According to a recent study, products containing the non-psychotropic cannabinoid CBD are almost as popular in Illinois as their psychoactive counterparts containing THC. What’s more, women are behind the surge in the use of CBD.
Among medical marijuana patients in Illinois, 47 percent use CBD on a daily basis, while 22 percent have had no previous experience with cannabis, reports the Illinois Medical Cannabis Patient Experience Study. Within the scope of those statistics, three quarters of female patients said they use CBD every day, while 26 percent had never used cannabis before joining the state’s medical marijuana program. The same study found that the average Illinois patient spends roughly $3,000 a year on medical marijuana.
CBD products that won’t get you high offer a gentle entry into the world of weed, especially for new patients with little to no experience with cannabis. In the form of vaporizable oils, capsules, tinctures, and other products, CBD is known to treat pain, inflammation, epileptic seizures, depression, and more. Additionally, patients can use CBD in larger doses since they don’t have to worry about getting too high.
However, the medical marijuana program in Illinois is more restrictive than those in states like California or Oregon. In order to qualify for the program, patients must suffer from one of the conditions covered under the Illinois Medical Cannabis Pilot Program. Among some of those conditions are cancer, AIDS, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, seizures, Alzheimer’s, and glaucoma.
Nonetheless, the 53 dispensaries in Illinois have accumulated more than $23 million in revenue from January through the end of April, not to mention more than $60 million since the state’s medical marijuana program went into effect in November 2015.
Illinois women aren’t the only ones who tend to prefer CBD products. According to reader data information collected by the cannabis encyclopedia Leafly, women in general tend to seek out high CBD strains such as Charlotte’s Web, Cannatonic, and Harlequin. High CBD strains like these tend to offer relief for conditions that affect women in particular, including menopause, breast cancer, and PMS.
Therefore, it follows that even if having an active menstrual cycle isn’t among the prerequisite categories included in the Illinois medical marijuana program, female patients may still be using cannabis to treat not just their qualifying condition, but other issues such as cramps.
