Cannabidiol or “CBD” is a cannabinoid found in the plant’s essential oils that does not create a euphoric effect and can actually counteract the psychoactivity of THC. CBD is non-psychoactive making it an appealing option for people looking for relief from a wide array of ailments without any feelings of lethargy or dysphoria.
The FDA and CBD’s Potential
Since CBD is not approved as a pharmaceutical drug, the FDA disallows any statements that CBD is a treatment for any medical conditions. With that understanding, there is also scientific and clinical research, much of it sponsored by the US government, which underscores CBD’s potential as a treatment for a wide range of conditions, including arthritis, diabetes, alcoholism, MS, chronic pain, schizophrenia, PTSD, depression, antibiotic-resistant infections, epilepsy, and other neurological disorders. CBD has demonstrable neuroprotective and neurogenic effects, and its anti-cancer properties are currently being investigated at several academic research centers in the United States and elsewhere. Further evidence suggests that CBD is safe even at high doses.
The United States Cannabinoid Patent
Additionally, in 1998 the US government was awarded patent #US6630507B1 for cannabinoids that states the following: “Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention. A particular disclosed class of cannabinoids useful as neuroprotective antioxidants is formula (I) wherein the R group is independently selected from the group consisting of H, CH3, and COCH3.”
The 1998 patent also makes note of CBD’s safety in stating “No signs of toxicity or serious side effects have been observed following chronic administration of cannabidiol to healthy volunteers (Cunha et al., Pharmacology 21:175-185, 1980), even in large acute doses of 700 mg/day (Consroe et al., Pharmacol. Biochem. Behav. 40:701-708, 1991) but cannabidiol is inactive at the NMDA receptor.”
For more information about the US governments patent on CBD as a neuroprotectant: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6630507
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