In a Vacuum?

For this section, let’s talk about cannabinoid safety without mentioning the industry or dishonesty. I will get to those things in the next section, but first let’s assume that all the cannabinoids I’m going to mention were properly made.

Is this stuff safe?

Kind of. First and foremost, let me address those who deal with anxiety - if you are prone to thinking about “is this safe” over and over when you take a drug, you may want to sit the majority these cannabinoids out. Not because they are unsafe, but rather because they are uncertain, and any answer with certainty will not come for a long time, if ever. It’s just not worth your mental health.
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Because these cannabinoids are all classical cannabinoids, meaning they stem directly from a classical phytocannabinoid structure, it seems highly unlikely that these cannabinoids will cause any complications whatsoever. As I will go over in a later section, the “scary” cannabinoids that were sold as “spice” and “K2” were not structurally related to classical cannabinoids at all, and seem to have nothing in common with classical cannabinoids other than the receptor they hit.

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It SEEMS like everything should be ok. If that is not enough for you, I’d just avoid the stress entirely.

There won’t be answers for a long time?

I suppose it depends on what you would call “answers”. When it comes to common phytocannabinoids, the basic ones like D9, THCa, and CBD have been getting some serious research done on them for almost a decade now. It’s still been slow due to federal illegallity in the United States, but it does seem that the rate of research is increasing. You can find many studies talking about the efficacy of D9 THC and CBD in many diffrent catagories, most of which have been published in the last 10 years.

What about the other classical cannabinoids?

Here’s where things get unfortunate. If you are searching for an absolute answer to a question like “Is HHC-P safe”, you are likely going to be waiting a long time. As these cannabinoids exist in a very strange legal area and them being consumed at any sort of scale is very new. Therefore, research on any of these cannabinoids, especially the more niche ones. We can cross our fingers and hope for federal regulation of D9 and the rest of these lil rascals (sorry I got tired of tying “cannabinoids” over and over) which would lead to more research. Sadly the only real study concerning a niche cannabinoid is the study done by the University of Portland, but that study had a number of issues which I will go over in a coming section.

What’s Been Your Anecdotal Experience?

At this point, I’ve consumed a lot, and I mean a LOT of these cannabinoids. I use the majority of cannabinoids every day. I have never been healthier. That could change, but in terms of acute toxicity, you have nothing to worry about. Depending on how far in the future you are reading this, you may want to see if I’m still alive or if my lungs have collapsed or whatever to ensure what I’ve written is still true.

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In terms of lung health, my lung capacity has never been higher. I do not have a wheeze or cough, and recovering from a dab only takes 10 seconds or so. I have had one instance where I did develop a wheeze, and it was during a period of time when I was smoking only raw D8 for about 3 months. This was in the early days of alts too so who knows what the actual quality of the oil was. For some reason, it feels like blending cannabinoids makes them less harsh. Could be all in my head, but it feels like even harsh cannabinoids mixed together seem to make them a bit more tolerable. When compared to my early days of smoking, my lungs are 100x better feeling. Back when I was taking bong hoots all day long I’d wake up and cough up black in the morning. Nothing even close to that anymore.

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As for mental health, again, that has never been better. That being said, I’ve been an addict most of my life so getting addicted to something that has medicinal benefits instead of drinking has pretty easily made things better. 

When comparing to the few periods of my life when I was only smoking regular weed and regular concentrate, I felt so much less motivated and much more depressed. Much of this was due to circumstance, but I do firmly believe that smoking only D9 all the time really did a number on my ability to do anything. If I had CBG heavy blends for during the day back then, things would have felt a lot less heavy. 

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There’s a sort of weird feeling of “weight” that sets in when you’ve been smoking D9 for a few years without a break. Like someone threw a weighted blanket over your brain. Thinking becomes very taxing and a task I wanted to avoid. Now with all these cannabinoids and purpose-made blends at my disposal, I can still enjoy the benefits without being blasted off my tits. 
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Now, don’t get me wrong, you have to still be responsible. Keep the blends you use during the day high in cnoids and devoid of anything stronger than D9 THC. If you want to read more about how I manage my tolerance check out this article.