
CBD oil is an increasingly popular hemp extract that many people use for its potential wellness benefits. But some people prefer CBD flower for its desirable effects like relaxation and pain relief. Here you can learn all about hemp flower and where to buy the best CBD strains.
What is CBD Flower?
CBD flower is taken directly from industrial hemp plants without the need for extensive extraction processes. These flower buds contain the same beneficial cannabinoids and terpenes found within CBD oil, but tend to elicit a stronger entourage effect.
Hemp flower is different than many other CBD products since it is trimmed from the stalks of hemp without any additional manufacturing or purification needed, which keeps all of the naturally occurring cannabinoids in tact.
What is the Best CBD Flower to Buy Online?
Compared to CBD oil, there are many more challenges facing the selling and distribution of hemp flower across the United States. For this reason, there's a more narrow market for people that prefer to smoke hemp flower. This also means there are less suppliers to meet demand.
With that being said, we've found the best company that sells hemp flower.
Cheef Botanicals CBD Flower
Cheef Botanicals was founded by a group of cannabis enthusiasts to deliver high-quality, Colorado-grown hemp to the masses. Today they produce some of the highest quality, most potent CBD flower on the market.
All Cheef Botanicals products contain only the best organic vegan ingredients. They are also cruelty-free, non-GMO, gluten free and dairy free.
The Best Cheef Botanicals CBD Flower Products
- Northern Lights - Best for Sleep
- Cherry Wine - Best for Focus
- Grape Soda - Best for Calm
- Silver Surfer - Best for Energy
- White CBG - Best for Relaxation
Northern Lights
This CBD-dominant strain is highly sedative strain and best for nights. The strong smell and earthly flavor are reminiscent of it's more THC-laden cousins.
Percentage Levels: CBD ~ 20.73%
Cherry Wine
A Sativa and Indica hybrid, this strain is best for focus and relaxation, while bringing along none of the "high" associated with THC buds.
Percentage Levels: Total CBD: 16.48%, Delta-9 THC: <0.3%
Grape Soda
This is a flavorful bud, tasting of grapes and pine. Grape soda is also recommended for calm, focus, and relaxation.
Percentage Levels: Total CBD: 15.33% / Delta 9 THC: 0.1%
Silver Surfer
A cross between Super Silver Haze and Blue Dream hemp, this CBD-dominant strain is best for an uplifting and energetic daytime smoke, recommended for the creatives out there.
Percentage Levels: Total CBD: 15.07% / Delta 9 THC: 0%
White CBG
This CBG flower contains a high level of the cannabinoid Cannabigerol (CBG) and may be best for relaxing to relieve aches at the end of a long day.
Percentage Levels: Total CBG: 21.8% / Delta 9 THC: 0.0%
Keep in mind, the products featured here have been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the link included, we may earn commission.
Hemp Flower for Sale Online: What to Look For
The CBD market can be a confusing and vastly unregulated place. When shopping online, look for lab tested CBD flower. Accredited lab tests help ensure a high quality cannabis flower by verifying the CBD vs THC content, terpene profile, and testing for the presence of any pesticides, heavy metals, and other environmental contaminants.
Can CBD flower get you high?
Industrial hemp strains have naturally low THC levels. This means that their flowers also contain minimal amounts of THC (the psychoactive compound in cannabis plants). These plants produce CBD rich buds that will not create any mind altering effects like those commonly associated with a THC high.
Is CBD flower legal?
Hemp derived CBD flower is legal in the U.S. as long as it contains less than 0.3 percent of THC by dry weight. The 2018 Farm Bill recently legalized hemp federally as an agricultural crop, therefor making hemp flowers legal as well. Other cannabis plants may produce buds with high CBD and low THC concentrations, but these are not considered federally legal since they originate from marijuana cannabis strains.
How do you use CBD flower?
Smoking hemp is the preferred method of use for CBD flowers, especially for the converted user looking to gain relaxation without the high. Many people opt for pre-rolled joints or CBD cigarettes made from hemp flower, but others prefer to buy the buds and smoke them on their own terms.
While this isn't necessarily the healthiest habit, it may be a better option for individuals who are looking for an alternative to nicotine cigarettes or psychoactive marijuana. Additionally, CBD flower has not been evaluated by the food and drug administration. It's not intended to treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
CBD Hemp Flower Benefits
Much like CBD oil, hemp flower is believed to have many beneficial effects that can be used to alleviate issues like chronic pain, anxiety, sleep troubles, and more. While most of this is based off of anecdotal evidence, some scientific studies have shown the benefits of CBD, including:
- Anti-inflammatory properties that work to mitigate pain
- Anxiolytic effects help reduce anxiety and stress
- Potential neuroprotective properties
These wellness advantages appeal to many people, but it's important to note that smoking CBD flower is not the healthiest way to benefit from CBD. Inhaling anything other than oxygen into your lungs can be harmful. So for people that choose to smoke hemp, there is typically a trade off between the relieving effects they may experience versus the internal effects they do not see.
