For chronic pain – based on YOUR personal preference try using cannabis in one of the following ways: smoking, a dry herb vaporizer, a vape pen or a tincture.
If using a tincture –
Many people have reported success by trying the following regimen:
25mg of CBD once morning and night – increasing the dosage by 25 mg weekly until they find relief.
For example:
25 mg AM and PM for week 1
If no relief – try 50 mg AM and PM for week two
If no relief try 100 mg AM and PM for week three
and increase until relief is found.
Clinical trials have people, even children using 500+ mg of CBD at one time without major negative side effects. Drug Drug interactions should always be watched for.
You can also try adding in small amounts of THC to your oil or CBD regimen by eating or vaping. If eating most people start w a small 2.5 – 5 mg dose along with your CBD.
Another good product to know about is the 1:1 ratio of CBD:THC in your vape oil or flower, or tinctures. If you desire less psychoactivity try a 2:1,3:1, or 4:1 ratio or higher ratio of CBD:THC, or for no psyhoactivity stick to pure CBD. If you desire more psychoactivity try a vape cartridige or flower higher in THC.
What time of the day it is also factors into how many people use cannabis with many taking advantage of the sleep inducing effects of THC by using a more THC dominant product in the evening, and a lighter product during the day with more CBD, like a 1:1, 2:1 or 3:1 ratio.
Conferences I have attended have shown that slowly increasing the amount of puffs you take from a single puff every 4-6 hours day one to one to three puffs every 4-6 hours, on day two, greatly reduce unwanted side effects.
Does CBD or THC help with pain by themselves? Sure! There seems to be data indicating CBD and THC help reduce pain individually, however, the majority of patients I see do end up using some THC in the mixture which gives them better relief. A couple caveats to know – CBD is much more bioavailable via your lung than your gut. So vaporizing or smoking CBD will be a more efficient delivery mechanism than eating. If you go for the CBD tinctures be aware of the wide range of dosages for which CBD has been orally dosed in the literature. Different dosages have been anywhere from a few milligrams a day to hundreds of milligrams a day in humans in different trials. I would slowly try increasing dosages until you find something works for you, or add in some THC. We often have patients report finding CBD dosed orally working well for them when they dose it around 1mg per kg of body weight.
Research shows that most people orally dosing THC end up using between 5-20 milligrams every 4-8 hours to aid in pain and sleep. Start low and go slow! Remember cannabis can take 2 hours to feel the effects from if you metabolism is slow.
