Cannabis, CBD, and Potential Drug Interactions
Can cannabis and CBD have unintended interactions with pharmaceuticals or other medications?
The answer is yes - there is the chance of a drug interaction any time you consume more than one active substance, including CBD, cannabis, over-the-counter medicines, and even certain foods and beverages, including alcohol and caffeine.
Although in some cases medications may be better absorbed if taken with food or other medications that affect metabolic enzymes, a best practice is to avoid potential interactions. With CBD and other cannabinoid-containing products (including cannabis), a broad rule of thumb is not to consume within the two-hour windows before and after taking medications.
It's best to consult with a health professional for medical advice about your specific condition, prescriptions, and individual needs. But there are also informational tools that can provide useful facts about potential interactions with other substances you may be taking.
The website Drugs.com offers a Drugs Interaction Checker search function that includes searches specific to both Cannabidiol (CBD) and Cannabis (which assumes THC). The search result categories include Drug Interactions, Alcohol/Food Interactions, and Disease Interactions, and classify the potential drug interactions as Major, Moderate, Minor, and Unknown. Note that in this context, “Cannabidiol” essentially means Epidiolex, the CBD isolate pharmaceutical drug. Isolates have been documented to have a higher risk of drug interactions because they require higher doses to achieve the same level of therapeutic effects as whole-plant or full-spectrum extracts.
For both CBD and cannabis, the site notes that You should avoid or limit the use of alcohol because of the Moderate level interaction. There are also links to each medication in the database that may interact, and additional information on the potential effects each interaction could have.
There’s also a useful online integrative medicine database hosted by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where you can learn about the interactions and side effects of cannabis and other herbs.
If you’d like a deeper dive and more context on why and how interactions may occur, check out Project CBD’s excellent primer on the topic, available for free download.