Understanding CBD Flower Measurements
Although hemp and marijuana vary in their cannabinoid composition, their flowers are weighed in the same manner. Using the metric system, CBD hemp flowers are weighed from grams to ounces, and are often broken up even further into eighths, quarters, and half ounces.
There are 28 grams in one ounce, and 1 gram will likely be able to make two or three joints filled with hemp bud.
CBD flowers taken from industrial hemp plants are legal to sell in most states, and these products must comply with the laws set forth by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on marketing and advertising. A supplier must deliver their products as described, including the weight of an item, when you are buying from them. If this isn't done, the FTC will likely take action against the company supplying the product. So you should receive the amount of hemp flower you purchase, but it never hurts to check.
Smoking Hemp Flower vs. Taking CBD Oil
When you inhale smoke from hemp flowers, the CBD will take effect almost immediately as your lungs absorb the cannabinoids and transfer them into the bloodstream. This effect likely won't last as long as ingesting CBD oil, which prolongs the on-set and steady absorption of CBD.
Smoking hemp flower looks and may even smell similar to marijuana, so be wary of this fact if you live in a state where recreational marijuana use is illegal. Hemp flower is legal, but it may cause confusion and unwanted attention, which should be taken into consideration.
Additionally, smoking is not good for your health — even if CBD flower may alleviate other issues like anxiety or pain. For this reason, we recommend exercising caution if you do decide to smoke hemp flower. Weigh the pros and cons, and consider other application methods when it comes to CBD.
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
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‘Existential Threat to Our Survival’: See the 19 Australian Ecosystems Already Collapsing
By Dana M Bergstrom, Euan Ritchie, Lesley Hughes and Michael Depledge
In 1992, 1,700 scientists warned that human beings and the natural world were "on a collision course." Seventeen years later, scientists described planetary boundaries within which humans and other life could have a "safe space to operate." These are environmental thresholds, such as the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and changes in land use.
The Good and Bad News
<p><span>Ecosystems consist of living and non-living components, and their interactions. They work like a super-complex engine: when some components are removed or stop working, knock-on consequences can lead to system failure.</span></p><p>Our study is based on measured data and observations, not modeling or predictions for the future. Encouragingly, not all ecosystems we examined have collapsed across their entire range. We still have, for instance, some intact reefs on the Great Barrier Reef, especially in deeper waters. And northern Australia has some of the most intact and least-modified stretches of savanna woodlands on Earth.</p><p><span>Still, collapses are happening, including in regions critical for growing food. This includes the </span><a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/importance-murray-darling-basin/where-basin" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Murray-Darling Basin</a><span>, which covers around 14% of Australia's landmass. Its rivers and other freshwater systems support more than </span><a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/latestproducts/94F2007584736094CA2574A50014B1B6?opendocument" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30% of Australia's food</a><span> production.</span></p><p><span></span><span>The effects of floods, fires, heatwaves and storms do not stop at farm gates; they're felt equally in agricultural areas and natural ecosystems. We shouldn't forget how towns ran out of </span><a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/issues-murray-darling-basin/drought#effects" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">drinking water</a><span> during the recent drought.</span></p><p><span></span><span>Drinking water is also at risk when ecosystems collapse in our water catchments. In Victoria, for example, the degradation of giant </span><a href="https://theconversation.com/logging-must-stop-in-melbournes-biggest-water-supply-catchment-106922" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mountain Ash forests</a><span> greatly reduces the amount of water flowing through the Thompson catchment, threatening nearly five million people's drinking water in Melbourne.</span></p><p>This is a dire <em data-redactor-tag="em">wake-up</em> call — not just a <em data-redactor-tag="em">warning</em>. Put bluntly, current changes across the continent, and their potential outcomes, pose an existential threat to our survival, and other life we share environments with.</p><p><span>In investigating patterns of collapse, we found most ecosystems experience multiple, concurrent pressures from both global climate change and regional human impacts (such as land clearing). Pressures are often </span><a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2664.13427" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">additive and extreme</a><span>.</span></p><p>Take the last 11 years in Western Australia as an example.</p><p>In the summer of 2010 and 2011, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/marine-heatwaves-are-getting-hotter-lasting-longer-and-doing-more-damage-95637" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">heatwave</a> spanning more than 300,000 square kilometers ravaged both marine and land ecosystems. The extreme heat devastated forests and woodlands, kelp forests, seagrass meadows and coral reefs. This catastrophe was followed by two cyclones.</p><p>A record-breaking, marine heatwave in late 2019 dealt a further blow. And another marine heatwave is predicted for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/24/wa-coastline-facing-marine-heatwave-in-early-2021-csiro-predicts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this April</a>.</p>What to Do About It?
