At this point, most people walking into a cannabis store have a basic understanding of the two big cannabinoids: THC and CBD — the former gets you high, and the latter is vaunted for its therapeutic applications.
Easy enough, you think, as you scan the menu at the shop. And then you see it: one product sticking out from all the others: the one product on the Canadian market (so far) built not around THC or CBD, but CB...N!?
What the heck, you might ask yourself, is CBN?
You likely aren’t alone in your confusion. Experts talk about cannabinoids, plural, in cannabis, but they’re often only talking about two — THC and CBD. Those are far from the only cannabinoids present in cannabis flower, and for cannabis producers, especially those who specialize in extracts, CBN is one of the most exciting, if still pretty mysterious, cannabinoids, with a whole host of potential therapeutic applications.
The buzz around CBN is still building, with the only CBN-forward product in Canada Solei’s Renew CBN oil taking home the prize for top innovation at the 2019 Canadian Cannabis Awards.
CBN: The basics
CBN, also known as cannabinol, is a slightly psychoactive cannabinoid in cannabis. If you know it at all, it’s probably because you’ve heard it talked about as a powerfully sedative compound in cannabis — like if CBD and Valium got together and had a kid. (Solei, for instance, markets their CBN oil as a “night” product, and are clear that it has a “low energy” effect.
Though it sounds like CBD, CBN is a closer relative to THC than the more ubiquitous CBD, though the two share their very mild psychoactivity. If you plucked a fresh bud off a live cannabis plant, there would be next to no CBN in it, if any. CBN, rather, is created as the THC-A in the plant (which, when smoked or decarboxylated, becomes THC) degrades naturally, a process called oxidization.
“The process of creating it comes with time and the natural breakdown of raw cannabis acids,” writes George Mouratidis, at Analytical Cannabis. “If left for several weeks, THC-A rich cannabis will begin to produce CBN naturally.”
If you’ve ever smoked once-great bud you found crumpled in a plastic bag at the back of a sock drawer and noticed it hit a bit different, at least part of that might be because some of the THC in it had converted to CBN.
CBN: The potential benefits
“To date, research into the therapeutic benefits of CBN is VERY preliminary,” writes Dr. Michael Breus in Psychology Today. “But it’s starting to heat up, as interest in the health benefits of cannabinoids surges and the popularity of CBD continues to grow.”
Researchers who study its effect in mice have suggested CBN might have a wide range of therapeutic applications, including: sedative, pain reliever, antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, appetite stimulant, cancer fighter, anti-convulsant, bone healing and growth, and glaucoma therapy. Like CBD, early research suggests CBN has a wide array of potential applications.
Like CBD, the latitude CBN appears to have is one of its most exciting aspects to the medical community. But with very few human trials, and little conclusive evidence to go on, it’s still a compound backed primarily by anecdotal evidence. Steep Hill Labs once called it “the most sedative of all cannabinoids,” and compared taking 2.5 to 5 mg of CBN to taking 5 to 10 mg of Valium.
The anecdotal evidence is also strong. “Finally, sleep has come to me!” writes Lift reviewer Aakulay, reviewing Solei’s oil. “I’ve struggled with sleep my whole life [and] within about 15-20 minutes I was ready to pass out. It was incredible.” Even those who are less positive about the product agree the 10mg THC / 10mg CBN combo is a knock-out punch. “It worked, but the effects lingered well into the following morning,” writes budtender and Lift reviewer DrAimsi.
Where to find CBN
CBN remains a somewhat elusive compound in the cannabis world — but with one product now on the Canadian market (which Solei says is made through a “proprietary process”) and several American producers making CBN products, it may not stay that way.
If you want to try to get some CBN, the best you can probably do at home is to find some cannabis high in THC-A and let it sit and grow old. But because there is not a great deal of research on the processes by which THC-A degrades, this is a highly inexact, slow and inefficient method.
“At room temperature, the rate of degradation of THC in cannabis has been estimated [around] 5% per month, and 10% for the pure product,” one 2016 study found. But even then, don’t expect much.
“The rate of appearance of CBN was significantly lower than the [rate] of disappearance of THC,” the researchers wrote. THC degrades, eventually, into CBN — the problem, for the CBN hobbyist, is there’s not much you can do to influence or control that process.
CBN has started to catch on, albeit slowly, in the United States after hemp-based CBD was legalized in 2018. “When most people turn to CBD, what they might really want is CBN,” writes Gossamer, the company behind Dusk, a new CBN product being sold stateside. There’s a handful of other CBN products made available since hemp production was legalized as well, with most highlighting its sleep-aiding properties.
As the cannabis industry matures, and more sophisticated extraction companies enter the market, we’re sure to see a wider range of cannabinoids as the focus. CBN, with a natural application and built-in sales pitch — "it’s the one that lets you sleep" — could very well be the first of the new cannabinoids to break into the mainstream.
