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It seems that CBD is everywhere these days, with major celebrities and everyday consumers alike flocking to CBD products in unprecedented numbers. The ongoing CBD-craze is so profitable that analysts in the cannabis industry have argued that CBD products will soon be generating billions of dollars in economic activity every year, yet many people still have little to no idea what CBD is, anyway.

Why is everyone taking CBD all of the sudden, and how does it relate to cannabis? Here’s everything you need to know about taking CBD products for recreational and medicinal purposes, and why they’ve become so popular in the past few years.

No, CBD Won’t Get You High

You can remove “because it gets you high” from the list of reasons why people are using CBD products. That’s because CBD, unlike recreational marijuana, doesn’t generate psychoactive effects that create a “high” sensation in users. This can be confusing to many people, especially since CBD is often found in conjunction with THC, the well-known cannabinoid found in marijuana that’s been popular for its psychoactive properties. At the end of the day, THC and CBD are derived from the same plant (cannabis) but are actually very different from one another.

Whereas recreational marijuana produces a certain psycho-euphoria because of its THC-infused nature, CBD is generally calming and soothing in nature and does not overload the body’s senses. This has made CBD an incredibly popular target of researchers who want to uncover novel ways to treat age-old symptoms that have plagued humanity for generations. According to the Epilepsy Foundation, for instance, CBD is now being harnessed to help those who suffer from seizures. The cannabinoid has proven so successful with epilepsy patients that the FDA recently approved of Epidiolex, a plant-based formulation of CBD, as a treatment method for seizure patients.

Besides being used to treat seizures, CBD is also proving popular with those who suffer from insomnia and anxiety. Generally speaking, its calming effects have helped many people find relief from conditions that have otherwise caused stress and more serious bouts of anxiety. These days, even major athletes are beginning to endorse CBD products, which is one of the reasons they’ve been flying off the shelves like hotcakes.

A U.S.A triathlon recently warmly embraced CBD, according to reporting from the New York Times, demonstrating CBD ability to ease the symptoms of muscle, back and join pain – in addition to its stress relieving properties. Whereas cannabis was widely shunned in the world of sports just a few years ago, CBD’s growing popularity is helping accelerate its mainstream potential.

Growing Popularity

The fact that CBD is free from THC, and will not case users to fail a drug test or bring about a ‘high’, is exactly why it’s so popular in the first place. Whereas many people are uncomfortable with recreational cannabis, they’re perfectly willing and even eager to embrace CBD’s practically side-effect free medical benefits. Similarly, the widespread eagerness with which consumers met the earliest CBD providers led many entrepreneurs to jump right into the market. As a result of that commercial explosion, CBD products are now available in a huge variety of forms, from oil to shakes to creams and shampoos, further enabling their spread to new consumers.

Companies like CBDMedic and Endoca have sprung up to offer people CBD tinctures, oils, lotions, salves, creams, edibles, and vaporizers, for instance. CBDMedic, for example, has also recently partnered with NFL legend Rob Gronkowski who says the products are a game-changer for muscle and join pain management. It can be mind-boggling to assess just how many CBD products are really out there these days, given that just a few years ago cannabis was still widely prohibited across the United States and carried with it an immense social stigma that’s decades old. Given that the American public is rapidly warming up to recreational cannabis, however, we can expect both recreational THC-infused marijuana and medicinal CBD products to keep catching on in the near-future.

Between athletic sponsorships, their widespread availability on digital marketplaces, and the decay of the social stigma that once prohibited users from openly talking about their cannabis usage, CBD products are more popular now than ever before. Everyone seems to be taking CBD, and it’s fast-becoming an accepted part of the mainstream marketplace. As time goes on, we can expect CBD to become more widely embraced across the world.