<p><span>Our brains trust comprises 38 experts from 21 universities, CSIRO and the federal Department of Agriculture Water and Environment. Beyond quantifying and reporting more doom and gloom, we asked the question: what can be done?</span></p><p>We devised a simple but tractable scheme called the 3As:</p><ul><li>Awareness of what is important</li><li>Anticipation of what is coming down the line</li><li>Action to stop the pressures or deal with impacts.</li></ul><p>In our paper, we identify positive actions to help protect or restore ecosystems. Many are already happening. In some cases, ecosystems might be better left to recover by themselves, such as coral after a cyclone.</p><p>In other cases, active human intervention will be required – for example, placing artificial nesting boxes for Carnaby's black cockatoos in areas where old trees have been <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/factsheet-carnabys-black-cockatoo-calyptorhynchus-latirostris" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">removed</a>.</p><p><span>"Future-ready" actions are also vital. This includes reinstating </span><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/a-burning-question-fire/12395700" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cultural burning practices</a><span>, which have </span><a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-you-have-unfinished-business-its-time-to-let-our-fire-people-care-for-this-land-135196" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">multiple values and benefits for Aboriginal communities</a><span> and can help minimize the risk and strength of bushfires.</span></p><p>It might also include replanting banks along the Murray River with species better suited to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/my-garden-path---matt-hansen/12322978" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">warmer conditions</a>.</p><p>Some actions may be small and localized, but have substantial positive benefits.</p><p>For example, billions of migrating Bogong moths, the main summer food for critically endangered mountain pygmy possums, have not arrived in their typical numbers in Australian alpine regions in recent years. This was further exacerbated by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-million-hectares-of-threatened-species-habitat-up-in-smoke-129438" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2019-20</a> fires. Brilliantly, <a href="https://www.zoo.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Zoos Victoria</a> anticipated this pressure and developed supplementary food — <a href="https://theconversation.com/looks-like-an-anzac-biscuit-tastes-like-a-protein-bar-bogong-bikkies-help-mountain-pygmy-possums-after-fire-131045" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bogong bikkies</a>.</p><p><span>Other more challenging, global or large-scale actions must address the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iICpI9H0GkU&t=34s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">root cause of environmental threats</a><span>, such as </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0504-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">human population growth and per-capita consumption</a><span> of environmental resources.</span><br></p><p>We must rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero, remove or suppress invasive species such as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mam.12080" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feral cats</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-buffel-kerfuffle-how-one-species-quietly-destroys-native-wildlife-and-cultural-sites-in-arid-australia-149456" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">buffel grass</a>, and stop widespread <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reduce-fire-risk-and-meet-climate-targets-over-300-scientists-call-for-stronger-land-clearing-laws-113172" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">land clearing</a> and other forms of habitat destruction.</p>Our Lives Depend On It
<p>The multiple ecosystem collapses we have documented in Australia are a harbinger for <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/protected-areas/202102/natures-future-our-future-world-speaks" target="_blank">environments globally</a>.</p><p>The simplicity of the 3As is to show people <em>can</em> do something positive, either at the local level of a landcare group, or at the level of government departments and conservation agencies.</p><p>Our lives and those of our <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-are-our-future-and-the-planets-heres-how-you-can-teach-them-to-take-care-of-it-113759" target="_blank">children</a>, as well as our <a href="https://theconversation.com/taking-care-of-business-the-private-sector-is-waking-up-to-natures-value-153786" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">economies</a>, societies and <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-address-the-ecological-crisis-aboriginal-peoples-must-be-restored-as-custodians-of-country-108594" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cultures</a>, depend on it.</p><p>We simply cannot afford any further delay.</p><p><em><a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dana-m-bergstrom-1008495" target="_blank" style="">Dana M Bergstrom</a> is a principal research scientist at the University of Wollongong. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/euan-ritchie-735" target="_blank" style="">Euan Ritchie</a> is a professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences at Deakin University. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lesley-hughes-5823" target="_blank">Lesley Hughes</a> is a professor at the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michael-depledge-114659" target="_blank">Michael Depledge</a> is a professor and chair, Environment and Human Health, at the University of Exeter. </em></p><p><em>Disclosure statements: Dana Bergstrom works for the Australian Antarctic Division and is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Wollongong. Her research including fieldwork on Macquarie Island and in Antarctica was supported by the Australian Antarctic Division.</em></p><p><em>Euan Ritchie receives funding from the Australian Research Council, The Australia and Pacific Science Foundation, Australian Geographic, Parks Victoria, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, and the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC. Euan Ritchie is a Director (Media Working Group) of the Ecological Society of Australia, and a member of the Australian Mammal Society.</em></p><p><em>Lesley Hughes receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a Councillor with the Climate Council of Australia, a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and a Director of WWF-Australia.</em></p><p><em>Michael Depledge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/existential-threat-to-our-survival-see-the-19-australian-ecosystems-already-collapsing-154077" target="_blank" style="">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>- Coral Reef Tipping Point: 'Near-Annual' Bleaching May Occur ... ›
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New EarthX Special 'Protecting the Amazon' Suggests Ways to Save the World’s Greatest Rainforest
To save the planet, we must save the Amazon rainforest. To save the rainforest, we must save its indigenous peoples. And to do that, we must demarcate their land.
A new EarthxTV film special calls for the protection of the Amazon rainforest and the indigenous people that call it home. EarthxTV.org
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