A medicinal cannabis grower from Mpumalanga, Bob*, says he started producing the plant after using high-quality cannabidiol (CBD) oil himself in an attempt to treat stage 4 lymphoma cancer, which he was diagnosed within 2017.
He believes the CBD oil helped cure him, and he now produces it for other people at no profit, charging only as much as he needs to cover his input costs.
According to Bob, different strains of the cannabis plant produce different types and levels of the 113 cannabinoid chemicals found in cannabis.
To supply the medical industry, most growers plant either the indica or sativa subspecies, and processing should remove most of the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical that induces the well-known ‘high’ of cannabis.
Bob plants the sativa subspecies from seeds he sources in the Netherlands. His oil is produced to international standards, containing only 0,03mg/ kg of THC.
He stresses that medicinal cannabis is very different from recreational cannabis, with the latter having far higher THC levels.
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