How hemp legalization opens up new health care possibilities
President Donald Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill on Thursday, which fully legalizes growing hemp. While this is a big win for farmers, it is also a win in the medical field.
CBD oil is a component of hemp. Now that hemp is legalized, it could reduce the price of CBD oil, which doctors say has many benefits.
“It gives patients another option, if you will, other than prescriptive narcotics for pain management, for anxiety, for depression, for inflammation,” said Laura Mason, a family nurse practitioner who sells CBD oil. “For different things like Parkinson’s, for Alzheimer’s.”
Mason began researching CBD oil when her sister was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. She says while her sister, who lives in California, has a medical marijuana card, she sees more improvement from CBD oil.
“She gets more benefit from the CBD,” Mason said. “We have seen a great improvement in the anxiety she experiences, the shakes, the tremors that she experiences. So she gets some great benefit from CBD. She does not like the THC.” THC is the psychoactive compound of cannabis. It is present in CBD oil, but only in very small quantities.
Mason says many people have a negative view of CBD oil because of its close relation to marijuana. She wants to remind people that they are two separate things.
“One, the CBD component can have a wide spectrum of things that it is helpful for,” she said. “Versus THC, which is that euphoric, that people want that high.”
Mason is hoping that the legalization of hemp will provide more options for patients, but she acknowledges that some prescription medicines are still preferred.
“And I am not saying that patients are supposed to run out and completely forget about their prescriptive medications, because there are medicines that are appropriate for specific things at specific times, but this could be an adjunct to that. It could be helpful,” she said.
Mason also wants to remind people that if you do want to try CBD oil, make sure you get it from someone knowledgeable about it. If you’d like to learn more about CBD oil, you can call Laura’s business, Releaf, at 208-970-4224.
