No, CBD won't cure Covid. Here's what this study actually found

January 13, 2022

No, CBD won’t cure Covid. Here’s what this study actually found

Hit the brakes before cannabinoids become the next ivermectin.

The Haymaker is Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott’s opinion column on cannabis policy and culture.

A scientific study published Monday in the Journal of Natural Products sent shock waves through the cannabis industry – and went from miracle cure to nightly comedy fodder within 48 hours.

The fact is: A team of researchers from Oregon State University and Oregon Health & Science University reported that CBDA and CBGA inhibited the multiplication and spread of the novel coronavirus Covid-19 in early in-vitro laboratory tests.

CBDA and CBGA are the raw forms of CBD and CBG. Both can be obtained from federally legal hemp.

What is CBDA (cannabidiolic acid) and what are the benefits of this cannabinoid?

The researchers found that these specific cannabinoids prevent the Covid-19 protein from entering human cells. At certain potency levels, CBDA and CBGA were able to reduce virus infections – in a Petri dish – by half. The concentrations of CBDA or CBGA required to block infection in humans by half “is high”, the authors wrote, “but could be clinically achievable”.

By Wednesday night, comedy writers had made CBD the next ivermectin. This morning, the New York Times comedy round-up had these gems:

“That would be interesting. The whole time we’ve been hearing the CDC that we should have eaten CBD. ”- Jimmy Kimmel

“You know, it’s funny – all these crazy remedies, I think, ‘Oh, that’s ridiculous.’ Ivermectin, the de-wormer for horses; bleaching. And then someone says, marijuana prevents Covid, I think, ‘Oh really? Tell yourself. ‘”- Jimmy Kimmel

“In other words, the pot penetrates the body and asks Covid: ‘Are you a cell? You have to tell me if you are a cell. ‘”- Stephen Colbert

The leaf variety of the year 2021 is Dosidos!

That escalated quickly

And so, with the help of Stephen Colbert, an obscure laboratory test with CBDA has become “Can cure Covid” in the opinion of the general public.

Is the Oregon Study Exciting News? For sure. But hold on. Before you even get started on freeing CBD gums, sit down and consider the overall context of this message.

That hasn’t really been tested on humans

First, understand what the researchers found and what they didn’t.

According to the published article, this wasn’t a scale study you might assume. There were no people involved. CBDA’s potential to block the production of Covid-19 cells hasn’t even been tested on laboratory mice.

The Oregon researchers examined the known properties of CBDA and CBGA through a widely used computer model. In other words, they compared the cannabinoids to Covid-19 in a computer simulation.

After these results were promising, the Oregon team ran cell infection tests. In other words, they mixed live samples of the Covid-19 virus with CBDA, CBGA, or a neutral control in Petri dishes. After 24 hours, the researchers found that the Covid-19 virus had increased significantly less in the CBDA and CBGA samples.

THCA: Promising too

Here’s an interesting side note: the Oregon researchers reported that THCA, the raw form of THC, showed similar promise in their computer model. But because THCA is a federal illegal substance and the scientists at their facilities must comply with federal research funding rules, they couldn’t go forward and test actual THCA in cell assays. THCA may look as promising as CBDA and CBGA, but we don’t know because of the federal marijuana ban.

The keyword here is promising. Not proven. And even the word promising is far-fetched. Scientifically, the Oregon study is interesting – these results should stimulate further research, perhaps using laboratory mice. We are miles away from studies testing the effectiveness of these cannabinoids in humans.

Of course we don’t live in a normal world. We are in the middle of a global pandemic. Here in the United States, the right-wing hysteria machinery has advocated quackadoodle cures like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine while ridiculing the scientifically proven Covid-19 vaccine.

We have already seen that

The Oregon study opens up great potential, but also enormous risks. There is a public health risk as people who might otherwise be vaccinated will start chugging CBDA oil instead. And there is a risk that the very true promise of cannabinoid medicine will be lumped together with ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine and dismissed as just another over-hyped and ineffective wonder drug.

I remember the longstanding debate about the potential of cannabinoids in the fight against cancer. There are those who advocate high-dose cannabis, often in the form of Rick Simpson Oil (RSO), as an effective drug for fighting cancer. But some of the world’s foremost cannabinoid researchers, Dr. Donald Abrams and Prof. Manuel Guzmán slowed down the lecture “Cannabis Heals Cancer” in JAMA Oncology, one of the world’s most renowned, peer-reviewed cancer journals, in 2020.

Can cannabis alone cure cancer? We have the oncologist Dr. Donald Abrams asked

Abrams and Guzmán didn’t oppose the promising ongoing studies on cannabinoids and cancer, some of which are being conducted by Guzmán’s own laboratory. But the two scientists have learned from decades of hard experience that what proves to be promising in the laboratory does not always reach people. I spoke directly to Donald Abrams about this two years ago.

“Things that happen in vitro [i.e., in a lab dish], doesn’t necessarily translate into potential clinical benefit, “Abrams told me. “Culturing cells and adding chemicals to them is very different from digesting something in the human body. Humans have a digestive system, a detoxification system, and an immune system. ”All of these things contribute to the interaction of a drug, the body and cancer cells, Abrams said. “It’s a lot more complex than what you see in the test tube.”

Abrams has also seen the downside of inflated and unproven cures. As an integrative oncologist in San Francisco, he sometimes encounters patients who have given up conventional cancer treatment in favor of a cannabis cure.

“I see patients who have often waited months to get an appointment,” Abrams said. “One of the most painful things I have to do with is people with potentially curable cancer who choose to forego conventional cancer treatments and instead try to treat themselves with highly concentrated oils containing either THC, CBD, or both.”

Sure, try CBD – and the vaccine

Buyers beware. The Oregon study should lead to further studies on the potential of cannabinoids – including CBDA, CBGA, and THCA – to prevent the spread of Covid-19 at the cellular level. However, this should not result in abandoning a proven vaccine in favor of CBDA oil.

Be sure to order a supply of CBDA if you wish. But don’t you belong to the group of patients Dr. Abrams disappoint by sabotaging their own survival. Get vaccinated too.

Learn more about CBDA, CBGA, and THCA

Bruce Barcott

Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott oversees news, research, and feature projects. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and author of Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America.

Show article by Bruce Barcott

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