If you’ve ever smoked marijuana, whenever you hear the word ‘flower’ your mind may harken back to the dizzying days where lighting up a joint sent you on a trip to la-la land, at times accompanied by slight to extreme paranoia and anxiety.

Luckily, those instances only occurred in those rare times when you indulged a little too much, but the memory of that unpleasantness may have stuck with you for some time.

The flower we’re talking about here, however, is no such beast. Although CBD hemp flower and marijuana look virtually the same and – depending upon the strains – can smell the same too, the two actually differ quite a bit.

How THC and CBD Are Different

First, the cannabinoid make-up of marijuana and CBD hemp is distinct. Your average indica or sativa marijuana strain may run anywhere from 12-25% THC with as little as 0-1% CBD. Almost all popular marijuana strains that are smoked, vaped, or consumed recreationally have CBD concentrations of less than 1%. We now know that most of the medical benefits of marijuana are rooted in it’s CBD content.

CBD hemp flower by contrast, is industrial-grade hemp that has been bred specifically for high amounts of CBD and very low amounts of THC; by law, hemp must have values lower than 0.3% THC. Most CBD flower contains CBD in the range of 8-20%. Due to these opposing values in marijuana and CBD hemp; i.e., high THC/low CBD in marijuana, and high CBD/low THC in CBD hemp, the effects are totally different. CBD hemp flower, whether smoked or vaped or cooked or extracted by some process, will not get you high. Furthermore, it will not make you paranoid or anxious. What it will do, is curb these ailments: CBD has been shown to reduce inflammation, be effective in treating pain, epilepsy, anxiety, kill nausea, and more (for all of the scientifically verified effects, see our other article on Dr.Ganja’s blog on the science of CBD).

In fact, aside from most of the health benefits in cannabis coming from CBD and therefore high CBD-product, CBD additionally negates the harmful effects of THC. This is one of the reasons that many recreational smokers add CBD hemp flower to their regular marijuana when rolling joints: it counteracts the anxiety and paranoia-causing effects of THC. That isn’t to say that you can’t smoke or vaporize it alone as many hemp flower users do so as is; reporting a feeling of calm and peacefulness after smoking.

The Benefit of Hemp Cost

The benefits of CBD hemp don’t stop at its medical advantage either; some partakers prefer the flower over oil or other extracts for its price. At 10 dollars a gram or 95.00 for an ounce such as in the ever popular Elektra CBD Flower, it’s a big attraction. Some, myself included, also rather enjoy the act of smoking, and while certainly not the healthiest form of ingestion, it is the method with some of the best bioavailability (basically, how much of the CBD can be put to use by your body) and onset of action (how quickly it takes effect) aside from injection. Then again, I don’t see anyone whipping out needles and looking for that median vein in an attempt to get their CBD rush, so perhaps I’ll stick to smoking.

Speaking of CBD flower, if you’re curious you can check out Dr.Ganja’s high-quality flower here! Whether you want prerolls, 10% CBD flower, 15% CBD flower, or anything in between, we’ve got you covered.