Growers generally create cannabis strains by breeding varieties based on their terpene profiles, which affect their psychoactive properties and drive consumer preference. Terpene profiles influence effects such as energy levels and mental clarity. 

Below are suggested strains to pair with some of your favorite activities. 

Head Out for a Night on the Town

Super Silver Haze is an excellent choice for a night out on the town.  Users report this strain will enhance your experiences by giving you an energy boost and a body buzz while reducing your weekday stress and social anxiety. 

Users say another benefit of Super Silver Haze is the enhancement of your senses. The club lights will be breathtaking, drinks taste better, and the music immerses you. This is the strain to use before starting an unforgettable night out.

Exercise

Mixing cannabis and exercise has been increasing in popularity. There are even gyms that promote the practice. pairing exercise with cannabis. The popular Durban Poison strain will likely give you bursts of energy, help you feel clearheaded, and may increase your productivity. This strain is also a popular exercise enhancer because users say it reduces fatigue and boosts motivation. 

“The majority of participants who endorsed using cannabis shortly before/after exercise reported that doing so enhances their enjoyment of and recovery from exercise, and approximately half reported that it increases their motivation to exercise,” according to a study published in Frontiers in Public Health.

Watch a Documentary

If you want a relaxing evening in front of the TV, Cereal Milk may be exactly what you are looking for. Users say this strain will calm your daily stresses while soothing your body and mind. This strain is also known to improve focus, allowing you to absorb information thoughtfully.

Laugh at a Comedy Show

One of the pronounced effects of the Tropicana Cookies strain is that it has been known to cause fits of giggles — which is why it’s an excellent option when seeing a comedian or attending an improv show. Users report this strain also increases your energy while letting you stay focused and level-headed. Because the strain is also a social enhancer, it can make a comedy show with friends even more enjoyable. 

Read a Book

There’s no better way to spend a moody evening than with a cozy blanket, a thrilling book, and some cannabis to immerse yourself in the story fully. Gelato may be just the strain for this scenario. Users say Gelato increases your focus, improves mood, relieves stress, and allows your imagination to jump into whatever adventure you are reading. 

Go on a Date

Something as special as blossoming love requires the Unicorn Poop strain. This hybrid strain is perfect for date night because many say it improves conversation, gives you a small bout of giggles, and gently puts your body and mind into a euphoric state.

Cheer on Your Team at a Sporting Event

Sporting events are known for their ice-cold beers, cheering fans, and high energy. The Lemon Cake OG is an excellent addition to your game day checklist. This strain will likely give you all the energy needed to cheer your team to a win. The stimulating buzz accompanying this strain will invigorate your body and mind, adding to the excitement of the competition. While it doesn’t guarantee a win for your team, it can offer fans an exciting experience.

Whatever your plans, consider using a special strain to get you in the right mood to experience each activity to the fullest!

Thirty-four-year-old UFC champion Conor McGregor has publicly consumed cannabis. Olympic-level sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson won the 100-meter dash in the 2020 Summer Olympic Trials but was disqualified because she tested positive for THC in a urinalysis. Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps smoked cannabis. And former NFL stars Ricky Williams, Calvin Johnson, and Marshawn Lynch have all confirmed their cannabis use — Williams while in his prime — and now all have their own weed brands.

Performance-Enhancer? 

The World Anti-Doping Agency considers cannabis a potentially performance-enhancing drug. And there’s a growing body of evidence that the famed “runner’s high” results from the natural boosting of endocannabinoid levels during intense exercise. Endocannabinoids are simply cannabinoids produced within the body rather than introduced into the body via consumption.

According to Harvard Medical School, the endocannabinoid system is a network of densely packed cellular receptors and chemical signals throughout the human brain and body. It’s “essential and mysterious,” they say, as it is newly discovered and not fully understood. What is understood is that cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant interact with this system.

And to top it off, a 2019 University of Colorado Boulder survey showed that about 80% of regular cannabis users consumed the plant shortly before or after exercise (or both).

‘High’ Exercise Do’s and Don’t’s 

So, is a plant with a reputation for making people slow and lazy good for exercise? Thanks to federal prohibition, studies are limited, but more and more evidence points to one answer: Yes.

Still, experts warn that cannabis users should limit their exercise to an activity they’re familiar with that doesn’t require heavy lifting or complicated workouts. They should also obey all traffic laws when under the influence of the drug. 

In other words: Don’t go rock climbing or hit OrangeTheory Fitness when you’re stoned — but consider yoga or running. 

