*DISCLAIMER: This is a transcript of episode 2 – What keeps people from taking CBD? from our Full Spectrum Living with CBD podcast. Click here to listen to the podcast episode Advocating for CBD or click here to watch the video.
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Ep2_WHAT KEEPS PEOPLE FROM TAKING CBD?
Meredith [00:00:06] All right. Welcome back to Full Spectrum Living with CBD. I am Meredith, your co-host, and I am here today with Jessica and Adriane who are both with Bluegrass Hemp Oil. And today, we were just having a conversation before we started recording this. And we were talking about how many people are actually using CBD products versus how much it’s now available across the country and why people aren’t really stepping into this as a solution or why people are kind of freaked out or afraid to try these products. And that was something that you guys are both really passionate about. So, Adriane, why do you think people are not necessarily jumping in with both feet?
Adriane [00:00:45] It’s so crazy. So we’ve seen a couple of different articles. Anywhere from only 7 percent of the population are taking CBD products upwards to 20. So somewhere in between, there is probably the right answer. But you’re right, there’s so many other people that aren’t taking it. There’s a few things, I guess Jessica and I, we kind of talk about this a lot and we talk to customers all the time. First thing, I think they’re just kind of nervous. You know? They’re worried about the stigma. Even though it has been around for a few years, I think they’re still worried about what’s my family going to think? What are my kids going to think? My mom, my physician, my employer? We have consumers that probably still haven’t told their doctor that they’re taking our products. Or, I actually talked with a woman today who said she told her son but she hadn’t told her daughter. So, again, it’s that nervousness of people thinking that they’re doing something nefarious.
Meredith [00:01:40] So do you think that that’s like maybe just kind of a cultural, like the cultural aftermath of how as I mean, and just talking about you, like, you know, we’ve been taught and brought up that if you’re sick, you go to the doctor and the doctor knows best and that they’re going to give you what’s best. But then you start looking at the statistics and it’s like doctors aren’t even educated around this or nutrition. You know, as well as you guys are.
Jessica [00:02:08] I definitely think that’s a huge factor. I think there’s a lot of “reefer madness” stigma still hanging on, which is insane. But, you know, we have people in their 50s, 60s, 70s who come in and they kind of get a little thrill out of their purchase there because it’s still, even though they know logically this is not an intoxicating product, this is a legal product. And it’s great for health with almost no side effects. They still get this little jolt out of their purchase sometimes with us, like they’re doing something taboo. And it’s just leftovers from the Reefer Madness era I think.
Adriane [00:02:47] Well I think when you talk about physicians, I think it’s very interesting. So, you know, there are a lot of physicians that will shake their finger at you if you say, I don’t want a flu shot. So much less you say, “hey, I want to take this natural holistic product instead of the pharmaceutical or instead of the pain meds”. More and more pharmacies, actually more and more physicians, excuse me, are getting on board with it. So I don’t want to throw them all under that same bus, but there still are quite a few that will absolutely not support CBD. So you can understand why consumers may be a little nervous in getting started.
Jessica [00:03:19] Well, then, you know, you’ve got people like my father who’s a veteran, who I think it would be a life changing for him in many ways to take our product. And his fear is that he’ll lose his, you know, veteran benefits by taking our product, even though we know that’s not true. And we know that we have clients who take it with no issues through the V.A. and it’s approved and all of that. He’s still really concerned. So there’s just a lot of leftover fear, I think. But, you know, we’ve been taught fear around the cannabis plant for a long time. So really, it’s going to take awhile to unteach that, I think.
Meredith [00:03:54] Yeah, well, that’s why we’re here, though, right? And I mean, that’s what you are wanting to create with the show. So what other reasons do people have? I mean, so maybe there’s a stigma around it, but what else is keeping people from giving it a shot?
Adriane [00:04:07] I think a lot of people probably think it’s snake oil. Right? Too good to be true. There’s probably you know, they may have tried a product and it didn’t work for them. So they’re just like man, it’s the next best thing. It’ll be gone just as quickly as it got here. You know, you always hear these new whether it’s new essential oils or celery juice or all these fads that, yes, are definitely beneficial in their own right. But to have that level of response that we’re seeing from consumers and all of the studies that you can find on pubmed.gov with regards to cannabis and cannabinoids as a as a treatment, as a viable treatment for these conditions. It’s a little different. Right. So, yeah, I think that there’s definite some snake oil to it.
Meredith [00:04:56] Let me ask you something. So how ,sorry Jessica, but just real quick, like how long has CBD been utilized for the things that you see your customers and clients utilizing it for?