Easy enough, you think, as you scan the menu at the shop. And then you see it: one product sticking out from all the others: the one product on the Canadian market (so far) built not around THC or CBD, but CB...N!?
What the heck, you might ask yourself, is CBN?
You likely aren’t alone in your confusion. Experts talk about cannabinoids, plural, in cannabis, but they’re often only talking about two — THC and CBD. Those are far from the only cannabinoids present in cannabis flower, and for cannabis producers, especially those who specialize in extracts, CBN is one of the most exciting, if still pretty mysterious, cannabinoids, with a whole host of potential therapeutic applications.
The buzz around CBN is still building, with the only CBN-forward product in Canada Solei’s Renew CBN oil taking home the prize for top innovation at the 2019 Canadian Cannabis Awards.
CBN: The basics
CBN, also known as cannabinol, is a slightly psychoactive cannabinoid in cannabis. If you know it at all, it’s probably because you’ve heard it talked about as a powerfully sedative compound in cannabis — like if CBD and Valium got together and had a kid. (Solei, for instance, markets their CBN oil as a “night” product, and are clear that it has a “low energy” effect.
Though it sounds like CBD, CBN is a closer relative to THC than the more ubiquitous CBD, though the two share their very mild psychoactivity. If you plucked a fresh bud off a live cannabis plant, there would be next to no CBN in it, if any. CBN, rather, is created as the THC-A in the plant (which, when smoked or decarboxylated, becomes THC) degrades naturally, a process called oxidization.
“The process of creating it comes with time and the natural breakdown of raw cannabis acids,” writes George Mouratidis, at Analytical Cannabis. “If left for several weeks, THC-A rich cannabis will begin to produce CBN naturally.”
If you’ve ever smoked once-great bud you found crumpled in a plastic bag at the back of a sock drawer and noticed it hit a bit different, at least part of that might be because some of the THC in it had converted to CBN.
CBN: The potential benefits
“To date, research into the therapeutic benefits of CBN is VERY preliminary,” writes Dr. Michael Breus in Psychology Today. “But it’s starting to heat up, as interest in the health benefits of cannabinoids surges and the popularity of CBD continues to grow.”
Researchers who study its effect in mice have suggested CBN might have a wide range of therapeutic applications, including: sedative, pain reliever, antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, appetite stimulant, cancer fighter, anti-convulsant, bone healing and growth, and glaucoma therapy. Like CBD, early research suggests CBN has a wide array of potential applications.
Like CBD, the latitude CBN appears to have is one of its most exciting aspects to the medical community. But with very few human trials, and little conclusive evidence to go on, it’s still a compound backed primarily by anecdotal evidence. Steep Hill Labs once called it “the most sedative of all cannabinoids,” and compared taking 2.5 to 5 mg of CBN to taking 5 to 10 mg of Valium.
The anecdotal evidence is also strong. “Finally, sleep has come to me!” writes Lift reviewer Aakulay, reviewing Solei’s oil. “I’ve struggled with sleep my whole life [and] within about 15-20 minutes I was ready to pass out. It was incredible.” Even those who are less positive about the product agree the 10mg THC / 10mg CBN combo is a knock-out punch. “It worked, but the effects lingered well into the following morning,” writes budtender and Lift reviewer DrAimsi.
Where to find CBN
CBN remains a somewhat elusive compound in the cannabis world — but with one product now on the Canadian market (which Solei says is made through a “proprietary process”) and several American producers making CBN products, it may not stay that way.
If you want to try to get some CBN, the best you can probably do at home is to find some cannabis high in THC-A and let it sit and grow old. But because there is not a great deal of research on the processes by which THC-A degrades, this is a highly inexact, slow and inefficient method.
“At room temperature, the rate of degradation of THC in cannabis has been estimated [around] 5% per month, and 10% for the pure product,” one 2016 study found. But even then, don’t expect much.
“The rate of appearance of CBN was significantly lower than the [rate] of disappearance of THC,” the researchers wrote. THC degrades, eventually, into CBN — the problem, for the CBN hobbyist, is there’s not much you can do to influence or control that process.
CBN has started to catch on, albeit slowly, in the United States after hemp-based CBD was legalized in 2018. “When most people turn to CBD, what they might really want is CBN,” writes Gossamer, the company behind Dusk, a new CBN product being sold stateside. There’s a handful of other CBN products made available since hemp production was legalized as well, with most highlighting its sleep-aiding properties.
As the cannabis industry matures, and more sophisticated extraction companies enter the market, we’re sure to see a wider range of cannabinoids as the focus. CBN, with a natural application and built-in sales pitch — "it’s the one that lets you sleep" — could very well be the first of the new cannabinoids to break into the mainstream.
