Category: Skin

I spent a large part of my teenage years in situations that involved the grass, although to tell the truth to be all done I never liked it particularly-and, in fact, the best use of the barrels, in my experience, was the farming half a la evening and go to sleep happy and relaxed. So, even if I abandoned that habit, you can imagine how he was able to welcome the news of “light” cannabis, which has been regularly sold in Italy for a week or so.

It is a grass with a THC value of less than 0.6 percent (which is the legal limit) and a high content of CBD or cannabidiol, around 4 percent. The high content of CBD means that instead of the classic psychoactive effects this herb should have muscle relaxant, antipsychotic, tranquilizing, anti-epileptic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, while the almost zero content of THC means to own it, take it with you and smoke it perfectly legal. After smoking it, you can also drive safely because it does not alter and is not detected by drug tests.

The packs as they are sold at the moment

The product has been marketed in Italy – after the great success, it has in Switzerland – of a company called EasyJoint, which conceives it as an alternative to tobacco, both for those who smoke non-light pipes and for those who won’t stop smoking. For the moment, a single variety, the Eletta Campana, is sold through a network of authorized dealers in several Italian cities. But apparently from next autumn, others should come too.

Given the high interest in the subject, immediately after the marketing and the first articles in this regard, the various dealers were inundated with requests and stocks were quickly exhausted. Now on the EasyJoint website, there is a notice announcing the temporary closure of the online shop and the store that sells it in Milan has full reservations. Friday we managed to get our hands on a couple of packs – from 8 grams and 17 euros each – and after having dedicated a Facebook live to the theme, we decided to test them with other subjects.

On the EasyJoint website it says that the product is not crushed and that ” some seeds are found in the package,” but opening the jar the first thing I noticed is that the seeds are more than I imagined.

However, the decision not to chop the product and not to remove the seeds is a precise choice of the producers, according to which often mincing serves to hide its low quality. Also, the site explains, chopping the grass “they break up the terpenes and terpenoids, responsible for the aroma” and some healing effects, not to mention that by trimming cannabis it deteriorates much more efficiently.

The smell, however, is not particularly pungent-not having to put it in two Tupperware one inside the other matrioska type and then wrap it all in the foil and still be able to guess the content. In this case, keeping the jar closed, you did not feel anything at all, but strangely as soon as I asked someone for help to test it, everyone heard through the headphones, and they materialized behind me.

After spending a few minutes (read: five) diligently separating seeds and stalks and preparing the cigarettes, we have gone through the actual tasting. Below, the testers tell how it went.

ANTONELLA, 28, occasional smoker

At the beginning this legal herb seemed to me rather harmless: the smoke was not particularly intense, and I hardly felt it, neither in the throat or the bronchi. It gave me much less trouble than I would have been given a light cigarette. The taste was not unpleasant but not particularly useful, similar to that of the herb that grows your cousin who lives in the country and has never smoked in his life and gives you the tops when you go to see him in the summer.

As for effect, however, it was very relaxing, more than I expected: after smoking, I remained glued to the chair for an hour without being able to find the strength to get up and go home. But no fact, no stoning typical of when you do the reeds in the afternoon, no paranoia. Before turning it on anyway, I ate a lot ‘of seeds (there were a lot, highly recommended for the salad) so maybe the effect was a bit’ amplified.

ELIA, 25, occasional smoker

When I was kindly asked to smoke some grass on Monday at five in the afternoon, I immediately thought, “Well, ok, a day’s over, I’ll crash, see you tomorrow.” I do not smoke so much, just in the evening; if it is good, if there is not it is not said to take it. I already knew that as “legal” the grass that I would smoke would have been very light, but for some reason, I thought that after a day of work I would have felt it.

On the other hand, even smoking a little one did not stop me from continuing the day as it should. In fact, it was like smoking a cigarette, and it did not even smell like grass. The effects I felt were bland, so much so that I do not know whether to attribute them to grass or self-suggestion. I did not even cough despite my dry throat.

After smoking, I came back to the office, and I worked a little longer (YouTube video scene watched: 0). And after the office I even did the shopping, cooked and washed the dishes, which I could not do after a natural cane.

VINCENZO, 25, occasional smoker

I’m not a regular smoker, mainly because I can not contain myself in anything. With the grass it happens to be a little like with the 400 grams of fries: with the latter, I finish with a stomach ache, with the first slightly in paranoia. The prospect of a grass that only made me relax, then tempted me to the point that the morning I heard the news I ran to buy a bit ‘for my business, regardless of this article.

When I smoked it, however, I was quite disappointed: apart from the little smell, the little smoke, and seeds that pop in the map producing an unmistakable aroma of chicken, the taste was so light that it did not even seem light. Also, without putting a bit of tobacco in the middle of the reed ends in the time of a match.

The effect, however, was relaxing.

MATTIA, 26, nonsmoker

I spent all my teenage years cracking reeds like a desperate (personal record: 17 in a day), but now I have entered that stage of life in which I do not have to make any commitments for the next day. Otherwise, I do not get out of bed anymore. In addition now I have problems that I had before, like paranoia out of control since the last time I smoked I started to see a documentary Werner Herzog.