University of Pennsylvania professor and researcher Marcel Bonn-Miller gave Men’s Journal these tips:

• “Use it if you’re thinking of skipping today’s training” because the CU Boulder study showed that many cannabis consumers use the plant for exercise motivation. That’s quite a shift from the pop culture stereotypes.
• “Turn to THC for repetitive, long workouts” due to the purported pain relief offered by THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids. It also may “amplify” the natural runner’s high.
• “Stay sober for heavy or complicated workouts” since some studies show that cannabis may affect judgment, coordination, spatial perception, and other factors critical to a safe workout.
• “Save it for your long runs” since it appears that THC could help with endurance exercises that are low risk.

Ideal Exercise Match

Several gyms have popped up across the country to specialize in cannabis-themed workouts. However, the trend hasn’t really taken off. 

A bigger trend? Yoga and cannabis.

“One of the main benefits of combining weed and yoga is that cannabis — when the dose is correct for the person, the ingestion method [is correct], and even the strain is correct for the person — really does facilitate relaxation,” Dee Dussault, the founder of Ganja Yoga in San Francisco told Yoga Journal.

The same article includes insight from the founder of Colorado-based Marijuasana. According to its website, the business is a “cannabis-centric yoga company that produces nationwide pop-ups,” among other things. Stacy Mulvey, the founder, says cannabis can serve as a supplementary regulator for the body.

“The endocannabinoid system works with various other systems—circulatory, regulatory, nervous, et cetera—to keep the body in homeostasis. Cannabis, Mulvey says, “acts as a supplement to the endocannabinoid system,” the article explained.

So light up, pop that edible, or hit the vape if you feel like supplementing your workout. You should feel pretty good about it — as long as you know your limits and don’t go too hard. Namaste.

By ROB MAADDI AP Pro Football Writer

The NFL is awarding $1 million in research funding to two teams of medical researchers to study the effects of cannabinoids on pain management and neuroprotection from concussion in elite football players.

Medical teams from the University of California San Diego and University of Regina in Canada were selected from 106 proposals initiated by the NFL and the NFL Players Association’s Joint Pain Management Committee in June 2021.

“We’re always interested in trying to improve our approach and our treatment for acute and chronic pain in NFL players, and we always want to make sure that our players are receiving the most up-to-date medical consensus around any of these treatments,” NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills told The Associated Press. “So, our burden of proof is really high for NFL players. Anytime we want to introduce a new therapy, we have to understand how that decision might impact their well-being and their performance. We know there’s been a lot of interest in this area, but we did not feel like there was a lot of great solid research on the benefits of marijuana, CBD and treating acute and chronic pain. So, that’s why we wanted to try to contribute to the body of science in this area.”

Dr. Kevin Hill, the Director of Addiction Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a pre-eminent cannabis researcher and author, is the co-chair of the NFL-NFLPA Joint Pain Management Committee. Hill explained why there hasn’t been much research on this topic.

“One reason is the scheduling of cannabis makes it harder to do this research but the main reason is that stakeholders really aren’t interested in advancing the science,” Hill told the AP. “You have states and companies that are making a lot of money selling cannabis products, selling CBD products right now. So they don’t feel the need to prove the efficacy of these products, and millions of people are using them. So that’s the predicament that we’re in as healthcare professionals or organizations that really care about the health and safety of our constituents, the players in this case.

“We really want to know do they work? And every day I meet with patients who are interested in cannabinoids and it’s the same thing, we really don’t know the answers to that. So it becomes a very complicated risk/benefit discussion. So I’m thrilled to be a part of something that actually is going to get toward finding some answers to the questions that everybody’s been talking about for years.”

The $1 million research grant is a progressive move by the league to better understand and improve alternative pain management treatments. Many NFL players over the years have inquired about the benefits of cannabis and cannabinoids. Several former players are involved in the medical-cannabis business and have either started their own brands, invested in companies or been hired as ambassadors.

“We’ve heard from the teams, from the medical staffs, from the players loud and clear that they’re interested in cannabis and cannabinoids, and so we wanted to do something that would advance the science in this area so that we could have better informed conversations with them,” Hill said. “I also want to emphasize that this is the first step here. The NFL has done great research in other areas: concussions, musculoskeletal injuries, etc. We’re not limited just to cannabinoids. We’re interested in figuring out, are there ways that we can treat pain better? And so we’re going to use this and look at this process and see if there’s a way that we can improve this process, but continue to try to advance the science in the interest of players health and safety.”

Cannabis is a banned substance in the NFL, although rules about players using marijuana were loosened in the latest collective bargaining agreement.

Under the most recent labor deal, players who test positive for marijuana are no longer suspended but they can be fined depending on the number of positive tests. Timing of testing was changed to the first two weeks of training camp instead of from April to August. Also, the threshold needed to trigger a positive test was raised fourfold.