Adriane [00:05:09] Well, so that’s. That’s a great question. So the endo cannabinoid system. And Jessica, correct me if I’m wrong. I think it was discovered in the 90s. Yep, discovered in the 90s. And actually CBD was actually isolated and found and discovered before THC was. Fun fact. So it’s definitely been there. But a lot of the studies were focused on the THC aspect because of its intoxicating factor. Right. That’s what everybody wanted to figure out. So CBD kind of took maybe a back seat to it. So I’d say probably here more so within the last 20 years what we’ve seen on PubMed.gov, which is the US Library of Medicine, there’s over 24,000 studies done on cannabis and cannabinoids just within the last 20 years. That’s over three and a half studies per day. So when they talk about there’s not enough studies to support the fact that, you know, cannabis or cannabinoids are beneficial for this condition, that condition, I kind of call B.S. to be perfectly honest. There may not be 25,000 studies on one particular condition, which may be what everybody wants, but there’s definitely enough studies out there that are rooted in autoimmune or in inflammatory conditions that are, in my opinion, my professional opinion, definitely enough, right, for people to have some trust and some faith in quality products. That’s the thing in quality products.
Jessica [00:06:32] And combined with the information that does exist and the research that has been done, combined with the amount of anecdotal evidence that we’re seeing now that so many people are taking it, it’s just really undeniable. I think where the snake oil thing comes into play is where it’s maybe talked about in such a unrealistic frame like it, it will do this and it will do that and it will fix every single thing. I think that’s easy to fall into. Well, it must be snake oil because obviously that can’t be true. And so I think it’s a matter of reframing how we speak about it, because it could do all of those things. We don’t know, particularly if it will do every single thing for one person, although for some people it has, you know, so many different ways where you see benefit. But for others, it’s one or two ways and that’s still great. So I think it’s reframing how we speak about it as well and the claims that are being made.
Meredith [00:07:26] Right.
Adriane [00:07:27] I think that that’s where, you know, they may have tried a product and, you know, they may not be taking it today, but maybe they tried one. And it really you have to look at, okay, so let’s have a conversation about what product you tried. Where’d you get it? Was it bought in a convenience store shelf or via Amazon? Did you get it from a trusted source where you know who’s cultivating your plants, where the plants came from? How was it extracted? There’s so many questions that, again, when you go and buy a bottle of shampoo on the shelf, you don’t ever have to ask yourself, right? You’re just going to go, I’m going to buy it. I’ve seen the commercial. It’s great. Or if it’s a pharmaceutical, the physician prescribed it. I know it’s been this, that or whatever. So, yeah, I know it’s fine to take. With CBD, again, it is kind of the wild wild west out there with products. But it really requires the consumer to kind of educate themselves on what it is and then to also give it a fair shake. There’s a lot of people, again, I think we are struck with this western pharmacopia where I’m going to take a pill and I’m going to feel better within an hour or two. And with CBD, the way that it works within our bodies, it doesn’t necessarily act that way for everybody. Now, I personally take it for migraines and I do see relief probably almost immediately in that sense. So from like a 15 to 20 minutes. So which is fantastic. But I also take it for arthritis, does not work the same way for my arthritis. So it’s really giving it a true test. Right? So, Jessica, she always talks about Paige and how it took two months, I believe Jess? Two months for Paige to actually see the benefits of CBD?
Jessica [00:09:03] Two really long months of us wondering… Like when we started her on on CBD it was five years ago and no one was taking it hardly at that time. And so her psychiatrist was really concerned and she called Child Protective Services on us. And of course, that was immediately dismissed because its a legal product to give her. But I think that, you know, that, of course, would scare any parent that that could possibly happen and they’d have to defend their their choices and have someone, you know, looking at that in that way. But, you know, so for two months, we’re sitting here thinking like, oh, my gosh, you know, we got CPS called on us and it’s we’re taking her off on pharmaceuticals and we don’t even see that it’s working. And then it was boom, like a light switch flipped or something, because we just started seeing one sign after another that things were improving and it just continues to improve here still five years later.
Meredith [00:10:00] That’s so awesome. So let me ask you this. Like you kind of alluded to it a little bit, but I mean, I think it’s like. It’s like anything, right? There’s are people who do good. And then there are people who do a disservice in any industry around any product. I mean, I think the internet’s kind of like actually helping us to see that. You know, there’s good information. There’s mediocre information there poor information. But it must be same with the product quality here, too. Right? Like, if I can buy something on a drug store shelf, if I can buy something on Amazon and I can buy something from you guys or other high quality producers of different types of products. What what should consumers knowledge around that really be? Like are all those things the same or is there a big difference between what I get at, you know, the drugstore versus what I can buy from you guys?
