When you want to harness the CBD found in cannabis, there are a lot of variables to consider.

Different cannabis varieties can be grown with a range of CBD levels, and high-CBD strains that contain enough THC to be categorized as “marijuana” can offer different benefits than high-CBD hemp.

So, if you want to take advantage of all that high-CBD cannabis has to offer, and you want to understand what constitutes high-CBD, follow along through our helpful guide.

WHAT IS HIGH-CBD CANNABIS?

It can be tricky to determine when to label a cannabis strain as “high CBD.” That’s because there is not a universal threshold that qualifies. And depending on the relative amount of THC in a strain, you may notice the effects of the CBD more or less than cannabis strains with less THC.

When people talk about cannabis, they generally tend to focus on THC levels, rather than CBD levels. For instance, depending on its THC levels, a cannabis plant is classified as either marijuana or hemp. Marijuana plants can have THC levels as low as 10 percent and as high as 25 percent or even 28 percent. Hemp plants, however, are legally required to have much lower levels of THC, around 0.3 percent.

It’s common for marijuana strains to have low levels of CBD. Purple Kush, for instance, averages less than 1 percent CBD, and Blue Dream averages between 1-2 percent CBD.

So, compared to typical marijuana strains, a relatively high-CBD strain could simply be anything higher than 2% CBD. But in order to feel its effects more strongly, high-CBD marijuana will generally have higher CBD levels, closer to 5% CBD.

Hemp is often grown with higher CBD content, so a high-CBD hemp strain would have much more CBD than a high-CBD marijuana strain.

When looking for high-CBD cannabis, it’s important to first see if you want marijuana or hemp. If you want a high THC content, then you’d look at marijuana strains with CBD levels between 2-5 percent. If you don’t want much THC, then look for hemp strains.

WHY PEOPLE USE HIGH-CBD STRAINS

You might be interested in high-CBD cannabis if you want to take advantage of CBD’s many therapeutic properties. High-CBD cannabis can help with relieving minor aches and pains or sleeplessness, as well as more serious conditions like epilepsy or opioid addiction. But depending on the intended use, you may want different amounts of CBD.

For people treating epilepsy, they may need really high-CBD hemp strains like Charlotte’s Web, Remedy, and Avidekel, that have between 10-20 percent CBD. But for those treating less severe health conditions, or who just want relaxing effects, they may not need such high levels.

Ultimately, everyone’s body reacts to CBD slightly differently, so finding the CBD levels that work best for you will take some experimenting. You may see that you get the desired effects from lower levels of CBD, or you may see that you really benefit from much higher levels of CBD.

HIGH-CBD MARIJUANA

When looking for high-CBD marijuana strains, it’s best to look at the ratios of THC to CBD rather than simply the amount of CBD. When THC and CBD are combined, they can enhance each other’s therapeutic properties. This is part of a phenomenon known as the “entourage effect.”

If you’re using marijuana but want to tamper down the “high” from THC, you might prefer a high-CBD strain. That’s because high amounts of CBD should mellow out the THC’s psychoactive effects. A strain like Harlequin, which has a CBD to THC ratio of 5:2, would be good for this.

But if you want to keep the full psychoactive effects of THC, you might prefer a lower CBD to THC ratio. In that case, the CBD and THC should work together to help with whichever therapeutic relief you’re seeking. But the low level of CBD won’t dampen the THC’s “high.” A strain like Pennywise, which has a 1:1 CBD to THC ratio, is perfect for this.

HIGH-CBD HEMP

You may be familiar with hemp as a manufacturing material for things like tote bags and clothes. However, hemp is also grown as a source of CBD. High-CBD hemp strains are great for anyone looking for the therapeutic benefits of CBD without the psychoactive “high” that comes from THC.

The most well-known strain of high-CBD hemp is Charlotte’s Web. This strain was developed to treat epilepsy and has around 12 percent CBD. Another notable high-CBD strain is Avidekel. This has close to 16 percent CBD and has, supposedly, zero THC, which would be the lowest THC level of any cannabis plant today.

HOW PEOPLE CONSUME HIGH-CBD STRAINS

High-CBD marijuana strains are typically consumed as a smokable flower, or in extracts, edibles, or other products. They can essentially be treated like regular marijuana, except the “high” you would get from smoking them will not be as potent as marijuana with lower CBD levels.

While high-CBD hemp strains are usually consumed as extracted CBD oil, certain ones can also be smoked or vaporized. Traditional hemp was not potent enough for this delivery method, but some newer strains contain enough cannabinoids in the flower to make inhalation effective.

Editor’s Note: Want to know even more about CBD? You can find articles on GrowersNetwork focused on…

Sleep and Insomnia

Sleep and Insomnia 2

Quality CBD products

Mind and Body

CBD for Dogs

and CBD for Cats

You can also check out TruPotency, the only online retailer that 3rd party tests every product they sell!

With cannabis going legal in Canada as of October 2018, many cannabis enthusiasts expected a dwindling supply. That makes sense; it’s cold up north! Cannabis needs a lot of good light, something not always associated with higher latitudes, but over one hundred licenses have been doled out to Canadian growers. Additionally, the fact that Canadians spent a billion dollars on Cannabis in 2018 demonstrates that the strong demand doesn’t dwindle as winter arrives. But how can a cultivator stay profitable through the winter? Like most dynamic industries, adaptation is key. In cannabis that means indoor facilities with environmental controls that allow cultivators to grow (and harvest) through the winter.

