What lies behind the CBD industry’s continued interest in the field of nicotine replacement?

A new study has shown some limited effectiveness for the use of CBD in combatting nicotine withdrawal symptoms. The results, which showed less sensitivity to pain and lower levels of contine (a metabolite of nicotine) in blood, have some promise. But the study was an animal model using rats and CBD failed to demonstrate a noticeable impact in weight or nicotine levels.

So, some promising indications but very much early doors in terms of public clinical research. Nonetheless numerous large CBD companies continue to pursue their own investigations, securing patents and publishing the odd progress announcement.

It remains an intriguing avenue of pursuit given most of the push behind CBD lies largely in the general direction of either mental health (stress, anxiety, sleep, etc.) or muscular function (pain, anti-inflammation, recovery, etc.). And the regulations governing the introduction of tobacco alternatives in the US or licensed nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products worldwide are some of the few that make CBD regulations look like a walk in the park.

Then of course there is competition from both the pharmaceutical/licensed side (medications, patches, gums, etc) and the alternatives side (e-cigarette products, snus, heat-not-burn, etc). It is quickly becoming quite a crowded market.

Yet the interest remains from CBD purveyors. It could be that there remains significant crossover between the CBD industry and others on the edges of nicotine alternatives – such as e-cigarettes and traditional tobacco – with multiple founders and executives having experience in both fields.

It could also be that some companies see the remaining “hardening hump” (the smaller, increasingly harder-to-crack group of remaining smokers) as one of the few high-growth, limited-downside opportunities remaining – if a product could be made that appeals to them more than conventional smoking products.

And that remains a big if. Work continues from the CBD side on such a solution but any sort of product that can compete with existing options is certainly still some way off. When and in what form such a CBD product will take remain very big questions waiting for answers.

*Under CBD-Intel’s editorial discretion

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