Adriane [00:10:53] There actually is. And we can definitely I mean, that’s a whole other episode in and of itself, to be perfectly honest, like things to look out and to check for. But there’s been a lot of independent studies. There’s been a lot of investigative reporting that some news outlets have done. And they’ve taken products off the shelf and they’ve sent them off for testing. And the sad thing is, is there will be numbers that are on the front of the bottle claiming, you know, so many milligrams of CBD. And whenever the test comes back, there’s nothing in there. It’s premium priced. And so no CBD or the level of CBD that’s supposed to be in there isn’t in there, or it actually will test positive for toxic chemicals. And so there’s so many things that consumers, you really do have to do your research with this. And I know everybody’s, you know, if you do want to try it, if you’re deciding to jump out of that, not taking CBD into the taking CBD bucket, you want to do your research? Right. You want to be able to feel comfortable with the people and the product that you’re purchasing. And honestly, word of mouth is the best way to go. So talk to your friends that are taking it. There are more out there than what you think.
Meredith [00:12:02] Absolutely. So it’s really important, then, that the consumer understand where their products coming from, because what you’re saying is like there’s not regulation around this. It’s not like food.
Jessica [00:12:14] All right. So I think the biggest thing to that is if I could say one thing is at Amazon does not sell CBD products. They are labeled to make you think that they’re CBD products, but they are not. They’re hemp seed oil and the labeling is intentionally misleading. It’s a big issue that’s very well known. And a lot of people still fall for it because it’s cheap; it’s cheaper than a quality CBD product would be. But it’s a hell of a lot more expensive than hemp seed oil would be in a 1 ounce container. You know, you could get a stinking gallon of it for the price that you’ll pay on Amazon. And that’s what you’re getting is hemp seed oil that’s been intentionally mislabeled to appear to be a CBD product. And they don’t sell CBD on Amazon.
Meredith [00:13:05] So if people are a little bit freaked out because of, you know, maybe the cultural view. Right? Maybe they also feel like that you’re saying it’s a little bit of this, you know, snake oil. Is this too good to be true? Could it really work because of people maybe having over promised in the industry or their experiences? Like what else are you guys seeing that is preventing people from from working with CBD products as a solution?
Jessica [00:13:33] I think there’s some people that just don’t realize the way that it could impact them. So they think like, I don’t have severe epilepsy or I don’t have, you know, intense chronic pain or, you know, medication is working for me. But what they don’t realize is that the benefits to CBD go far beyond that. They’re extremely beneficial for preventative maintenance of the body. So just by taking CBD regularly, you can increase your body’s ability to fight off toxins from the environment and to calm inflammation in the neurological system and potentially avoid neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. We’re still studying that. And that’s not a claim that I’m making. It’s just the potential that looks promising for taking CBD. There’s been a couple of quality studies related to that and it looks like, you know, for the average person taking it preventively is going to be more and more a common use of CBD and just maintaining balance in the body more optimally. We all succumb to stressors and to, you know, colds and flus, but your ability to fight those off is thought to be enhanced by CBD supplementation. I know like when I take it regularly, my whole family has come down with a stomach bug and I’m totally fine. And that’s happened twice.
Adriane [00:15:07] And I’ll say we, last year, I guess if you could call it an independent study where we were all in store. So before we had moved our office spaces, we officed behind our retail location. So we had a lot of people mulling in and around the store. Middle of flu season, we had customers coming in with flu. You know, we’d wipe things down and so forth. But none of the employees got a flu shot and none of us also got the flu. So I’m not saying that it can keep the flu away, but I’m saying it helped us. We are strong believers that it really did help our immune system to be in prime fighting position against all the germs that we were just being inundated with.
Jessica [00:15:47] Or even when, you know, actively, I think people don’t associate CBD use with like a stomach bug or a flu or something. But I’ve used it for my son. In fact, two days ago, he woke up in the middle of the night rolling around with an upset stomach and I gave him a few drops and 15, 20 minutes later, he went to sleep peacefully and he was totally fine. And so I think, you know, there’s just uses that people don’t recognize for CBD. That would very much benefit them that they’re just not really aware of yet.
Meredith [00:16:20] That’s fascinating, because I don’t think that people think about it for prevention as much as they, we’ve heard so much in the media, you know, amazing stories like the ones that you guys have shared with us here about people that have had massive, see changes, in really severe conditions that were impairing their lives in really significant ways and the lives of their family. But I don’t think that we’ve yet come to think about it as as a preventative so much, you know, and it’s making me think of a baby aspirin, honestly. Right? Like, you know, back in the day, aspirin was like, you know, sold in little special vials by kind of a witch-doctory guy, you know, in the old west or whatever. Then it becomes, you know, largely accepted for headache relief, for pain relief, and now it’s prescribed to help people, you know, in stroke and heart attack prevention. I think it is. Right? Like they carry this little vial of it. The baby aspirin. And it’s like. But one hundred years ago, man, I don’t know. Or maybe two hundred years ago, whenever it was, we wouldn’t have admitted that we had that little brown vial with a cork in our in our handbag.
