For some users, conventional CBD products like tinctures, gummies, and capsules are potent enough to get the job done. Others, though, expect more potency from their CBD experiences, and they want to enjoy the effects of CBD faster.
That’s where CBD flower comes into the picture. As the most potent type of CBD product around, CBD flower delivers this cannabinoid into your bloodstream quicker and with greater bioavailability than oral CBD products. In this guide, learn what CBD flower is and why it’s so potent.
What Is CBD Flower?
CBD flowers are buds taken from Cannabis sativa plants that were selectively bred to be high in CBD and low in THC. By law, CBD flower products must contain less than 0.3% THC, but they can contain as much as 25% CBD. Though CBD flower does not get you high, you can smoke or vape it the same way as any other type of cannabis flower.
Is CBD Flower More Effective than Other Ways of Taking CBD?
Since it is inhaled rather than orally ingested, CBD flower absorbs into your system with far greater efficiency than CBD tinctures, gummies, or capsules. Research into the subject remains limited, but studies indicate that CBD flower may offer bioavailability as high as 56% whereas orally ingested CBD products only provide bioavailability rates between 4% and 20%.
CBD flower bioavailability isn’t always as high as 56% — a variety of factors can intervene. Even the mere possibility that smoking CBD flower might deliver more than half of the CBD in your buds directly into your bloodstream, though, automatically provides CBD flower with more bioavailability potential than any type of orally ingested CBD product.
Why Is CBD Flower More Potent?
Smoking CBD flower is more potent than using CBD in other ways since inhaling cannabinoids allows them to bypass the digestive tract. The detoxifying activity of the liver is the primary reason cannabinoids are not more bioavailable when orally ingested.
The alveoli in your lungs do an excellent job of filtering out airborne contaminants and particulates, but they offer practically zero filtration against lipid-based substances like cannabinoids. Cannabinoids pass through these microscopic oxygen-collecting sacs and are immediately uptaken by the incredibly dense mesh of capillaries that surrounds your lungs.
You’ll also experience more potency with CBD flower since inhaling cannabinoids allows them to travel to your brain in less than 30 seconds. For comparison, you won’t even begin to feel the effects of orally ingested CBD for at least 20 minutes with full onset usually occurring after around an hour.
Does CBD Flower Get You High?
Regardless of its potency, CBD flower won’t get you high. To be sold online or in specialty stores, CBD flower products must contain less than 0.3% THC, which isn’t enough to get you high regardless of the improved bioavailability offered by smoking CBD flower. Even if it was, CBD appears to block THC’s activity in the brain to some extent.
Will CBD Flower Make You Fail a Drug Test?
CBD flower is slightly more likely to make you fail a drug test than other types of CBD products, but the chance is still very small. Though smoking CBD flower deposits higher concentrations of THC into your system, it’s still very unlikely to be enough.
To fail a drug test for THC after smoking CBD flower, you would have to inhale enough THC along with the CBD in your hemp buds to cause an accumulation sufficient to surpass a drug test’s detection threshold. While events like these have certainly occurred, they’re only possible in cases of very heavy CBD flower use.
Try the Most Effective Form of CBD Today
CBD has been a phenomenon for a full decade now, and we’re finally starting to see the industry evolve. While tinctures, gummies, capsules, and other orally ingested CBD products will always have their place within our modern hemp pharmacopeia, consumers are no longer satisfied with these options alone.
People who know and love hemp want to enjoy the benefits of their favorite cannabinoids faster and with more potency. CBD flower is the new solution, which is somewhat ironic since every CBD molecule on the market started its life inside a hemp bud.
Until recently, however, it wasn’t easy to grow smokable-grade hemp buds. Nowadays, intrepid entrepreneurs are growing CBD-rich hemp indoors in the same controlled environmental conditions used to produce top-shelf recreational and medical cannabis. The results are more potent than any method you’ve used to experience CBD before — but don’t worry, you still won’t get high.
