Hi everyone. Happy New Year! I am Yasuko and it’s time for Massage Monday. Today is January 1st, 2018. In case you didn’t know, in a state of California, a recreational use of marijuana became legal today. Since the end of December when you drive on the freeways you see signs like this: Drive High Get A DUI. Who would have thought this day would come.
To commemorate this historic achievement, this week I’m going to talk about cannabis massage or marijuana massage. The words hemp, cannabis and marijuana are used interchangeably these days. From my research, my understanding is that cannabis refers to the entire plant species as denoted in its Latin scientific name Cannabis Sativa. Under the US law, hemp refers to sterilized seeds, stems, stalks and roots, and marijuana refers to viable seeds, leaves, and flowers. The hemp plants and marijuana plants are grown and used differently for different purposes.
When you talk about cannabis products you need to know these two main chemicals of the cannabis plants: Tetrahydrocannabinol also known as THC and Cannabidiol also known as CBD.
THC is psychoactive chemical that gives you high. CBD does not give you high. In fact, one of the benefits of CBD is anti-psychotic and it calms you down. CBD has so many other benefits such as anti-inflammatory, relieves pain, reduces anxiety, anticonvulsant, relieves nausea, and improves sleep.
Although both hemp plants and marijuana plants have CBD, hemp plants have less THC than marijuana plants so you cannot get high from smoking hemp plants. Marijuana plants, on the other hand, have been cross-bred over time to intentionally increase the contents of THC for “medicinal” use.
So can you get high from cannabis massage? It depends. It depends on the amount of THC in the product used in the massage. Your skin is the largest organ in your body and your body absorbs whatever you put on your skin. If the massage is done with a product like this Apothecanna Cannabis Oil, which doesn’t have any THC and it even says “100% hemp derived CBD. Non-psychoactive.” there is no way you get high from this. But if the product has lots of THC and depending on your tolerance level, I’m pretty sure you can get high.
As a consumer, if you see cannabis massage or marijuana massage offered, I would ask the practitioner what they mean by that. I would ask them what kind of product they use and I would also specifically ask how much THC is in the product if any so that you know what to expect before getting the service. I don’t want you to get disappointed for not getting high or get arrested for DUI for getting too high.
As a practitioner, I’ve asked California Massage Therapy Council which governs the massage licensing if there were any regulations or guidelines regarding marijuana massage at a state level. As of December 18, 2017, there was nothing in the state law that addressed this. But that could mean your city or the county has regulations so please do your research.
Now that marijuana is legal just like alcohol, please know your limit, know the consequences and take a responsibility for your own action. And please please please don’t drive high.
Thanks for watching. I’ll see you back next week. Make it a great week. Feel free to comment below and please don’t forget to subscribe.
Massage Monday #375 –Cannabis/Marijuana Massage http://bit.ly/mm-010118