Adriane [00:17:30] What’s so interesting is then you think about that and then, you know, 40 percent, give or take of medications back in those olden days had a cannabis derivative. Right? So then you think about, you went from cannabis being part of a widely accepted pharmaceutical regimen or therapeutic regimen and flip that to “reefer madness” years. You get to the 1930s and then they have to have some bad guy that they’re going after 80 years of prohibition to where we are today. Right? Well, we’re trying to beat that stigma to bring it back to just a normal way to kind of help fight symptoms.
Meredith [00:18:09] Do you guys, when you think of someone that you have worked with, that’s been like your ultimate skeptic, right? That may be presented with one of these reasons for not doing it and is now just like a raving fan. You do have a, do you have somebody like that that you can think of?
Adriane [00:18:25] I was going to say for a while, there’s probably every consumer that walked in our store.
Jessica [00:18:30] Everyone. “I’ve heard this will help but come on” kind-of reactions. Yeah.
Adriane [00:18:38] We had a gentleman actually who came in store and I don’t necessarily know that he meets this criteria. But he came in store and he bought it. He said he had arthritis in his ankle. It hurts so bad. And we told him it’s gonna take time. You have to give it his true test. You can’t just give up after a few days. And he came in on day 30 and he said, “It was day 29. I was so angry because my ankle was still killing me. I was taking this product. It wasn’t working.” He said, “I knew I was going to come in today and I was just going to talk to you about it.” And he said, “and then I woke up and I got out of bed and my ankle didn’t hurt.” And I was like, yes. So again, it’s just those things. Everybody sees relief at different times. And he’s an advocate for it. We had a, I think Jessica actually talked with a veteran who’d had, what was it, seven years of headaches?
Jessica [00:19:22] Well, that’s the story I was wanting to tell, actually. Yeah, because that definitely sticks out in my mind because, yes, I talked to him both in-store and on the phone and he was certainly a skeptic. We talked on the phone at length a few times before he came in, and he had seven years of chronic migraines that were extremely severe. He ranked as eleven on the one to ten pain scale. And he had zero days of relief in those seven years. And so he was really at the end of his will to continue. And it was really powerful because he came in the store after talking for a while. It was still extremely kind of just being skeptical, I guess is the word. And so I could see he was in pain. I gave him a sample in store and before he had left, his headache had gone down, I think he said like it was like an eight or something like that. And so for him, that was already a big deal. And then when he got home, he called to let me know his headache was gone. Gone for the first time in seven years. Day one and he maintained a headache free self, he was headache free for I mean, I can’t honestly say if he’s still headache free, but I talked to him months and months afterwards and he was still headache free at that point. And I know he’s still a recurring customer who comes in, who orders online. And the amount of relief that it provided him immediately was it was a really powerful thing to witness and it was really changing for him. He was facing, he was facing just giving up on life. And that really brought back everything for him.
Meredith [00:21:12] And that just makes me think about the perspective of what if. You know what, what if? Right? What if it does work? What if what if it does? So thank you both for just sharing such awesome information today around, you know, some of these stigmas and helping people to maybe break those down a little bit so that they can live a better quality of life, because I think that’s the goal. Right. That’s really what you’re trying to do here, is share great information with people so that they can consider whether or not this might be an option that they would allow to help them in their lives. So if people wanted to connect with you further, get more information, hear more about your knowledge, your products, all of that. What would be the best place for them to go and find out more?
Adriane [00:21:56] Yeah, absolutely. Go to our website at bluegrasshempoil.com. We send out biweekly newsletters, so register, subscribe for a newsletter, go to our Facebook page, engage with our posts or engage with the other consumers that are there as well. And ask them the questions, too. Right? That’s what they’re there for.
Jessica [00:22:14] Read some of the… Well, definitely read the blogs. Those are fantastic and really address some of the frequently asked questions. But the consumer reviews, you know, I think a lot of people read the reviews and they see in that person something that reflects themselves. And it really strikes home for them. So I think read the reviews. They really speak for themselves.
Meredith [00:22:41] Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Well, for this episode of Full Spectrum, Living the CBD I’m your co-host, Meredith with our host Jessica and Adriane, it’s been awesome sharing with you guys. And we’ll see you all around the next time.
Adriane [00:22:53] Bye!