The curious would come in, and slowly browse the entire store. Sometimes they would whisper amongst themselves. Finally, when they were the only ones left in the store, they would ask the question. “Where’s the CBD?” It reminded me of the Cheech and Chong skit about “Dave” coming back with the “stuff.” (I know I'm "dating" myself. If you have not idea what I'm talking about, do an internet search.)

We used to own a gift shop in our little town. When we started selling CBD, people would often come in to the store for CBD, but be afraid to ask for it. Most of our customers were over the age of 50 and because many people associate CBD with marijuana they still considered it to be taboo, especially those visiting from outside of Colorado.

Then the education would begin. There is so much misinformation about CBD and we were happy to educate people so they knew what it was for, how they could use it, and then they could decide if it was for them.

Will I get arrested if I bring this back to my state?

Many people wanted to know if they could get pulled over and be arrested. Unfortunately that is a gray area. Each state has its own laws pertaining to CBD, even though the H.R.2-Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 legalized industrial hemp federally.

There have been reports of people leaving Colorado and being pulled over in Kansas, New Mexico and other states bordering Colorado, primarily because recreational marijuana is legal here. If one of our customers had a concern about that, we would research the issue on the spot for them if they didn’t know the CBD laws in their state.

I will say, many states have come around on the issue since 2018.

Industrial Hemp vs. Marijuana. What’s the difference?

First, both plants are from the same species: Cannabis sativa.

The CBD we sell is extracted from the Industrial Hemp plant which is a cousin to the marijuana plant. Hemp naturally produces a larger quantity of CBD and only a minimal amount of THC compared to the marijuana plant.

Industrial Hemp has historically been used for things like clothing, rope, building materials, paper, cosmetics and food.

Compared to CBD from a marijuana shop, our CBD is only legally allowed to contain up to .3% THC, not enough to make you high.

Marijuana is cultivated specifically for its THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) component. The higher, (pun intended), concentration of THC, the better. If a marijuana dispensary is selling CBD, you can be pretty confident that it contains a considerable amount of THC.

Another difference between selling hemp CBD and marijuana CBD is that one is strictly licensed, regulated and taxed, and the other is not.

Benefits of CBD

Although there are numerous ongoing CBD studies, there generally isn’t enough data yet on specific ailments to show absolute benefit claims. Therefore, we always start with a disclaimer that it is not FDA approved, etc. Although we have hundreds of customers who have found relief using CBD, I will only provide my personal testimony as to the benefits I have experienced by using it.

Pain relief

I was suffering pain accompanied by swelling and stiffness in the joints of my fingers. I thought I was getting arthritis, but it was more likely due to my job as a florist, cutting flower stems, while prepping flowers. I decided to try CBD when I went to bed, because that’s when they hurt the most, sometimes it was too painful to sleep.

When you’re not in pain, do you notice?

I took half a dropper of CBD nightly for three weeks. I probably could have stopped sooner, but that’s when I noticed that the pain had stopped. I woke up one morning and realized my hands didn’t hurt. I don’t really know when that happened. When you’re not in pain, do you notice? So, I cut back to every other night for a week and then cut back again to every few nights. I’m no longer working as a florist, so I haven’t had that particular kind of pain in a long time.

For those of you curious and taking notes, my dosage was half a dropper of full spectrum 500 mg CBD tincture held under my tongue for up to one minute. More specifically, that comes to 8.33 mg of CBD each night.

The reason CBD has the potential to ease pain is that CBD has anti-inflammatory properties; inflammation is the root cause of most pain.

Sleep.

Ah yes, a good night’s rest. But not being able to sleep is more than frustrating. I’ve had my share of sleepless nights and have used CBD to help me sleep.

My mind churns and I’m often “chasing squirrels” in every direction when I’m trying to get to sleep. But if I take a quarter to half a dropper of CBD about a half-hour before I go to bed, I can usually fall asleep and stay asleep without any problem.

CBD does not make you sleepy; however, it can relax your mind so that you can fall asleep. I won’t claim it works every time, but enough for me to try that before anything else.

Okay, I don’t want to sound like an infomercial so I’ll stop with my testimonies. I just wanted to share some of my experiences in case you’re curious.

Beware the “hemp” products.

Just because a product has hemp in its name or contains hemp seed oil does not mean it contains CBD.

First of all, hemp seed oil does not contain CBD and there are a lot of products on the market containing hemp seed oil. Unless a label states it contains CBD and includes the number of milligrams of CBD in it, walk away and choose another product.

Hey man, ya got the stuff? It’s really not as scary as it sounds. You’re familiar with essential oils right? CBD is an essential oil from the Industrial Hemp plant.

There's still a lot to learn and research is on-going. I hope this helped answer some of your questions. If you still have questions, please email us at PearlsGoldCBD@gmail.com, we'll help if we can.