Researchers including Oregon State University, The Global Hemp Innovation Center in the College of Pharmacy and Linus Pauling Institute and the University of Waterloo’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences, have conducted tests exposing human cells to COVID genes along with specific compounds of cannabidiol (CBD) increased the human cell’s ability to destroy the virus rather than allowing it to replicate itself.
Compounds in Experiment:
- Cannabigerolic Acid (CBGA)
- Cannabidiolic Acid (CBDA)
These compounds are found in the raw plant and are essential to its maturity as well as creation of CBD, THC and other cannabinoids. Richard van Breeman is an American Pharmacologist affiliated with Oregon State University. Richard led the team in conducting this experiment and at this time is a headlining figure online with respect to its validity, potential and the need for continued research.
Further experiments have taken place in other institutions to help us understand this further. “Our research suggests that 7-OH-CBD, a compound produced after the body processes CBDA, “can block SARS-Cov-2 infection at early and even later stages of infection,” This study was led by academics at the University of Chicago.
What’s the Connection between Cannabis and COVID-19?
With the already mounted resistance and/or hesitation against COVID -19 vaccines, the use of cannabis compounds in these experiments follows the same biological logic as the vaccines do, created to bind with the virus and prevent it from penetrating human cells. A review of 1,212 patients in a study called the “National COVID Cohort Collaborative” revealed that the COVID infection rate among people with a medical record of taking pharmaceutical-grade CBD was 6.2 percent, compared to 8.9 percent for people not taking CBD. CBD’s preventative potential was further highlighted by people who took CBD the same day as their COVID-19 tests. A subset of 531 patients “who were likely taking” 100 milligrams of CBD, their positivity rate was 4.9% compared to a rate of 9% percent among the group not taking the drug. Deferring from pharmaceutical intervention is not a new trend. Today, you would not be hard pressed to find an individual to argue that naturally occurring substances like the ones discussed here, have the greatest potential in managing the challenges we face.
It is important to remember that everything has a cost. Experiments already conducted on mice were composed of two doses of the compounds discussed, 20 and 90 mg per kg of body weight. That’s a substantial dose; a 150-pound person would have to take a heroic 5,440 milligrams of CBD to have as good of a time as the mice did. Currently, some companies sell 10,000 mgs, less than two doses, for $250.
Will smoking weed protect me from Covid-19?
Smoking marijuana will not completely protect you from COVID-19, no matter how much anyone wants it to be true, however it is worth continuing to validate how effective CBD can potentially be in lessening the severity and spread of the virus. Taken together, these findings are fuelling a misconception that smoking cannabis or taking over-the-counter CBD drops are useful against COVID. They’re not. What happens in a petri dish or test tube is much simpler than what can occur in animals or the human body.
As we continue to wrestle with the feeling that the pandemic is nowhere near an end, finding effective and easily adopted methods of moving closer to an end is of critical importance.
