What Actually Happens to THC Over Time: Decarboxylation, Oxidation, and the CBN Story
THC degradation follows two separate pathways that most explanations get backwards: air oxidation in the dark converts THC to cannabinol, while light destroys THC without producing any. Heat is what creates THC in the first place, by removing the…
The Last Step of THC Metabolism: What Glucuronidation Explains About Drug Tests and Drug Interactions
THC glucuronidation is the phase II step that attaches a sugar to oxidized THC metabolites and makes them water soluble enough to excrete. It explains why urine testing detects a conjugated acid metabolite rather than THC, and why only about 2 to 3…
The Risks of Medical Cannabis, Counted Honestly: Dependence, Hyperemesis, Heart, Psychosis, Cognition, Driving, and Drug Interactions
The medical cannabis risks and side effects that matter most are the ones with numbers behind them: roughly 22 to 29 percent of users meet criteria for a cannabis use disorder, a third of near-daily smokers surveyed in one emergency department reported…
Two Molecules, Two Routes: How the Body Handles THC and CBD Differently
THC and CBD metabolism run through overlapping liver enzymes to entirely different products, with THC oxidized principally by CYP2C9 to an active metabolite and CBD handled mainly by CYP3A4 and CYP2C19 into a family of hydroxylated compounds. Their…
How You Take Cannabis Changes What It Does: A Route by Route Reference
Cannabis routes of administration differ in onset, duration, how much of a dose reaches the bloodstream, and which active metabolites the body produces. Controlled studies place inhaled onset in minutes and oral onset at 30 to 90 minutes, and show that…
CBD or THC: Sorting the Claimed Advantages by What Randomized Trials Have Shown
Comparisons of CBD vs THC benefits usually list adjectives rather than evidence, and the trial record divides the two compounds differently than the popular framing does. THC-containing products hold moderate-quality evidence for chronic pain and…
Cannabis Terpenes When You Inhale Them: One Controlled Human Trial, a Large Preclinical Literature, and a Dose Gap Nobody Mentions
Inhaled cannabis terpenes have exactly one controlled human trial behind them, and it found that 15 mg of vaporized d-limonene selectively reduced THC-induced anxiety and paranoia while producing no effect at all when given on its own. Every other…
What Cannabis Does to Heart Rate and Blood Pressure, and Which Patients Should Take That Seriously
The cannabis heart rate and blood pressure response is fast and dose-dependent, with a faster pulse, higher pressure while lying down, and a drop on standing. Pooled pharmacoepidemiological data associate cannabis use with acute coronary syndrome,…
Which Cannabis Terpene Claims Hold Up, and Which Ones Do Not
Do cannabis terpenes do anything, or are the charts on dispensary menus decoration? One controlled human trial supports d-limonene reducing THC-induced anxiety when the two are inhaled together, while limonene alone was indistinguishable from placebo.…
One Randomized Trial and a Pile of Survey Data: Where Cannabis for Headache Actually Stands
Cannabis for headaches now has one randomized placebo-controlled trial behind it, in acute migraine, where vaporized flower containing both THC and CBD outperformed placebo while CBD alone did not. Nothing in the controlled literature supports cannabis…