A stoner's guide to quitting nicotine

This is an article that I wrote for the West Coast Leaf (Don't know yet if they will use it or not.) You guys may find it interesting!
 
[SIZE=14pt]Trying to Quit Tobacco? Try Quitting With CBD! [/SIZE]
 
By “Granny Storm Crow”         
                                                                                                                    
So there you are again, buying some “heavy-duty” marijuana, hoping that getting really stoned will help you cope with the “joneses” while trying to quit tobacco.  You know you have to quit tobacco; it's really messing up your long-term health!  That high grade marijuana will help a bit, but I recently came across a study at PubMed that says it's not the THC that you need to help you quit, it's cannabidiol/ CBD!
 
The title says it in rather plain language for a medical study.  â€œCannabidiol reduces cigarette consumption in tobacco smokers: Preliminary findings”. Not “may reduce”, but just plain “reduces”! Usually, scientists will stick in a “may” into their titles unless the results were unusually convincing-and I have to admit that their simple little experiment gave some pretty remarkable results.
 
Cannabidiol (CBD) is the #2 compound in cannabis. Unlike THC, CBD does not get you high, but it does have a subtle calming effect. CBD can lessen pain as effectively as THC, but uses a different “chemical pathway” to do it.  CBD is obviously a cannabinoid, and it apparently activates some sort of endocannabinoid receptor, but no one knows just which type yet. It certainly isn't the CB1 receptor, since that is responsible for the THC “high” (and much more).  And because it has no high, CBD is a very popular cannabinoid to study, even though scientists aren't quite sure how, or why, it works!  
 
It's been known for only a few years that the body's endocannabinoid system plays a part in ending tobacco addiction.  So they could get absolutely unbiased, honest results in this study on quitting tobacco, it was conducted as a “double blind” study.  Neither the doctors, nor the 24 smokers who wished to stop smoking tobacco, knew who received the real CBD inhalers, and who received the placebo inhalers.  â€œDouble blind” experiments are fun since nobody really knows what is going on until all the data has been collected and gone over. The numbers do the talking. This also makes them very hard to challenge for any suspected bias!  
 
For the study, the tobacco smokers were randomly divided into 2 groups of 12. Each person received an inhaler for 1 week, and was instructed to use the inhaler whenever they felt the urge to smoke. During that week, the “placebo inhaler group” used their inhalers as instructed, but they all ended up smoking just same as always.  Just using an inhaler does not seem to affect cigarette consumption, either way.
 
Things were quite different with the “CBD inhaler group”.  Without doing anything differently from the “placebo inhaler” group, they cut their tobacco intake by about 40% during the seven days of the study! Afterwards, in the follow-up for the study, it was noted that some of the CBD smokers maintained their lower consumption of cigarettes- even without the inhaler.
 
The question that comes to mind is, what might have happened if the study had gone on for 2 more weeks? Would they have been able to quit completely? I am sure that by now, some of you are wondering where you can find a CBD inhaler.  You can't! They are not sold anywhere! (If any of you decide to make your first couple million with a stop smoking kit containing a CBD inhaler, please remember who turned you on to the idea! LOL)
 
And unfortunately, most of us simply don't have the equipment needed to manufacture a CBD inhaler lying around the house.  But cannabis is versatile! It has been known for years that alcohol-based tinctures are medically effective when used either as sublingual drops (under your tongue), or as an oral spray.  Sativex, a legally prescribed medicine in the UK and Canada, is nothing more than a 50/50 THC/CBD alcohol tincture in a fancy spray bottle!  A dropper-full of tincture, used sublingually, does act a bit slower than inhaling a mist from an inhaler, but it still begins working within a minute or two!
 
