According to a new study, published in the Complementary Therapies in Medicine journal, smoking good ol’ fashioned dried flower is the most effective way to consume cannabis for pain relief.
The study, led by a team of researchers of the University of New Mexico, and titled “*The effectiveness of self-directed medical cannabis treatment for pain”, highlighted how smoking dried flower delivers a solid — but not the highest — dosis of THC to the consumer. Higher levels of THC occasionally resulted in additional side-effects.
“Whole cannabis flower was associated with greater pain relief than were other types of products, and higher tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels were the strongest predictors of analgesia and side effects prevalence across the five pain categories.”
Furthermore the study highlighted the increased efficiency of THC, over CBD, as well as the additional presence of terpenes and flavonoids in dried flower where most CBD products are isolated and thus may not offer the complete package dried flower brings to the toke.
“Cannabis flower with moderate to high levels of (THC) is an effective mid-level analgesic.”
It rests to be seen whether studies like this will result in reversing the trend which has seen smoking dried flower gradually lose in popularity, in favor of vapes and other products. There is little doubt that the whole cannabis plant is the more effective product, thanks to its complex composition with several terms, and also flavonoids.
On the other hand, the continued discovery of the plant’s properties to potentially replace harmful Big Pharma products, knows no halting and will rather than sooner result not only in higher adoption of good old fashioned cannabis smoking but also in further legalization across the world.
Even recreational use legalization, as eventually, Big Pharma will not be able anymore to halt the zeitgeist and outcry for legal cannabis, despite its vast lobby war chest.
All this, of course, also follows on recently discovered capabilities of cannabis to treat pancreatic cancer and to potentially replace antibiotics and fight super bugs.