I have read a number of articles in the last week that talk about a landmark study that seems to be misinterpreted: weed kills Covid. As in like smoking a joint will protect you from contracting the Covid virus - which it won’t and not what this research looked at. It was made into smoke and mirrors on late night TV. Hopefully this write up will clear the air a bit.
There has always been a suspicion during the pandemic that CBD and it’s family of cannabinoids could be used to combat Covid and there was some literature from Canada that supported this idea. This was a study on home soil at OSU with local hemp, in fact sourced from our friends at Pharmex in Salem, Oregon.
Published in the Journal of Natural Products and titled: Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS- CoV-2 and the Emerging Variants there was never mention of human consumption or smoking cannabis. But that is not what many popular news posts reported.
What really went on is that Oregon State University obtained some CBDA and CBGA and used them in research on Covid-19. It was done at the cellar level so no human trials, and it didn’t involve anything that can get you high. There was no smoke at all.
The acidic form of Cannabidiol(CBD) and Cannabigerol(CBG) are produced by the hemp plant before its heated up or decarboxylated and changed into CBD/CBG. This form is extracted from the hemp plant and can be used for research more than consumption.
In the acidic form these cannabinoids are a concentrated powder that looks and acts more like a pharmaceutical product than a botanical one, and it’s a challenge to get them into consumable products like food, tincture or topical. In other words it’s hard for humans to use this to fight Covid.
“No, Smoking Weed Will Not Protect You Against COVID 19; Let’s Be Blunt: Don’t Consume Cannabis to Prevent COVID.” penned Popular Science on January 13 in response to the media frenzy of misinformation. They went on to say:
These jokes and celebrations are misguided- the study shows no evidence that smoking weed or consuming CBD gummies and other popular hemp products can protect or prevent Covid-19. CBGA and CBDA, the cannabis compounds mentioned in the research, are precursors to the compounds actually found in cannabis products.
What the study demonstrated in the laboratory is pretty cool and likely just the beginning of many similar discoveries. In the Oregon State lab, scientists were able to use both CBDA and CBGA to block Covid from entering cells and this is remarkable. “The researchers conducted laboratory assays and looked at human epithelial cell cultures. The team used those cells as models to show how the two cannabis compounds could run interference on SARS CoV2 spike proteins and prevent infection.” was reported.
From this foundation many new paths to fight this global pandemic can be explored. New drug development and trials based on these findings are expected and added to the growing list of therapies to treat and prevent Covid.
Hemp can be valuable to doctors and scientists and that will invigorate farmers to use their current biomass and plant more, which is a needed boost in the hemp industry. This could be a turning point and is exciting and unexpected. Stay tuned for updates!
Comments