5 Ways To Boost Your Creativity At Work
Most jobs don’t demand constant creativity. Still, your productivity and enjoyment can be influenced by trying new approaches and thinking outside the box.
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Magic mushroom decriminalization may have a fighting chance in DC after all.
Increase your chill with this breezy recipe designed by famed chef Laurie Wolf.
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NBA Players Are Smoking A Bunch Of Marijuana In The Playoff Bubble
The NBA announced earlier this year that it would not test for recreational drugs throughout the duration of the bubble.
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Cannabis laws in Argentina are evolving.
A car interior can quickly heat to 120 degrees, melting edibles and breaking hearts. Be cool. Leafly has tips.
The post Public service announcement: Gummy THC edibles will melt in a hot car appeared first on Leafly.
The leading cannabis advocacy group, NORML, is urging both presidential candidates to commit to legalization.
It’s hard to quiet the brain. It’s hard to relax the body. For many people, cannabis is the tool they use to make both processes a little bit easier. Weed provides an escape from the bad days, and that’s why so many of us seek it out to release the built up anxiety and tension in our bodies. However, with so many products on the shelves, it can be tough for the average consumer to know which cannabis strains may provide relaxing effects. But don’t even trip, because we’re here to help.
Relaxed and sleepy aren’t the same feelings. And if you’re an inexperienced cannabis consumer, it’s important to know that, or else you may walk into a dispensary looking for something that helps you chill and reflect, but walk out with something that immediately ends your night. This is why it’s so critical to add nuance to the “indicas are the downer weed” conversation. The spectrum of cannabis strains is way too wide to limit yourself to just a third of them.
Stopped by Fweedom in Seattle to scoop up some smokeables for 710 Day. While there, I asked Baylee, my favorite budtender, how she helps people who are looking for a relaxing cannabis strain. She said the first thing she always asks is if they want to feel sleepy or if they want to feel relaxed, because those two are two completely different feelings.
If they want relaxed, she may send them down the funnel of Glue and Kush strains. If they want to be sleepy, she may send them towards a GMO or Chemdog. Ultimately, it all goes back to your definition of the word. With sleepiness, you know that you are closing your eyes and playing dead for the next few hours. With relaxed, it can mean so many more things, and because of that, there are so many different types of cannabis strains that can make you feel at ease.
As always with strain suggestions, the most important thing to remember is that building your relationship with cannabis is a game of trial-and-error. If you find something you like, dig into the genetics of that strain and product, and then use that as a guide for what you might like smoking. If you don’t like something, also learn more about it, so you’ll know what to avoid.
GG4, also known as Original Glue, was originally named after the couchlock sensation that leaves you glued to the couch. Since then, it’s gained a reputation as being powerfully relaxing.
To Baylee’s point, the type of relaxation you get from a glue is like this: you come home from a long day with a bag of groceries and a backpack full of paperwork. All you want to do is throw everything on the floor and take your pants off. After stashing the groceries, you kick your shoes off, and fall directly on the couch. Now, you’re finally chillin’, but you still need something to transition you from the stresses of the day to the silence of the evening. The answer is GG4.
Right after the Glue strains, comes the Kush strains. Kush is responsible for that stoney euphoria that we truly seek from cannabis. And honestly, anything with its genetics may be pretty potent and relaxing. That’s how we arrived at Bubba Kush. It comes from Afghani, Kush, and Northern Lights descent.
The result is a sweet and earthy strain that leans towards the more relaxing side of Kush strains, while avoiding a direct-to-sleep kind of high. Instead, you’ll get a heavy ass cerebral buzz that eventually kicks down into your body, and turns you into a lazy pile of goo. It has a hashy earthy taste as flower, and a sweet floral flavor as a concentrate, so choose your fighter accordingly.
Outside of the Glues and Kushes, you have to look at the Hazes and Skunks too. Blue Dream is a sativa-dominant cross of Haze and Blueberry genetics that makes most people feel happy, goofy, and in a positive state of mind.
As far as reducing tension goes, Blue Dream is a great option for anyone looking to relax, yet still be upbeat and spry. But don’t let its uplifting effects fool you, if you smoke the right amount of Bluey, you’ll definitely be kicked back with your feet in the air.
Black Cherry Soda is a middle of the road hybrid that tastes great and makes you feel chill without being too overwhelmed. The flower looks beautiful with an array of green, purple, and red colors throughout, and the flavor has a red wine and cherry essence that’ll have you like, “Damn, this is the one.”
