost anything.

But if you continually have negative experiences with cannabis, it's okay to stay away from it as well. Like not every single person is going to react well to cannabis, that doesn't mean that we should limit access to this plant. It just means that your body isn't vibing well with cannabis. And that's totally fine. That's expected with every single medicine that's out in the world. Same with cannabis. Dr. for Riley Kirk. Thank you very much. Thanks so much for having me on, Dan. This has been fun.