As for cannabis light: the appearance is not the best, the seeds are disease, the smell is practically absent. But the taste is light enough not to make me want to spit every two minutes and above all the effects are precisely what I feel at this stage of my life as a middle-class bourgeois: a minimum of relaxation that improves the mood of the day and not the feeling of having been hit by a train.

Some use it to get rid of chronic pain; who to fight epilepsy and who to counter the side effects of chemotherapy. Despite its effectiveness
is challenged by a part of the scientific world, cannabis is now used in dozens of diseases, primarily those neurodegenerative:

«It rebalances the functions of the immune system and is a natural anti-inflammatory,» explains Dr. Gianpaolo Grassi, the first researcher at Crane-Ci di Rovigo, the only Italian research center authorized to study this plant.

How it works

The therapeutic value of the plant seems connected to the way our brain works: “The human organism already possesses an endocannabinoid system. This consists of receptors that open and close like locks, regulating the psychological state, the immune system and much more.

When the locks are closed due to a malfunction, the plant cannabinoids can be used as a lubricant to regulate nerve signals and restore the balance distorted by the disease, “explains Dr. Grassi.

To know well the effects of therapeutic marijuana is Melissa V., a 26-year-old girl who has multiple sclerosis: “The traditional drugs I use to counteract the Sla give me many side effects. Since I take cannabis, I can sleep five or six hours a night, and I can walk, even with crutches.

Furthermore, I no longer need to use massive doses of opiates “. “Marijuana is also useful for removing nausea from cancer patients and keeping Tourette’s syndrome under control, a neurological disorder that causes uncontrolled spasms,” adds Dr. Carlo Privitera, a surgeon who has been dealing with therapeutic cannabis for years.

Its active ingredients

The products based on “grass” are divided according to the variety of plant used and the concentration of two active ingredients: tetrahydrocannabinol (Thc) and cannabidiol (Cbd).

Although every disease responds more or less well to the first or second principle, it is a rough distinction because the functioning of cannabis is still
little known: “This plant contains more than 600 molecules – explains Dr. Privitera – for this we do not know well what is the winning formula “.

It is no coincidence that in laboratory studies that have falsely recreated the THC, the phytocomplex extracted from the plants was more effective than the single synthetic molecule.
From this consideration, however, another problem arises: the phytocomplex cannot be patented as in the case of a single molecule, and therefore the pharmaceutical companies are not interested in subsidizing in-depth studies.

According to a meta-analysis of the Gimbe institute, an organization that deals with research in the health field, there is still little evidence of the analgesic effect of cannabis on pain caused by injuries to the nervous system; while there is insufficient evidence regarding other types of pain.

But despite the lack of long-term studies, cannabis has become the salvation of Serena B., a twenty-year-old from Vicenza who suffers from drug-resistant epilepsy
from birth: “My daughter has an extreme disorder – says the mother of the young Vicenza – before using marijuana had crises in which it threatened to suffocate.»

After so many unnecessary treatments, marijuana was the only one to give results: “Now the crises have been reduced in intensity. Serena can even sleep, which was previously Unthinkable “. But if cannabis was a “miracle” for Serena, the last months of this year did not go as the family would have hoped because of the lack of medicine in our country.

In fact, the needs for 2017 have been underestimated, and cannabis has become almost impossible to find as early as autumn: “For months, through the Facebook groups we have exchanged information on where to find the drug – says Stefano, Serena’s brother – a few weeks ago we went to a pharmacy in Emilia Romagna because no one has got it in Veneto ».

The risks of the black market

In Emilia Romagna, in Bologna, lives Elisabetta Biavati, who has been using marijuana for two years to treat a rare disease: “Without cannabis, I cannot even swallow. And as soon as I finish the stock of the drug I will not also be able to eat alone.

In the past, I also turned to the black market, and I had a big epileptic crisis: we need safe drugs, we can not rely on do-it-yourself, “says Elisabetta.

In addition to being a potential danger to all, illegal marijuana has no value as a therapy: “It is not comparable to the drug produced by the state,” explains Dr. Privitera. “We do not know how it is obtained; it could contain toxic molds or be mixed with some drugs.

The products for therapeutic use are cultivated and cataloged under precise standards ». Although cannabinoid-based treatments have been legal in Italy for ten years, production in Italy began only at the end of 2016 at the Florence chemical-pharmaceutical institute, which in 2017 produced 50 kilos of a product against a target estimated at 100.

Too little to meet the national need: “The importation from Holland in 2017 was 200 kg,” Dr. Privitera intervenes. “An order that did not take into account the growing trend of drug use. It would have served a ton to guarantee everyone a minimum of continuity “.

Patients are now waiting for supplies in 2018, hoping that their right to treatment will be assured.

Side effects and contraindications

Studies on long-term side effects of therapeutic cannabis are scarce, and it is not possible to overlap toxicological studies done on illegal marijuana users.

At present no severe side effects have been tried, but for doctors there are contraindications: cannabis, in fact, should not be given to those with heart problems because it could lead to tachycardia.

It is not recommended for use in psychiatric patients because it could speed up the manifestation of a latent psychosis, although there is no evidence that the plant complex is linked to the onset of mental disorders.

Although it does not lead to addiction, cannabis has not been shown to have the same analgesic potential as opioids such as morphine and therefore is not always a valid substitute.