Call it the little cannabinoid that could.
Cannabinol, better known as CBN, could act as a sleep aid.
CBN could include anti-inflammatory properties and help cardiovascular flow.
But what dogs the rising wave of momentum CBN is enjoying now in Canada is just how little we actually know about a cannabinoid discovered more than a century ago. That hasn’t stopped Canadian cannabis firms from heavily marketing CBN-focused products, leaning hard on promoting its sleep benefits.
CBN is made when THC is degraded by exposure to light, heat or oxygen. Higher levels of CBN can be found in aged, dry cannabis, especially in outdoor grows soaking up UV light.
First discovered and isolated in 1940, CBN charmed several researchers who conducted small-sample and animal studies on CBN’s effects. Among the conclusions formed in the past 80 years, CBN may act as a sedative and anticonvulsant, and has been shown to decrease heart rate without affecting coronary blood flow.
Canadian and international cannabis firms latched onto a benefit that didn’t stray far from what THC and CBD also purport to offer: a way to fall asleep quicker.
On the Ontario Cannabis Store site, of the more than 35 CBN-marketed products, around half of them call out CBN as a sleep aid, often through their product name (“NightNight” and “Deep Dreamz” for example).
How did this angle of CBN’s benefits come about? What may be at the root of a broken-telephone chain of information is a 1987 Japanese study on CBN use among mice. They found that for CBN to achieve sleep effects such as analgesia (pain relief) and stupor, the dosage has to be eight times higher than the dose of THC required to do the same.
“CBN is being marketed as the ‘sleep’ cannabinoid, but this is more about product differentiation via marketing than about any science substantiating that claim,” says Dr. Jamie Corroon, director of the Centre for Medical Cannabis Education in San Diego, in an interview
He says the research into CBN is in such a nascent stage, it’s a far stretch to stake any claims about this compound’s health effects. “As far as definitive, therapeutic effects are concerned, those could only be elucidated in a randomized controlled clinical trial comparing isolated CBN to a placebo,” Dr. Corroon notes, “and I’m not aware of any studies like that.”
Other studies have found that CBN could exert a possible role in cardiovascular health, but “the exact role of CBN in the cardiovascular system, regarding its acute and chronic effects on the heart and vasculature, requires broader research.”
Also, 2019 research pointed to how CBN may provide pain relief for chronic muscle pain disorders, such as temporomandibular disorders (pain in the jaw muscles, joints and nerves) and fibromyalgia. But again, this was a study only done on rats.
Edible candies, pills and oils are the most common CBN-focused products both in Canada and the US. While Canadian statistics on CBN product sales are unavailable, in the US, this cannabinoid is doing brisk business: according to 2021 figures, edibles containing CBN accounted for 11% of California edible sales in June 2021, up 6.5 percentage points from 2020.
Where CBN, and similar less-psychoactive cannabinoids such as CBD and CBG, could have a place in Canadian cannabis retail is for the infrequent consumer who doesn’t want to get too high. According to a survey of cannabis customers in B.C., those who use cannabis less often preferred lower than 10% THC or indicated that the effects of the individual strain are more important than THC content.
It’s clear CBN’s potential is fuelling optimism for the cannabinoid to hold court alongside THC and CBD as another arrow in the quiver of cannabis’s health benefits. But until more conclusive research is published, it’s hard to know if CBN does anything more than give the Canadian cannabis market another marketing strategy.