For several months now, I’ve been experimenting with medical marijuana oil tinctures for ulcerative colitis.
After a discussion with my medical marijuana doctor about his experience with UC patients and medical marijuana oil tinctures, I decided to give some products a try and report my results here.
I had several intentions in investigating medical marijuana oil tinctures for UC:
- Find a cost-effective alternative to smoking marijuana for UC
- Evaluate the efficacy of orally-delivered oil tinctures specifically in terms of my UC and bowel health
- Have a more easily transported and consumed mode of administration for my medical marijuana
In this post, Theraplant medical cannabis oil tinctures are used.
The medical marijuana oil tincture selection used for this post include a hybrid strain, a sativa strain and a 1:1 THC:CBD medical marijuana oil suspension.
Using Medical Marijuana Oil Tinctures for Ulcerative Colitis Offers the Benefit of Direct Digestive Tract Delivery
One of my main motivations for experimenting with cannabis tinctures was the direct delivery to the digestive tract with that mode of administration.
As my marijuana doctor explained this past September, administering the oil under the tongue gives the medicine a direct route to the bowel tissue.
His strong preference is using orally administered medical marijuana oil tinctures for ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
Is the Oral Delivery Route that Important?
I was skeptical at first about the oral delivery route. Could it really make much difference?
Spoiler alert: I think it actually does.
I’ve noticed some strong improvement in stool quality and gut comfort since incorporating some tinctures into my medical marijuana regimen for UC.
I’ve been doing really well for years now smoking, so saying I’m even better with some marijuana tinctures incorporated into my healing program for UC is really saying something.
My original assumption was that systemic THC and/or CBD was the main factor in using medical marijuana for UC. Now I believe delivery route can make a difference when using cannabis for UC. It’s definitely something worth experimenting with further.
Medical Marijuana Oil Tinctures as an Alternative Delivery Mode to Smoking for Ulcerative Colitis
For the past 6 years, my preferred administration mode has been smoking whole marijuana flower in a bong with ice.
Though still nothing like a California or Colorado dispensary, Connecticut medical marijuana patients have virtually every product category available.
Since I was already concerned about a chronic cough and congestion I was noticing, it seemed like a perfect time to give the tinctures a try and smoke a bit less.
Smoker’s Cough and Long-Term Medical Marijuana Use
A few years ago, I started to have a cough from time to time.
In the last few months, the cough was becoming chronic enough that I wanted to seek out alternative administration modes for my long-term cannabis usage.
I still like to smoke marijuana, but the idea of a smokeless, easily portable marijuana option was pretty attractive.
Anyone who uses marijuana long-term is going to find that smoking can’t be the only administration option available. It’s just too much on the lungs when using daily.
THC Oil Tinctures and CBD Oil Tinctures for Ulcerative Colitis
So far, I’ve used a hybrid medical marijuana strain as oil tincture and a sativa strain oil tincture.
I’ve also experimented with a 1:1 CBD and THC oil tincture.
The Theraplant medical marijuana oil tincture products I’m using currently for UC are:
Theraplant Pagoti (THC 81.5%)
Theraplant Savoti (THC 91.4%)
Theraplant CBD 1:1 (CBD 50.2%, THC 45.2%)
A Note About Strain Names and Connecticut’s Product Name Rules
Connecticut has a rule in their MMJ program about using the actual strain names or “street names” as they refer to them.
The “Pagoti” above is a hybrid strain. The “Savoti” is a sativa strain.
Though it’s not impossible to find out what the actual strains are, it’s not that important in my opinion.
Most of the marijuana in the dispensaries here is a cross of 2-3 strains anyway. You can’t really look up the effects of a cross like that on Leafly anymore.
To make life easier, I rarely inquire about the actual strains anymore.
(I’m sure the dispensary personnel thank me too.)
I simply select products based on the broad categories of sativa, indica, hybrid and high-CBD.
50-State Legal CBD Oil Tinctures
Beyond my own recent successes with THC and high-CBD medical marijuana oil tinctures, I’ve seen good results in clients using 50-state legal pure CBD oil tinctures derived from hemp.
I’ve written extensively about the chemistry of CBD and THC in the post CBD and High-CBD Medical Marijuana – The Principal Guide
If you live in a state where medical marijuana isn’t legal yet, pure CBD oil tinctures derived from hemp can be a really good – and legal – option.
Dosing THC and CBD Medical Marijuana Oil Tinctures for Ulcerative Colitis
I’ve kept my dosage between 0.5mL and 1mL. Depending on the strain, this is in the neighborhood of 15-30mg of THC at a time.
With the high-CBD tincture, a full mL of solution will dose 15mg THC and 17mg CBD.
Medical Marijuana Oil Tinctures and Cost when Administering Over the Long Term for Ulcerative Colitis
Daily long-term cannabis use can get expensive.
Once the decision is made to give medical marijuana for UC a real try, cost per day and cost per dose will be something that needs to be looked into.
The following table was compiled from online dispensary menu data in December of 2021.
Above is a table of various medical marijuana products from my dispensary. There are the three medical marijuana oil tinctures that are the main topic of this post. There are also several Theraplant flower strains as well as a Theraplant 50mg capsule product and two medicated edible cookie products.
As I’ve said previously, marijuana flower is the most cost-effective way to use marijuana for ulcerative colitis. The price per mg of THC is always lowest with whole marijuana flower.
In this case, the cost per unit THC with marijuana flower is about $0.03/THC mg.
The second lowest cost per unit THC are the medical marijuana tinctures at about $0.08/THC mg for the sativa and hybrid.
The high-CBD medical marijuana oil tincture used for this post comes in with a cost per unit of CBD at $0.11/CBD mg and THC at $0.12/THC mg.
Price per unit of THC for the capsules are $0.12/THC mg and the edible products come in really high at $0.22/THC mg and $0.34/THC mg.
My Anecdotal Results Using Medical Marijuana Oil Tinctures for Ulcerative Colitis
The cough I was starting to have has pretty much vanished.
I’m smoking less and my overall THC consumption has reduced slightly also.
My stool quality has also improved dramatically from what was already an excellent state.
I’m convinced that there is something to the direct delivery route to the digestive/oral tissue when using medical marijuana oil tinctures for UC.
Less cannabinoid seems to do more for UC with the oral administration route, also.
Further, I like that the felt-effect of the THC comes on a lot slower, is less intense and lasts longer with the tinctures. It’s less of a “punch” of THC, relative to smoking a bong.
Conclusion
My recent experience with medical marijuana tinctures has been a very positive one.
My experimentation suggests that all of my initial requirements were met by the oil tinctures.
- Lung and sinus health are better and the cough is significantly improved
- Bowel health was positively affected by the tinctures
- As shown in the table provided, marijuana oil tinctures are an affordable and cost-effective alternative to smoking
Based on my results and the data provided here, medical marijuana oil tinctures continue to be a part of my managing and healing regimen for ulcerative colitis.
Have you experimented with medical marijuana oil tinctures for UC or Crohn’s disease yourself? Have you used a 50-state legal CBD supplement for inflammatory bowel disease?
Let us know in the comments!
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