The study led by Dr. Thomas Marcotte, Dr. Mark Wallace and researchers at the University of California San Diego will investigate the effects of cannabinoids on pain and recovery from sports-related injuries in elite athletes.

The research led by Dr. J. Patrick Neary and researchers at the University of Regina studies naturally produced cannabinoids for pain management and neuroprotection from concussion and participation in contact sports.

The projects will take three years to conduct.

“This type of work is going to be of interest to athletes in many different sports and at all levels,” Sills said. “We know that all sports have some degree of injury and pain that are associated with those injuries. And so I think this will be very generalizable. These products are already out there and in many cases, they’re being widely used and widely marketed. So this research will help inform people as to which strategies may be beneficial and then those that may not be. And so I see this as being hugely impactful for the NFL, for all of the elite sport, but also sport at all level across society.”

By TIM REYNOLDS – AP Basketball Writer

The NBA has agreed to not randomly test players for marijuana this season, a continuation of the policy that was put in place last year for the COVID-19 “restart bubble” and has remained since.

Drug testing will continue for things such as human growth hormone and performance-enhancers, along with what the league calls “drugs of abuse” — such as methamphetamine, cocaine and opiates. But the league’s agreement with the National Basketball Players Association over random marijuana tests will continue for at least another season.

“We have agreed with the NBPA to extend the suspension of random testing for marijuana for the 2021-22 season and focus our random testing program on performance-enhancing products and drugs of abuse,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said Wednesday.

The agreement was revealed to players in a memo from the union, the details of which were first reported by ESPN. The league suspended testing in March 2020 when play was suspended in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, then agreed with the players to test for performance-enhancers in the bubble at Walt Disney World that summer.

But marijuana wasn’t on that list, wasn’t tested for last season and now won’t be this season either.

Decriminalizing marijuana has been a major topic at the government level for years, as has been the case in the sports world as well. Earlier this year, American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson was left off the U.S. team’s Olympic roster following a positive test for marijuana, costing her a chance at running on the 4×100 relay team in Tokyo, in addition to her spot in the 100-meter individual race.

After Richardson’s suspension was announced, two members of Congress — U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., — wrote U.S. and global anti-doping leaders to say in part that “the ban on marijuana is a significant and unnecessary burden on athletes’ civil liberties.”

More than half of the states in the U.S. have decriminalized possessing small amounts of marijuana.

By Rebecca Victoria Olmos | TheCannifornian.com Correspondent

What are topicals?

Cannabis is beneficial for our bodies through traditional ingestion methods like smoking or eating and when applied to the body externally through topicals. Topicals are cannabis-infused lotions, creams, oils, or balms that are applied directly to the skin. Since they do not cause any psychoactive effects, they are mainly used in an attempt to help with localized pain, inflammation, and some skin conditions.

How do they work?

Cannabis topicals come in various ratios of cannabinoids like THC and CBD. When applied to the skin, these cannabinoids bind to the cannabinoid receptors in the skin, nerves, and muscles. These receptors are part of an extensive endocannabinoid system that helps to regulate various biological functions throughout the body, like sleep, appetite, pain, and inflammation.

Topicals do not penetrate through the skin to enter the bloodstream, so they do not cause the user any psychoactive effects. It’s important to note because topicals can be confused with transdermals which may cause psychoactive effects. Transdermals contain skin penetrating enhancers that help push the cannabinoids past the epidermis or first layer of skin into the bloodstream.

What might they help?

People have used cannabis-infused topicals for things like arthritis relief, muscle soreness, tension, cramps, psoriasis, eczema, and even headaches. Since cannabis receptors are all over your body, you can even use cannabis topicals for sexual enhancement through infused lubricants.

THC or CBD?

You can be purchase topicals in hemp varieties at health stores or cannabis-derived ones at your nearest dispensary. They will all have different dosages of THC or CBD. Remember that everyone is different and what works for one might not work for you. A good rule of thumb is that if you’re looking for relief from muscle-related issues, steer towards THC-rich products. For joint pain or inflammation, try CBD-rich.

Don’t get discouraged if one product doesn’t work for you. Be open, and experiment with different brands, cannabinoid ratios, and ingredients. And if all else fails, you can always try and make your own infused topical!

By Rebecca Victoria Olmos

You can infuse cannabis into any mundane activity to make it a little more fun, including your daily/weekly/monthly/yearly workout. Adding a little bit of THC or CBD into workout routines has shown to have several different possible benefits. These benefits range from reducing muscle inflammation to reducing the general anxiety of entering a crowded gym.

