CanChew weed gum, and a rising number of products similar to it, is legal and available in all 50 states. But don’t get too excited. As advertised, CanChew offers “absolutely no high.” Instead, it’s supposed to offer “all the benefits of CBD,” the pain-relieving, anxiety-reducing cannabidiol. Even with that, it may not be worth $39.98 per pack of 16 (plus $15.98 shipping and handling.)
To explain, CanChew advertisers claim the gum contains 50mg hemp oil and 10mg of CBD. A relative of the smokable marijuana species cannabis indica and cannabis sativa, the CBD-heavy hemp plant is near worthless as drug. Rather, it’s an industrial crop with stems harvested for fiber and seeds pressed into an oil useful in making soaps, lubricants and wood varnishes.
Taken internally, hemp oil is solid source of omega-3 fatty acids, though its health value beyond that is debatable. In most cases, it simply doesn’t pack enough pure CBD to offer the compound’s more prized benefits. Indeed, its various shortcomings inspired the creation of the newly popular “CBD hemp oil,” a more potent (and federally illegal) concentrate that’s been praised in treating pain, loss of appetite and other symptoms.
With that in mind, it’s only right to question CanChew’s effectiveness even before turning to user reviews. Dive in, and you’ll find that online ratings for the product vary wildly, with some claiming it improves appetite and lessens pain, while many, many more report they felt no difference whatsoever after using it.
The science backs up the latter opinion. While the gum’s website may be very right when it states that the product contains 10mg of CBD, no independent study has thus far determined exactly how much of the compound CanChew actually delivers to the user’s system via chewing. Even if one did, that amount falls below many dosage recommendations for dealing with pain, anxiety, and other health problems (though, admittedly, dosage recommendations are essentially anecdotal.)
The main value proposition of CanChew and other weed gums is that chewing allows the compound to enter the bloodstream more quickly and efficiently than smoking or eating due to the particular tissues in the mouth and gums. There’s a nice bit of truth to this as anyone who’s dropped acid, tried Nicorette lozenges or gum, or used a sublingual, dissolving anti-anxiety medication knows.
However, hemp-oil tinctures (and CBD hemp-oil tinctures) are also available and their use has been proven as effective over time. While gum proponents claim their method has the benefit of a slow release, that’s yet to be determined.
More than anything else, though, there’s this: As mentioned above, CanChew retails online for $39.98 per pack of 16 (plus that pesky $15.98 shipping and handling). That’s about $3.50 per dose of a non-tested, non-guaranteed treatment most experts suggest you use two to three times a day.
Look, the people behind CanChew genuinely seem to know what they’re doing when it comes to the science of CBD. They genuinely seem to have everyone’s best interests in mind as well. But with many hemp-oil tinctures offering a per-dose price of half theirs or less, there is very little reason to get excited about legal weed gum until prices come down, efficacy goes up, or a third-party study comes in.
Oh, and, again, it will not get you high.
