"Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome" (CHS) is actually Azadirachtin (neem) poisoning!
Azadirachtin (C35H44O16) is the active compound in the oil from the neem plant.
(from Wikipedia)
Farmers have been wielding neem oil against fungal and insect pests for centuries. When done properly, very little azadirachtin ends up in the food, because most plants can't take it up through their roots.
Cannabis is one of the best phytoremediators known - when grown in contaminated soil, it "cleans" the soil by uptaking heavy metals and other toxins. So it DOES uptake azadirachtin, especially during vegetative stage, then deposits it with resins into the flowers, which may be dried for smoking or made into concentrates.
(photo by DRutter)
Many (even organic) growers don't know this, and continue to use neem oil with cannabis. Yes, it's organic, but organic doesn't mean safe. Azadirachtin is definitely poisonous. As much as HALF of all cannabis, including in dispensaries, is contaminated to some degree with azadirachtin!
What Azadirachtin does to Humans
The early symptoms of azadirachtin toxicity are intense nausea, cyclic vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, muscle tension, fatigue, and dehydration. Symptoms can be reduced with Benadryl (diphenhydramine) or a hot shower/bath. Those who are particularly sensitive to azadirachtin, those who are otherwise weakened or immunocompromised, and those who get the highest doses get the sickest. If levels get high enough, stupor, seizures, and organ damage result.
When the patient abstains from cannabis, or switches to a clean source (grown without azadirachtin), symptoms gradually clear up.
Along Came "CHS"
Since 2004, various sources have been claiming that heavy cannabis use sometimes causes "cannabis hyperemesis syndrome". This never-before seen illness supposedly has all the same symptoms as azadirachtin toxicity, and it clears up when treated in the same ways.
As far as I can tell, "CHS" doesn't exist. It's actually toxicity to the active compound in neem oil (used sporadically on cannabis in the legal and underground industries). This nonsensical syndrome is being made into a Boogeyman by politicians to justify the continued prohibition of cannabis!
We can dispel the CHS myth - and prevent people from getting sick - by spreading the word: NEVER use neem oil (Azadirachtin) on cannabis!
[NOTE: Read your labels! Azadirachtin is now being produced synthetically and added to various products like Azatrol, Azamax, Aza-Sol, Align, Azatin, Turplex, d-Mize, Plantonix Bliss, and more. Better yet, grow with nothing but light, air, and water - like Nature does!]
This isn't meant as medical advice, but I hope it spurs you to research the issue yourself. Other useful writeups on this topic can be found here, here, and here. If you have information you think I should add to this post, please let me know!
DRutter
Thank you. Very well written/ Up-voted and resteemed!
ok, how do you re-steem this?
If he says it's fact? It has to be... And I've known and told people about this for years.
Upvoted, shared, and resteemed to my hemptastic followers!!
this article is awesome. i’ve always been skeptical of neem products, and this really confirms my suspicion. the tie to CHS is mind blowing, jeez just thank you for this information!!!
But according to this article, there is no CHS. CHS is the Azadirachtin poisining caused by the neem oil.
Nevertheless, thanks for sharing this :)
Really good to know! I have used neem for many things but I wasn't aware that it could be toxic to you. I know it is a popular "organic" alternative to pesticides and other chemicals to deal with pests and it makes me think that most flower people use is contaminated. It is really important people learn about this so we can keep the medicine pure. Thank you for the info!
Thanks for not shooting the messenger! I realize this isn't exactly great news, but maybe some good will come of it. Perhaps this will get more people to try more natural alternatives to sprays, even sprays made with "organic" compounds. Even if this just gets people to REDUCE how much azadirachtin is getting into cannabis for internal use, that's success to me.
I think that humans are very out of touch with nature in general so we tend to want what we want by any means instead of working intelligently with nature. Even if cannabis is only a recreational drug in someones mind they should still want it to be clean and healthy. But the truth is that it is medicine and it is important to be careful about what we are putting in our bodies. I have always really preferred wholesome, straight from the earth bud and not all these crazy outcomes of human tricks and schemes. Our species has had a relationship with this plant for at minimum thousands of years and im guessing it is only recently that we have felt the need to add all these chemicals. I think the more people learn about this the more there will be a push for better practices and even if it only changes 5% of growers minds well hey at least its 5% more good bud out there.
