One of the most controversial drugs in America can’t even get you high. Derived from marijuana, CBD, or cannabidiol, could help treat a range of medical conditions, early research suggests — but its Schedule I status has made it hard to study, leaving researchers and patients in the dark.
Although it’s usually found as an oil, CBD can be infused into snacks and drinks, or come in transdermal patches, vaporizers, suppositories, and concentrates or “dabs.” It can be made synthetically, but it’s much easier to just harvest CBD from a plant like hemp or Cannabis sativa, using either ethanol or CO2 extraction.
CBD has been suggested as a treatment for everything from anxiety to addiction to depression, but much of the research is still preliminary. Accordingly, global policy around the molecule is very much in flux.
It’s a substance adored by “marijuana moms,” and the World Health Organization recently concluded CBD is non-toxic, non-addictive, and non-intoxicating. The World Anti-Doping Agency recently began allowing it, but still bans smoking pot. Almost 40 states have adopted programs encouraging the explosive growth of, and research into, industrial hemp.
Some public schools even permit students to use CBD, though others have recently prohibited it.
