By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
Cannabis is one of the most versatile plants on Earth and boasts a seemingly limitless number of uses. From medicine to fiber to recreation, there are a lot of common applications for which people use cannabis, but there are some that you might not be aware of. Here are just a few less commonly known applications for the plant.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder which can manifest in such ways as abnormal social behavior, difficulty distinguishing what is real, hearing voices, reduced social engagement, and lack of motivation. While smoking marijuana was once believed to be a cause of schizophrenia, a study by the Harvard Medical School determined that that was not true. Although, they did find that when there is an increased familial risk of schizophrenia, THC use could bring about an early onset of the condition. But while THC might be contributing to the condition’s premature arrival, it appears that CBD (cannabidiol) might be able to reverse the process. Following nearly eight years of pre-clinical research the UK-based, cannabis-focused GW Pharmaceuticals conducted a trial in 2015 involving 88 schizophrenic patients who were showing no response to antipsychotic drugs. Patients continued to take their regular medications throughout the study and randomly received CBD or a placebo. With the addition of CBD to their daily medication regimen, patients showed a mitigation of schizophrenic symptoms during the trials while exhibiting a reduction in side-effects produced by the other medications they were taking.
Acne
CBD is getting more attention now than it ever has before. The once misunderstood cannabinoid is now a hero cure to people of all ages who have experienced its healing and restorative effects. The four primary causes of acne are oil production, dead skin cells, clogged pores, and bacteria. All of these factors contribute to an overproduction of sebum which results in pimples. In 2009, Hungarian scientist Dr. Tamás Bíró conducted research with legal CBD and discovered that it could suppress acne-causing lipid production in the skin without creating itchy, dry skin as is the case with other vitamin A-derived treatments like Accutane. Australian-based Botanix Pharmaceuticals is currently conducting trials on BTW 1503, a synthetic CBD product to reduce sebum production. The company has reported positive results with some participants experiencing only some slight dryness of the skin.
Cigarette Addiction
In 2013, researchers at the University College London discovered that CBD could be used to help smokers who wanted to quit significantly reduce the number of cigarettes that they smoked. Co-author of the study, Celia Morgan, Ph.D. said that “We found that CBD seems to reduce the salience of cues. It also can reduce anxiety and may affect a memory process called ‘reconsolidation,’ which is where when a memory of the reward of smoking is re-activated by seeing someone smoking, it is rendered vulnerable to destruction.” For the study, 24 smokers were split into two groups and given inhalers; half of them were filled with CBD, and the other twelve contained a placebo. After one week, the placebo group showed no change in smoking habits, but the group that received the CBD inhalers reduced their smoking by 40%
Asthma
An asthma attack can be brought on by a number of different triggers including, food, allergens, physical exertion, and cold air. When an attack happens, muscles around airways in the lungs become inflamed, swell, and fill with mucus. The result is at times, severely restricted breathing which can even be fatal. Smoking is not generally recommended for people living with asthma as the activity can exacerbate the condition. But inhaled cannabis can actually help relieve asthma attacks as well as prevent them. THC and CBD both exhibit anti-inflammatory properties which, when inhaled, are known to reduce bronchial swelling and inflammation, loosen mucus and open air passages. Vaporization is a good modern alternative for cannabis-using asthma patients who do not wish to smoke.
Currency
While using marijuana in place of money on a personal level is a common practice, there was a time when hemp was accepted as currency in the United States of America. In the 17th century, farmers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia were required to grow hemp; violation of the hemp law eventually became an imprisonable offense. For more than 200 years prior to the criminalization of the plant, hemp was an acceptable currency with which one could pay their taxes.
Paint
The word canvas derives from the 13th-century Anglo-French canavaz and Old French canavaz which come from the Vulgar Latin cannapaceus, or “made of hemp.” For hundreds of years, both the canvas and some of the paints applied to it have been made from hemp. Traditional hemp seed varnishes, stains, sealers, and milk paints are available even today from a variety of modern manufacturers boasting low toxicity, efficient, eco-friendly products.
Batteries
Graphene is a sheet of carbon atoms that are connected in a honeycomb pattern and is a common component in battery-making due to its lightweight, durable composition. But graphene can be expensive to produce, so scientists work to find alternative substances from which to manufacture it. In 2014, Dr. David Mitlin of Clarkson University, New York demonstrated the ability to turn cannabis bark into carbon nanosheets and build supercapacitors that performed as well or better than graphene at a fraction of the cost. Bast fiber (inner bark) left over from industrial hemp manufacturing processes is typically thrown in a landfill, but Dr. Mitlin and his team recycled the fibers to create the supercapacitors at a lower price than graphene. The nanosheets worked out to around $500-$1,000 a ton.
Human history is full of examples of humans utilizing the cannabis plant in virtually every walk of life. And though legal marijuana and hemp production have been suppressed for decades, there is a massive wave of legalization sweeping the United States as well as the rest of the world. As cannabis regains acceptance, and new laws are enacted, we can surely look forward to exciting discoveries and new uses for the most versatile plant on the planet.