There are 1:1 balanced and CBD-dominant cannabis strains that can help you settle down. Harlequin is one of the more well-known ones. It comes from a complex mix of several landrace strains, which results in a pretty underwhelming flat sour citrus flavor.
The effects are what has it on this list though. No one can definitively say a strain can treat anxiety, we’re not there as an industry yet; but Harlequin comes highly recommended from those seeking mental and spiritual healing.
Remedy is another CBD-dominant cannabis strain that many seek when melancholy. It has a reputation for being more relaxing and heavier than other CBD strains. With that said, it’s really tasty too. If you came into this list looking for something light and flavorful to vape, this is the one to scoop up. Remedy kicks out a sweet, woody, and earthy aroma that skips directly to the sweet and earthier side of flavors in oil form. A few farms I’ve visited had this growing in bunches simply to send it straight to the processor to end up in vape cartridges.
Zkittlez is a fruity cross of Grapefruit and Grape Ape that people hold as one of the more flavorful strains out there. If you came here wanting to skip the effects, and instead seek out the terps, here you go. Zkittlez gives off a super sweet, berry, and fruity smell that transfers directly to the smoke when inhaled. Past the flavor, the effects are potent and relaxing.
Featured image by Dre Hudson/Weedmaps
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Can You Get Sick With COVID-19 More Than Once?
When it comes to COVID-19, a significant number of people are terrified of contracting the disease — even those who have already suffered through it.
The post Can You Get Sick With COVID-19 More Than Once? appeared first on The Fresh Toast.
A new meta-review of over a dozen animal research studies suggests that CBD could effectively help cocaine or crack users kick their habit.
The meta-review, recently published in the Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior journal, examined 14 different clinical research studies from the past five years. In each of these studies, the researchers attempted to discover whether cannabidiol, or CBD, could reduce addictive behaviors in animals that became dependent on cocaine.
In several of these studies, the researchers allowed animals to self-administer doses of cocaine. Just like humans, some of these animals eventually became dependent on this highly addictive drug and continued to seek it out. After the animals established a pattern of regular use, researchers began to administer doses of CBD to determine if it decreased the animals’ interest in cocaine.
In a 2018 study, researchers found that when mice were given a 20mg/kg daily dose of CBD, they consumed significantly less cocaine after 10 days than the mice not given any cannabidiol. A 2019 study found that mice given 20mg/kg of CBD 30-minutes before the trial were less likely to self-administer coke than mice that weren’t dosed with CBD. Lower doses of cannabidiol did not lead to a reduction in cocaine use, however.
In a third study, CBD doses between 10 and 20mg/kg were also found to make animals less likely to seek out cocaine. These doses “significantly increased the threshold for self-stimulation, suggesting a reduction in the brain-stimulation reward,” the study authors wrote, according to Marijuana Moment. Another study found that CBD reduced anxiety in rats that had used cocaine in prior clinical studies.
“CBD promotes reduction on cocaine self-administration,” the authors wrote. “Also, it interferes in [cocaine-induced] brain reward stimulation and dopamine release. CBD promotes alteration in contextual memory associated with cocaine and in the neuroadaptations, hepatotoxicity and seizures induced by cocaine.”
Not only did the CBD treatments reduce the animals’ desire to use cocaine, it reduced several of the risks and side effects associated with regular cocaine use. Researchers found that CBD helped reduce liver toxicity, seizures, and anxiety typically caused by regular cocaine usage. The source studies also found that CBD helped prevent the animals’ brains from adapting to regular cocaine use.
“The evidence indicates that CBD is a promising adjunct therapy for the treatment of cocaine dependence due to its effect on: cocaine reward effects, cocaine consumption, behavioral responses, anxiety, neuronal proliferation, hepatic protection and safety,” the authors concluded. “Moreover, clinical trials are strongly required to determine whether the findings in animal models occur in humans diagnosed for cocaine or crack cocaine use disorder.”
Researchers will need to conduct double blind clinical research trials on human subjects before concluding that CBD can officially help curb cocaine or crack addiction, but the results of this meta-review are promising. So far, there have been few human studies on the topic, but a recent case study found that one individual was able to use CBD to help break multiple drug addictions and recover from depression. Other studies have found that CBD can also help cigarette smokers overcome their addictions.