Saturday, February 3, 2018

The hunt for CBDA

I used to believe that this country is a medicinal cannabis paradise. We've got an abundance of doctors willing to apply on your behalf for a license (and that's a pre-requisite). Provided your ailment is one of the many that the government's health officials recognize as treatable with cannabis your license will arrive within a month. We've got nine suppliers to choose from.

But this week disillusionment struck. After a concerted search for CBDA, we have concluded that it is definitely not sold in this country. Every one of the suppliers I contacted told me that either they'd never heard of it or had but didn't sell it.

What is it?
Cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) is a chemical compound found in the resin glands (trichomes) of raw cannabis plants. In this case, raw means unheated and uncured. Basically, raw cannabis is fresh flower and leaves trimmed directly from the plant. CBDA is the acidic precursor to the more widely known molecule cannabidiol (CBD).] Source: https://www.cibdol.com/blog/368-cbd-science-the-difference-between-cbd-and-cbda
It is readily available on line but a rep of our supplier has warned me that importing it is illegal. She noted that our government-issued user license only permits us to receive the specified products sold by our chosen local supplier.

In any case, it appears that none of the online producers ship to this country. We're still awaiting a response from the ones we've approached.

We're very disappointed by this state of affairs. After consulting our cannabis guru, Elizabeth (https://elizabethaquino.blogspot.com/) and reading further about the product on line, it seems that CBDA is now our best option.

CBD seemed to help C. back in 2015 when we started her on it. The number of daily seizures dropped and she even enjoyed isolated seizure-free days. But that's a faded memory. Her "normal" now is a daily minimum of around 4-5 seizures along with long strings of them on average four times a week.

Elizabeth also advised tweaking the dosage of CBD and THC. We reached the maximum dose of 25 drops of CBD as recommended by our neurologist about 18 months ago. We've remained at that level ever since. But last week I began lowering it. We're currently at 23 drops. I also raised the THC to 4 drops. We give those doses 3x/day.

It's a shame that there is nobody here, neither neurologist nor cannabis supplier, who can guide us more effectively. I'm tired of all this groping in the dark.

Despite her constant seizure assaults, C. managed once again to perform nicely in the pool. Here is a video from her last hydro session a few days ago:

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Oh, dear. I am sorry that you can't find CBDA yet in Canada. Hopefully, that will change? As for calling me a cannabis guru, I have to resist. I am constantly tinkering with Sophie's medicine -- changing strains and dosages, adding new products and getting rid of others. Sophie will be seizure free for weeks and then bang -- multiple big ones every day. It's exhausting. I am here should you ever need to just hash anything out. You're doing a great job in this wildly new field. We're all pioneers, and it's damn difficult.

The Sound of the Silent said...

Thanks Elizabeth. But, sorry, you still are my cannabis guru. I have nobody else as knowledgeable and experienced as you to consult. And I first learned about cannabis for epilepsy only thanks to your blog.

As for, the availability of CBDA in Canada, I have no clue. I live somewhere else and keep it a secret because I often criticize medical and educational professionals and this is such a small place that I could easily be blacklisted for that.

And "damn difficult" sums it up precisely!