applying medical cannabis to skin as a cream or as a patch

[fishwyfe]

I recall reading that patients typically find they need only ⅓ as much cannabis product when it is absorbed through the skin compared to when it is taken orally. With cannabis oil today being worth more than gold, gram for gram, this deserves a closer look.

 

Application to the skin means that it can enter the blood stream directly and escape being broken down in the stomach.

 

The world-wide clamp-down on long-term opiate use is leaving untold numbers of chronic pain sufferers in desperate straits. With medical cannabis having so much to offer, I'm tipping that it may well be that as a topical pain medication that cannabis gains acceptance as a general pharmaceutical. To put it bluntly, someone in constant pain will be agreeable to trying anything that might offer relief!

 

Thinking about some of the people I know, almost all would be willing to try cannabis lotion or patches, while being reluctant to take an unproven cannabis product orally. It may be that patches and creams could find themselves in diverse applcations such as healing surgery scars, burns, migraines, insomnia, tinnitus, and skin cancer.

 

One drawback is the odour. Is cannabis oil unavoidably strong smelling? If so, then I can see sealed patches being more popular than a lotion.

 

Is there likely to be any local reaction to a few mg. of cannabis oil applied to an area of skin on the chest or upper arm?

 

There is an interesting D-I-Y discussion on creams here: https://www.420magazine.com/forums/cannabis-cream/180317-pain-cream-using-only-2-grams-made-many-times.html

 

A D-I-Y guide for preparing patches could be adapted from this instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Caffeine-Patches-Transdermal-Caffeine/?ALLSTEPS

[billytheechidna]

Hi fishwyfe,

Hopefully better late than never, I'll chime in here. 

I too am interested in the topic of topicals!  I can't yet answer your question about smell, although I have read many people's reports that essential oils such as tea tree mask the smell quite well. I believe from what I've read that topical preparations do not absorb well into the bloodstream (many people say that topicals are non-psychoactive because of this), but others say they have gotten a slight buzz. However, if say a coconut oil infusion was taken rectally or vaginally, it can be absorbed much more effectively, in fact many conventional medications are administered as suppositories because they are best absorbed that way. The commercially available trans-dermal patches in the US are different. They use an added ingredient which carries the cannabinoids across the cell walls of the skin and into the blood stream. Often this transdermal agent is DMSO or dimethyl sulfoxide. It has some analgesic and anti inflammatory properties of its own, but its main purpose is as a trans-dermal carrier. You can buy this sometimes through health food stores or online - some people use it as a liniment or as a supplement. It is quite powerful though - I read a report on another forum where someone had mixed some hash oil (a concentrate i think) with DMSO and applied a small amount to their inner wrist. They had a very strong high - overwhelmingly so. The DMSO carries whatever is on your skin straight into your blood, so it might also introduce toxins etc. that your skin normally keeps out. Hence you need to clean your skin well where ever you put a patch.

If you were to use DMSO/Canna patches to get active THC into your blood, I think you can definitely expect to get high.    Cheers, Billy