Smoking weed has come a long way from taking bong rips in your dorm room. Do you like the act of vaping, but don’t want to get high? Select Oil’s CBD vape pens come in several different flavors using essential oils for a variety of effects, without being psychoactive (e.g. “Revive” grapefruit blend, “Focus” peppermint blend, and “Relax” lavender blend). On the other hand, if you want to get super high, then try Select’s 99 percent THC vapes for a pure extract effect.
The company’s flagship product, Select Oil, was originally created in 2015 because a good friend of the company president suffered from Barrett’s esophagus, meaning he had cell damage in his throat. “Every time he tried to smoke flower, he kept getting sick, but couldn’t figure out why,” says Nitin Khanna, CEO of parent company Cura Cannabis Solutions. “It turns out the carcinogens in the flower were irritating the cells in his throat, causing him to get bronchitis four to five times a year.” A doctor suggested he vaporize cannabis rather than smoke it, but few of the vape cartridges on the market worked for him because they contained silica glass wick, which causes further damage to the lungs. “After lots of research and development, we developed a Japanese cotton wick cartridge along with the safest and cleanest cannabis oil in the industry and that is what launched Select Oil,” says Khanna.
The Select CBD disposable vape pens officially launched in stores in Oregon, California, and Nevada in August of this year, and have been available online since the beginning of October. Veterans, cancer survivors, and patient suffering from chronic illness use the CBD pens every day to reduce pain and anxiety, Khanna says. The CBD products are meant to target anyone ranging from a novice cannabis consumer to an experienced consumer with an interest in microdosing or getting a higher dose of CBD. Select’s products range from 0 percent THC to 99 percent THC, hence reaching a large demographic of people with a variation of tolerance levels and experience with cannabis.
Select’s products undergo rigorous testing, according to the state of Oregon’s strict testing standard. “Oregon labs test our product for pesticides, solvents, and potency — holding our oil to higher standards than the organic food you buy in supermarkets,” says Khanna.
Each half gram pen contains about 250 milligrams of CBD, allowing the consumer to get about one to two milligrams per puff. That means they can microdose CBD throughout the day and keep a level dose throughout their system. Unlike regular medications, CBD works best if taken on an ongoing basis. Like a vitamin, it’s the accumulation of CBD in your body over time that allows the cannabinoid to work its magic.
“The idea is really to curate the science of feeling, and that’s why we’re constantly developing new technologies and products that help people access cannabis,” says Khanna. “It’s important that we normalize access and use of [marijuana] and hemp-derived products, which means we have to reduce the stigma and help people feel comfortable using the products that they feel best using.”
There are two ways to do that, he adds: to focus on education, and to incorporate community service. Select is actively searching for nonprofits that are open to collaboration in order to impact national and local issues like health care, female empowerment, and human rights.
