CBD growing in popularity across the Central Valley
A product made from marijuana and hemp plants, known as Cannabidiol (CBD), is calling a lot of attention in the Central Valley.
“People have friends that once they try it and then their parents try it their friends parents try it and that’s what’s been happening now,” said JoJo Contino, owner of ‘Limitless.’
Although the CBD ingredient in products like Contino’s ‘Limitless’ comes from the marijuana plants it does not contain THC, the ingredient that produces a high.
“These have no addictive properties, they’re all natural,” said Contino.
He says he started using the products first for pain relief and now he sells them.
“I threw my back out a couple months ago and I was loading it taking, taking it every couple hours instead of taking all the ibuprofens, all the aspirins…I started trying the samples and started passing out the samples and then it was just all over from there,” said Contino.
Contino says his clients use his products from everything ranging from aches and pains to illness.
“It’s helping with headaches, it’s helping with anxiety, I get a lot of pets, PTSD,” said Contino.
‘Limitless’ targets sleep, energy, and pain.
However, the key word here is ‘target,’ because whether they in fact treat those symptoms is not yet known.
“Anecdotally, we know it does a myriad of things,” Cohen said. “But, scientifically, there are no peer-reviewed studies or things like that they want to see before you can definitely say that it helps with Diabetes, that it helps with pain, or helps with inflammation,” said Robert Cohen from the Cohen Medical Group.
In summer of 2018, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved a prescription cannabidiol derived from marijuana for the first time. It’s called Epidiolex, and it’s used to treat seizures that are associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome, which are two severe and rare forms of epilepsy.
A World Health Organization report says: “There is also evidence that CBD may be a useful treatment for a number of other medical conditions. However, this research is considerably less advanced than for treatment of epilepsy.”
With time, that could begin to change. Late in 2018, Congress passed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, known as the Farm Bill. A part of the new legislation legalized the sale and cultivation of hemp on a federal level.
So, do you wait it out or see what the buzz is about?
Contino says he didn’t wait when wanting to ease his mother’s pain while battling breast cancer.
“She had a lot of nausea through the chemo and so this helped her out a lot…and then she started dropping her medications down and realized that these products were working out great and eventually went on to the products alone,” said Contino.