Whether you signed up to take a beating on the basketball court at Hoopfest or you're heading to the mountains for a backpacking trip, summer is a season for active fun. It's also a season for feeling that fun turn into discomfort in your muscles and joints the next morning.
If you're looking to throw out the old standbys of ibuprofen and naproxen, consider these cannabis-based methods of pain relief.
The FLOW Stick by Fairwinds Manufacturing is a roll-on topical that takes a similar approach to aches and pains as products like Icy Hot. Users simply apply the balm like a deodorant stick wherever they're feeling sore. Fairwinds Manufacturing produces a warming and a cooling version of the product.
The mentholated cooling version was recommended by a budtender at Cinder — which sells the stick for $30 — for its popularity but also because of the balance of cannabinoids contained within the product. Many pain relief topicals are CBD-dominant, but FLOW Sticks contain a one-to-one ratio of CBD and THC, which allows for deeper pain relief than CBD alone. And don't worry, topically applied THC doesn't result in a high.
Cedar Creek Cannabis' Liniment packs a pain relief punch with 1,500 milligrams of cannabinoids, split evenly three ways between THC, THCA and CBD. THCA is especially helpful for pain relief as it has strong anti-inflammatory effects, but it loses some of that impact when smoked or vaped as heat converts it into THC.
The 4-ounce product goes for $36 at Mary Jane's where it was compared to a stronger version of Bengay. Because it comes in a liquid, lotion-like form, as opposed to the roll-on stick, users have a bit more control over just how much they want to apply.
Spokane Valley's Sixfifths, one of the many brands under the umbrella of the massive Grow Op Farms, has a raspberry vanilla bath bomb that will help soothe away your aches and pains.
It was recommended by Piece of Mind on the South Hill, where it sells for $10, for its one-to-one ratio of THC and CBD at 25 milligrams each.
The bath bomb is lower than the others listed here in terms of potency, but its therapeutic value is enhanced by the setting in which it will be used. After a long day of strenuous activity, a warm bath with salty, cannabinoid-laden water is sure to induce a feeling of relaxation across the entire body — it won't get you high, but the entire-body impact could be overwhelming for newcomers. ♦