I hear you completely. I don't take a hard-line stance against fertilizing, or managing pests, but I value natural solutions far above chemical ones. Especially newly developed miracle cure products promising triple the yield. As for neem, the compound itself is natural, but maybe it isn't natural for concentrated solutions of it to be dumped into the soil of cannabis plants. Which is what we're often doing to treat bug and larva infestations. Maybe further research will show that spraying small amounts of azadirachtin on leaves, during veg stage only, and being careful not to allow any into the soil, is relatively safe. But as for me and my plants, we're going to avoid it altogether for the time being. Surely there's something else on this planet that's both effective AND totally safe when taken internally! One of the safest things I can think of is cannabis, ironically! Maybe we will develop some kind of pesticide out of cannabinoids? Wouldn't that be amazing and fitting?
Man I just harvested two plants last week and I had been using neem oil on them to help control fruit flies. Very glad to have read this now. I guess I will be finding something else to use from now on. Awesome article man.
Use nicotine tea. Easy and simple.
Nicotine tea huh, that's a new one to me. I'll have to do some homework now.
A bag of just the filters... No tobacco or paper. Make a cloth bag filled with the filters.
Soak in warm water for a day.
Squeeze bag as best you can.
The nicotine tea can be concentrated by boiling it Down. And storing.
Be very careful it's highly toxic.
Directions for use? Read up but I put a good splurge into the mixing bottle of water.
Kills anything buggy in the garden.
No known threats from Cannabis.
Try not to use directly on flowers at later stages of life. The water can still help mildew and molds.
Spray stalks and leaves.
You can use a magnifying glass to see the death.
Great for a soil drench for fungus gnats and anything in the soil you don't want. Won't harm the living soil.
Wow thank you man, I will definitely be trying this out on my next run. Very good info and easy to understand.
now that was eye opening
Wow, my friend just got "CHS", and believes it came from his medical weed. So this matches so well. Thanks for the info.
wow. This is fascinating... I have experienced this "Emesis" before.. I actually tended to attribute it to strains with high CBD as that seemed to be when I got the "sickest" after using strains with high levels of it. But I will def check this out now and do some experimnets! Thanks!!! (got here too late to upvote, unfortunately, but will re-steem!
Thanks for sharing the info, and I'd certainly love to hear your "experiment" results once you have them. Good luck, and all the best to your health!
Just wanted to check back in--I have been using solely homegrown cannabis for the past month or so--I feel worlds better! It is crazy... I don't know what it is, but, something in dispensary cannabis was messing with me, and now that I have only been smoking homegrown (aside from a few headaches from not having the patience to cure properly) I have not gotten the "chills" etc. that I used to feel when smoking the commercial grade. Thank you, @drutter for helping me see part of the cause!
Thanks for coming back and updating with a comment! "Worlds better" is pretty awesome. Will you be doing a post on this? If so, I'd love to check it out. I'll be doing an update on this topic at some point, and it would be cool to mention a few people's anecdotal evidence. More and more will continue to pile up as people do their own 'testing' and research.
I do plan to do a post, yes. Thanks for your support!
Cool! Following along : )
Thank You!!
I've been posting about the nastiness of Neem+Cannabis for years. It's nice to see others have taken up the standard as well. :D
H.Pylori Infections Make CHS Worse!!
(Btw, it's Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome)
If you're having serious issues with even small amounts of tainted cannabis, I strongly suggest you look at getting tested for H.Pylori.
H.Pylori is a digestive issue which can be cleared up in a month. Without an H.Pylori infection the CHS symptoms are much milder.
There IS Life After CHS!!
You will survive, and you will be able to use clean cannabis. :)
Go BE Awesome!!
Hey thanks for your great comment! H.Pylori is something I've run across a few times in my research. It's something we can quickly have tested at a lab, and it can be treated fairly easily and non-invasively. It has other health effects as well, and should be treated in most patients testing positive.
Following you : )
After 10 years of on-and-off CHS (mostly from "organic" grown cannabis, ironically enough), I experienced massive relief within the first week of being treated for H.Pylori.
I doubt I ever would have attributed all of the things aza does to me, if I hadn't had the H.Pylori infection. Now the effects are so mild, I can see how people believe it does not affect them at all. It does though. Everyone I've seen use it has had mild issues they attribute to other things.
Thanks for pursuing this! :D
That's interesting to hear how you could tell what effects were Aza and what weren't, by comparing your symptoms with and without the Pylori. It's often little individual experiments (anecdotes) like that which point us in the right direction. I appreciate you sharing your experience with this!
Excellent post.