If your local dispensary doesn't carry ready-made “High CBD” alcohol tinctures, making a strong tincture at home is well within the capabilities of everyone.  The most basic recipe for creating a tincture is just grind up your herb, put it in a glass jar and add some high proof vodka.  Seal the jar.  Keep the jar in the dark, and shake once a day for a week or more. Gently pour off the liquid and strain it to remove any stray particles. Put your tincture into a bottle with either a spray top, or a dropper top (check the health food store for them). Many folks think that adding a little mint extract, and/or a tiny bit of stevia, sugar or honey, improves the tincture.  Store your tincture in a cool, dark, place and it will keep for years. Many fancier tincture recipes are available online.
 
And remember how much fun it was as a kid to do “science experiments”?  Why not make “Quitting tobacco with CBD” your next “science experiment”? Recapture some of the fun and get healthier while you are at it! See if you can duplicate the results of the study, or better them!
 
Finally, for the doubters, and the science nerds who absolutely need to see the study for themselves, here's the abstract from PubMed. (And it's even fairly readable, for a change!)
 
Cannabidiol reduces cigarette consumption in tobacco smokers: Preliminary findings. [SIZE=8pt](PubMed- 2013)[/SIZE]
 
The role of the endocannabinoid system in nicotine addiction is being increasingly acknowledged. We conducted a pilot, randomised double blind placebo controlled study set out to assess the impact of the ad-hoc use of cannabidiol (CBD) in smokers who wished to stop smoking. 24 smokers were randomised to receive an inhaler of CBD (n=12) or placebo (n=12) for one week, they were instructed to use the inhaler when they felt the urge to smoke. Over the treatment week, placebo treated smokers showed no differences in number of cigarettes smoked. In contrast, those treated with CBD significantly reduced the number of cigarettes smoked by ~40% during treatment. Results also indicated some maintenance of this effect at follow-up. These preliminary data, combined with the strong preclinical rationale for use of this compound, suggest CBD to be a potential treatment for nicotine addiction that warrants further exploration.
 
Quitting tobacco is never easy, but switching to a strain of marijuana with a high level of cannabidiol just might make it a bit easier for you to end your addiction to cigarettes. So far, there is just this one study using CBD inhalers, but others should follow to replicate and build on it.  There are no studies on whether CBD helps with quitting when it is smoked, or used in other ways, but when they do show up, they will be available in “Granny Storm Crow's List”.  There are various editions of the List is online at several sites, or you can get your own free, up-to-date, PDF copy of the List by sending an email to stormcrow(at)greenpassion.org
 
 
 
 
Hope that helps!
 
 
Granny

 

I found a pack of cigarettes in my car with one left.
After a three hour long argument with myself, I broke it in half and threw it away. It was tough, but i did it!

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Greetings all!

Please forgive my ignorance as I have not plowed through the several pages of this thread, just adding my method, without being hip to the conversation.

I read a book called "the easy way to stop smoking," it's by Allen Carr. I'd suggest it to anyone looking to stop smoking ciggies. There are no scare tactics involved. In fact, the author suggests that you light up in certain parts of the book. Also, he discourages quitting before you've finished the whole book.

Check out the reviews on Amazon, it's legit. It's an easy read. At the end of the day, it works or it doesn't, I can assure you that you won't be worse off by reading it. Give it a gander.


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So I am well into day 5 of the no smoking(ciggies or scags as we call them over here). Had to go cold turkey and just felt like telling Phillip Morris to suckle deez nuts! I got this.

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been smokin weed 14 years, cigarettes 9 years.
#tildeath #thestruggle

 

i picked up ciggies for a year just because i liked the taste,i stopped because australian taxes have pushed some brands over $20 a pack,wasn't hard to quit,had no urge to smoke,nothing


i really dont get why i didn't feel any addiction,kinda odd

 

Apparently cyanide actually tastes like almonds but anywhos, almost 24 hours into a kinda spur of the moment quit. Smoked one yesterday afternoon n didnt even wanna finish it. Haven't had one since. Think I'll only b smoking cigs wen I drink. Can't tell if I'm more irritable than usual cause ppl annoy me anyway but I feel pretty good. No urges or anythin yetSent from my XT1030 using Grasscity Forum mobile app