Quitting Cigarettes? Joints Rolled With CBD Might Help

There’s never a bad time to leave your tobacco-using days behind—for good.

One potential way to make quitting easier and more fun is by switching to pre-made cannabis joints (pre-rolls) that are rich in cannabidiol (CBD), marijuana’s secondary active ingredient. In a small 2013 study, CBD users cut cigarette intake by 40%.

CBD comes from the cannabis plant, but it doesn’t make you feel high like pot’s main active ingredient, THC. Instead, studies indicate CBD can reduce social anxiety, inflammation, and create a calm feeling without much euphoria.

CBD is also empowering plenty of smokers to step down from highly addictive and carcinogenic tobacco. The World Health Organization concludes CBD is not habit-forming. And NIDA-funded research failed to find an association between cannabis smoking and lung disease or cancer. These CBD-rich pre-rolls help people quit by offering a similar experience for when intense cravings hit, such as during social occasions, right after sex, or other times when you might habitually light up a cigarette.

A 2019 review of early clinical studies finds that “animal and human studies suggest that [CBD has] the potential to reduce craving and relapse in abstinent substance users, by impairing reconsolidation of drug-reward memory, salience of drug cues, and inhibiting the reward-facilitating effect of drugs.”

A 2018 double-blind, placebo-controlled study of a mega-dose of CBD (800 mg) for tobacco cessation found that it helped quitters pay less attention to tobacco around them. That is, CBD “reduced salience and pleasantness of cigarette cues”, but didn’t lessen cravings or withdrawal.

Federal cannabis prohibition stymies further research, but legal cannabis markets like California have surged ahead in offering CBD-rich products aimed at everyone age 21 and up, including ex-smokers.

Some of the brands listed here blend CBD with THC to deliver effects all along the spectrum from “slightly high” to “kinda high,” so make sure to seek out 100% CBD products if you don’t want to your state of mind altered. You can find CBD-rich pre-rolls across California in the state’s 600-plus licensed stores and more than 135 licensed delivery services.

Toast

Intended to help people wean themselves off of tobacco, Toast looks just like a cigarette, but it’s packed with CBD-rich cannabis instead. Puffing on a 2:1 CBD:THC blend offers slight euphoria and plenty of chill vibes, perfect for social occasions. Available in packs of two, five or ten, this is an innovative gift for friends looking to reduce the harms of smoking tobacco by substituting a less harmful alternative.

Places to Find It:

• Canex Delivery
• Mission Cannabis Club
• Mission Organic Center

Henry’s Originals

Available widely throughout California, Henry’s Originals offers a variety of flowers and pre-roll packs, including a range of CBD-rich options. Choose from Coast, a cannabis varietal with twice as much CBD content compared to THC, or Ritual, a strain with 20 times as much CBD and very little THC.

Places to Find It:

• ECO Cannabis in Oakland
• Universal Collective in Los Angeles
• From the Earth in Santa Ana

Herba Buena

(Courtesy of HerbaBuena)

Collecting eco-friendy, biodynamic cannabis from family farmers, Herba Buena packages and delivers these fine, sungrown, small-batch flowers in the form of pre-rolled joints. Choose from Sativa, Indica, or CBD-rich packs containing five joints each, which can be delivered to most major cities in California. Look for Harmonize packs for a CBD-rich experience.

Places to Find It:

• Harvest off Mission
• Farmhouse Artisan Market

Marley Natural

(Elise Mcdonough for Leafly)

Look for Marley Red, with bold color-coding denoting CBD-rich cannabis from it’s more psychedelic counterpart, THC. Recently, we found cultivars Biovortex, Trident, and Jelly Fish on dispensary shelves under the Marley Red label, with the three, half-gram mini-joints intended to please smokers looking for a mellow experience without the soaring euphoria or anxiety sometimes experienced with higher THC varieties.

Places to Find It:

• Airfield Supply in San Jose
• Flower to the People in San Francisco
• CBCB in Berkeley
• Therapeutic Healthcare Collective in Soquel

Prism

(Elise Mcdonough for Leafly)

Offering just a few blends of CBD and THC flowers combined in formulas intended to suit certain moods, Prism is a great option for people returning to cannabis after a long absence. Found throughout California, these single prerolls arrive labeled as Flourish (all CBD), Create (CBD plus Sativa-derived THC), Unwind (CBD plus Indica-derived THC), and Poise (CBD plus Hybrid-derived THC.)

Places to Find It:

• Treehouse in Santa Cruz
• Berkeley Patients Group in Berkeley
• Airfield Supply in San Jose

Willie’s Reserve

Helmed by the legendary country singer, Willie’s Reserve is powered by Flow Kana in California, so all of the cannabis sold under this name was grown by small farmers in the Emerald Triangle. Look for Willie’s CBD products including Rising Pines pre-rolls and vape carts at dispensaries near you!

Places to Find It:

• Torry Holistics in San Diego
• KindPeoples in Santa Cruz
• One Love Beach Club in Long Beach

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