With COVID, we have never been more aware of critical shortages of masks, ventilators, hospital beds, etc., all leading to rationing. In this BLOG, Dr Frankel, examines how rationing in our medical care is a much bigger problem than just face masks.
Anyone familiar with my views on the cannabis plant knows that I am a
“whole plant guy” and for the most part have found hemp/industrial hemp to be a poor source of medication. Undeniably, hemp is a wonderful source of fiber, and now with the Farm Bill in effect, we will be growing a lot of industrial hemp to be used to make everything from paper to buildings.
There is no doubt in my mind that the current version of industrial hemp has tremendous value. The theory makes sense; going back a few thousand years, hemp and cannabis plants were always found on the spectrum of industrial fiber and medicine.
Hopefully, the value of cannabis in whole plant form will be recognized and reserved for medication, but it’s not so simple anymore. A group at UC Davis was able to cross a CBD rich whole plant cannabis plant with a hemp plant, yielding a very low THC cannabis plant. Additionally, from what I’ve heard, it can be grown very economically as well.
In my practice, about 20% of my patients use primarily CBD, leaving 80% requiring THC and more. There are other cannabinoids that are more rare that are emerging on the marketplace, such as THCV, which I suppose could be crossed with a Version 2 hemp plant. Since by law, there can be no more than 0.3% THC in these new Version 2 medically laden hemp plants, the majority of my patients will still need whole plant cannabis for optimal medicinal benefits.
So, does this new hybrid change my mind regarding the value of hemp in medicine? Not yet. I have been meeting with folks in the industry for nearly one year and I have never been able to receive a “bud” of this new hemp CBD.
I am eagerly awaiting samples of the Version 2 hemp plant and intend to extract them, measure the terpenes and report back.
If anyone out there actually has a few buds, as it is legal, please let me know if you’d like to make some available to me for testing and research.
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