By: Elements of Green
More than 1 billion people worldwide smoke cigarettes.
Smoking is the single most significant form of preventable death in the world. The concern is that the tobacco market growing year over year and will lead to more deaths. Yes, this is quite grim..
That being said – more research and products is coming out daily that look at new innovative ways to help people quit smoking and leave their nicotine addictions behind them. The most common strategies at the moment include nicotine gum, nicotine patches, and even hypnotism therapy.
More recently, CBD has emerged as a front runner in the race to find a truly and definitively effective treatment for nicotine addiction. CBD is available in many for including;
– CBD Oil
– CBD Capsules
– CBD Creams
– CBD Vapes
– CBD Powders and Meal Replacements
Today we will explore how CBD may help with quitting smoking, and look more in-depth at the following topics;
– The size of the global smoking market
– The research on how CBD may help with quitting
– CBD companies that are leading the charge
– Patents and Research that have been developed and issued
The goal in this article is to present some products that are available on the Elements of Green Platform, which are great options to try.
Europe Is A Major Culprit
The map above shows the rate of premature deaths caused by smoking per 100,000 people in each individual country. A telling fact when looking at the map is that Europe and Asia have the highest smoking death rates across the world. The data shows that both Europe and Asia shockingly has 100-150 deaths for every 100,000 people. Why is this the case? Well, it is for a few significant reasons.
European governments’ investment in anti-smoking campaigns began significantly later, roughly in the 90s, compared to their North American counterparts. This means that the severity of the problems that come with smoking may not be entirely appreciated by Europeans yet. This is particularly puzzling when you consider that taxes on cigarettes are predominantly higher in European countries than in North America.
The concern is that the sale of cigarettes isn’t going in the right direction. For example, in the US, the sale of tobacco products is expected to grow to all-time highs over the coming decade.
Not to mention, despite these efforts to remove nicotine from the market in the US entirely, there is evidently still a significant issue to address. Another concern that has had regulators sounding the alarm urgently in recent months is vaping, which many makers claim is healthy than smoking cigarettes (even though there is no evidence to prove this). This is particularly concerning because smoking is already the #1 cause of preventable death in the US.
The Rise of Juul
Juul is a sleek electronic cigarette made to have the appearance of a flash drive. This product was first introduced to the market in 2015, but quickly became hugely popular mainly in North America. The chart below shows how quickly Juul’s rise occurred, particularly among teens.
The rate of 12-th grade high school students smoking dropped from 36.5% to 7.6%. In a much shorter period of time from 2015 to 2018, vaping sharply increased among teens. By 2018 the company owned 75% of the total vaping market.
The concern is that more and more people vaping, means more people addicted to smoking, and more people dying. This is what makes exploring all options for relief for tobacco and nicotine addiction so relevant and vital.
Why Does CBD Help With Smoking?
The great news about quitting a tobacco product is that the effects of quitting begin almost immediately. Within the first 20 minutes of quitting, a person’s blood pressure and pulse return to normal. Their bronchial tubes will also start to loosen. Within 24 hours, the risk of a heart attack has already decreased.
In a 2018 study, scientists found that CBD reverses attentional bias to cigarette cues in a human experimental model of tobacco withdrawal. This means that in preliminary research, it has been shown that CBD is, in fact, effective in lowering people’s attention on nicotine while attempting to quit smoking. In the study:
“We used an experimental medicine approach with dependent cigarette smokers to investigate if (1) overnight nicotine abstinence, compared with satiety, will produce greater attentional bias (AB), higher pleasantness ratings of cigarette‐related stimuli and increased craving and withdrawal; and (2) CBD in comparison to placebo, would attenuate AB, pleasantness of cigarette‐related stimuli, craving and withdrawal and not produce any side effects.”
– Dr. Hindocha
Patents and Research
Some companies have taken their interest in the correlation between CBD and quitting smoking to the next level by investing time and resources into doing clinical research and intellectual property filings. As we have seen above, most of the adverse effects of tobacco are derived from the inhalation and combustion in your lungs. This is why the significant multi-step nicotine quitting programs begin with a patch, gum other smoking substitutes that still deliver nicotine to the system, but do not include smoking and inhalation. One of the most popular quitting products is the Nicorette Nicotine Patch shown below.
Major CBD companies are betting that they can replicate and enhance these nicotine patches shown above by adding CBD to the formulation. This is something that has not yet been done and would require multiple rounds of testing and verification of human safety. The company that has begun this progress is CV Sciences, one of the leading CBD companies in the USA, and is at the forefront of a lot of scientific research involving CBD. Earlier in May, CV Sciences announced that they received “Formal Notice of Patent Issuance from USPTO for Proprietary Cannabidiol (CBD) and Nicotine Formulation for Treating Smokeless Tobacco Addiction.”
This is extremely exciting for the CBD industry because it means CBD is going mainstream and may help people tackle a broader range of issues and medical ailments than previously thought. CV Sciences explained that this Patent issued by the USPTO also carried a significant value for the company, saying that a “Formal Issuance of a U.S. Patent Strengthens Drug Development Business and Provides Valuable Intellectual Property to Address Large Unmet Market Opportunity.” In summary, the patent will allow CV Sciences to develop smokeless alternatives for tobacco addiction that combines CBD and nicotine.
This opens up the opportunity for other CBD companies to develop additional products and attain patents for proprietary technology that assists people with addiction.
Buying CBD for Quitting Smoking:
Be cautious when buying CBD. It is essential to do your research before buying from a specific brand or vendor. Elements of Green only sells products that have been tested for heavy metals, other toxic chemicals, and for the purity and quality of the CBD. For smoking, we recommend trying one of the 2 following products.
1. Endoca CBD Chewing Gum
In addition to the potential benefits CBD can have for people who are quitting smoking, there is also strong research showing that chewing helps lower nicotine cravings. Endoca’s CBD chewing gum is a fantastic way to experience the benefits of the hemp plant, with none of the environmental hazards of normal chewing gum. Possessing no artificial colours or preservatives. Endoca gum maximizes the bioavailability of CBD through oral absorption and is sweetened for taste with mint and xylitol.
This product is our newest CBD oil to be offered on our market place, and comes highly recommended by many of our users so far. It is a 100% organic oil, guaranteeing that you are consuming the most pure CBD oil on the market, and will hopefully be very helpful for people on the journey to quitting smoking.
