I never considered being able to purchase cannabis legally in my home state this early on, but it’s wonderful regardless.
For years I claimed that I would move out west to a legal marijuana state because I figured that the conservatives in my own state would never get behind something like medical or recreational cannabis, especially as early as 2016.
However, my state passed a constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana with over 70% of the electorate approving the measure. That’s a huge show of support, especially for something that was previously a much more controversial issue. In just two years, the tide of public opinion shifts enough for real change to take place. But it wasn’t just my state and other states legalizing cannabis that made such a huge difference nationwide. It was also the 2018 Farm Bill that broadly legalized CBD and other cannabinoids as long as they’re extracted from plants with less than 0.3% of THC per dry weight. Those plants are designated with the status of “hemp” while anything with more THC is called “marijuana” and still subject to the Controlled Substances Act. To get the CBD out of the hemp plants, many companies carbon dioxide at supercritical temperatures as a chemical solvent to pull the cannabinoid out of the plant material. If you have a full spectrum CBD product, that means care was given to pulling out terpenes and other cannabinoids like CBG and CBC. Having more terpenes and cannabinoids present with the CBD contributes to the entourage effect that is experienced with raw plant forms of cannabis and hemp.