Indoor cultivation isn’t cheap. Any experienced grower is going to know that there are a number of additional expenses when cultivating indoors and a cold environment presents many of its own challenges. No matter what the weather is doing outside, an indoor facility is going to need to control for temperature and humidity throughout the year, and this requires the right equipment to maintain consistent yields. However, if the system is properly designed, cultivators can utilize those cold temperatures to improve their climate control efficiency. How? By utilizing dry fluid coolers in these facilities, growers can use ambient outdoor temperatures without the worry of bringing in contaminated air from outside.

The advantages of a chilled water climate control system include flexibility and overall savings in costs, but another major advantage to cold climate growing is the ability to integrate dry fluid coolers. To cool a grow facility, the cultivator doesn’t add cold, but rather removes heat and this is how chilled water is used - it allows for heat exchange, in which the cold water absorbs the heat from the air and is then shunted outside via a chiller or chiller bank and refrigeration circuit.

The biggest energy drain in nearly every cooling system are the compressors. It doesn’t matter how energy efficient your facility is, compressors will be the number one consumers of energy, and this is where cold environments can work to the grower’s advantage. A dry fluid cooler allows growers to bypass the compressors all together as long as temperatures are low enough (35 degrees F/1.67 degrees C). If this is the case, cultivators can take advantage of the free cooling they get by using ambient temperatures to remove heat via a chilled water circuit. There’s also the added benefit of using this setup for humidity control. This system operates within a closed loop, meaning the water isn’t exposed to the air or being consumed (hence “dry fluid”), and often in these cases the refrigeration equipment doesn’t need to be able to operate optimally in low temperatures since the dry cooler is doing most of the cooling work. This can significantly reduce equipment and maintenance costs.

In colder climates like those experienced in Canada and the northern US, indoor facilities have allowed cultivators to grow and sell their product all year long. In these types of applications, dry coolers reduce energy costs and can pay for themselves in half a year’s time. This is a major advantage to cultivators who are not only trying to grow the best plants they can, but trying to do it year-round, no matter what the weather.

As an industry leading recruiting agency, Mac & Fulton Talent Partners have an inside look at the challenges face by job searchers in the cannabis space. To this end, M&F Talent takes great pride in helping individuals understand their place in the cannabis market. M&F Talent has partnered with Grower’s Network to help job searchers and cannabis professionals alike find success in this exciting new industry.

When looking to enter the cannabis industry on a professional level, there are several variables which should be considered. The most important of these elements concerns exactly what part of the cannabis industry one chooses to work in.

The cannabis industry present several distinct verticals of employment - these include plant touching businesses, cannabis ancillaries, hydroponics products, and the hemp market. For M&F Talent’s cannabis career tip for March, we are discussing the perks and challenges of working with plant touching businesses.

For those that did not know, the term “plant touching” is used to describe any business that directly handles cannabis plants or products. That being said, all jobs within the plant touching category are directly related to the cannabis flower in one fashion or another. Generally speaking, plant touching jobs are those that come to mind when people think about working in the cannabis industry. On that note, cultivation businesses and cannabis dispensaries offer a large percentage of plant touching jobs that are available on the market today, these roles include growers, budtenders, and trimmers.

As the industry continues to evolve, there are also a number of lesser known career paths arising with plant touching businesses. For starters, well educated plant scientists are finding jobs in tissue culture labs, as they propagate cannabis plants without either seeds or cloning. Similarly, organic chemists are being hired for extraction laboratory positions, where Good Manufacturing Practices and safety are increasingly in demand. Looking beyond that, transportation, processing, compliance, sales, and operations for cannabis companies all fall within the plant touching vertical. Moreover, as the industry matures with legalization efforts, plant touching jobs are becoming increasingly professionalized and corporatized with national, vertically integrated cannabis businesses.

Plant touching businesses are at the “front of the pack” for the green rush, they immediately populate new market opportunities as they arise. Therefore, plant touching business are the first to create new jobs within new locales of the cannabis industry. After that, other verticals such as cannabis ancillaries and hydroponics products follow suit to service new plant touching businesses. Looking at all employment sectors in the cannabis industry, plant touching businesses are experiencing the most rapid growth and offering the most new employment opportunities.

Plant touching careers appeal to a certain type of individual, usually those who enjoy working closely with cannabis plants, flowers, products, or medicine. As such, those who feel an internal draw to cannabis advocacy efforts are well suited for plant touching jobs. Similarly, job searches with a passion for horticulture generally fall within the plant touching vertical, as it is strictly these businesses that offer cultivation jobs. Finally, those individuals with an entrepreneurial mindset are well-suited for the plant touching vertical, as each cannabis company in operation today is essentially a startup.

While the plant touching segment offers ample employment opportunity, it also presents more challenges than seen working in other verticals. For starters, as cannabis is still federally illegal, plant touching jobs pose more legal risk than any other vertical. While the federal government seems to be respecting State’s rights concerning the cannabis trade, the threat of legal prosecution still looms in the back of many people’s minds.

The cannabis industry is comprised of disparate market segments that arise with legalization efforts in new parts of the country. This “patchwork” of legal markets also presents unique challenges for working in the cannabis space. Of particular interest to job searchers is the fact that plant touching businesses in the U.S. can only expand as large as their State market model allows. Therefore, getting involved with a plant touching business at this point also puts an immediate “roof” on someone’s potential career progression.

Another consideration to make if one is thinking about working in the plant touching vertical has to do with compliance and legality. As the legal cannabis business is entirely new, front-running cannabis companies are working tirelessly to destigmatize the industry through best business practices. As such, plant touching businesses have a number of compliance controls built into their business models - these rules must be followed tirelessly at the workplace. Slight infractions can lead to termination, which could be a permanent mark on someone’s work history.