Here are some tips to getting your weed workout on:

1. You Don’t Have to Smoke

The reality of consuming cannabis is that there may be adverse side effects. Some of these include damaged lungs and impaired motor skills, which can be counterproductive if you’re working on your fitness. Tinctures (drops you place under your tongue) and edibles are a great way to get some weed into your system. Tinctures have a faster onset time of 15-30 minutes while edibles can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Plan your workout accordingly.

2. Both CBD and THC can be Helpful

The significant part about cannabis is that the whole plant can help. If you’re hesitant about being under the influence in a gym setting, CBD is a great way to ease into it. CBD helps reduce anxiety and inflammation without intoxicating effects. If you’re an experienced cannabis user, try incorporating it into your post-workout routine first, it may help with muscle tension and sleep.

3. Try Topicals

If you really aren’t trying to get high and just want some general help with aches, pains, and recovery, cannabis may help with that too. Applying either THC or CBD topically can help reduce inflammation, ease soreness and help with muscle tension.

4. Both Pre- and Post-Consumption may be Beneficial.

I’ve tried cannabis at all points in my workout routine and enjoyed them all. Before working out, smoking can help get you out of your head and into your body so you can focus on what you’re there to do. After working out, cannabis can help relax your body and help with recovery.

5. Start Low & Go Slow

This is the golden cannabis rule. Please don’t over consume. Beginner dosages depend on what you’re consuming and your body chemistry, but it usually safest to start with 2.5-5mg or a few puffs. Better to start with not enough than too much, and sometimes a little weed goes a long way.

The sun is out, and after a year inside, it’s essential to get outside to move your body. If you’re having trouble finding the motivation, energy, or strength, cannabis may be just the tool you need.

The Podcast is available on any of these platforms.

On this week’s episode we are having our first guest ever, Lizzie Michael!

She is an Army Veteran, CrossFit Coach, and CBD and hemp advocate, that is opening up about her journey and how CBD and hemp were able to work wonders. With being active for the majority of her life, Lizzie is no doubt a motivation to many. She has helped so many people in her CrossFit career and with her healing practices is able to also share her love of CBD for the body and mind. Her story is inspirational and we are sure that it will resonate with so many people. Please enjoy, rate, and download! 

Remember to listen to The Cannifornian Podcast on your favorite streaming platform and be sure to check us out on our socials @thecannifornian 

The cannabis industry has been flourishing quite fantastically in recent years. Cannabidiol, or also known as CBD, has also been in limelight due to its list of touted benefits. It is know to be an effective pain reliever and anti-inflammatory product as well as offering many other associated benefits. CBD is a naturally occurring chemical that is found in hemp. Hemp is a type of cannabis plant. CBD has become popular for its therapeutic, medicinal and relaxing qualities that many find helpful. Consequently, it has been growing in popularity in recent years. Trying top quality CBD oil can offer a variety of benefits. For example, it is often used in relieving symptoms associated with inflammation, anxiety, depression, pain, along with other common conditions. It can also be infused into a variety of products such as vaping juices, CBD edibles, oil tinctures, capsules, creams, balms and other products as well.

Here are some ways CBD is commonly consumed:

1. Topical CBD Products

There are a variety of topical CBD products available on the market to choose from nowadays. These topical products such as CBD creams, oils, balms, etc. are one of the most common ways to intake CBD. Some of these products are also regularly used by many athletes. The application of these topical salves, roll-ons, and rubs is a very easy way to administer CBD. They can be applied directly to the skin and they are often used to help in relieving pains and stress as well as for their anti-inflammatory properties. 

Such CBD-infused products can even be found in the beauty salons, pharmacies and other general shopping locations.

2. CBD Tinctures

CBD tinctures are formulations that combine the different ingredients with CBD. Such ingredients may include alcohol or maybe some various flavors to improve the taste. Oftentimes, other dissolving solutions such as vegetable glycerin, ethanol, coconut oil, etc. are also used in creating the CBD-infused tinctures. This type of CBD is consumed with the help of a dropper in a tincture form. Such droppers are used to administer the drops of CBD infused formula below the tongue of the person.

With this method, the human body intakes CBD into the bloodstream very quickly. This is one of the quickest and the simplest method for a person to get their daily dose of CBD. Also, it’s advisable for beginners as it doesn’t involve processes like vaping or smoking for fast results.

3. CBD Vape Pens and Vaporizers

Even though vaping is somewhat similar to smoking, vaporizing is yet another method of consuming CBD. Also, it’s typically thought to be safer than smoking as vaping doesn’t involve combustion. A vaporizer is an atomizer that turns the CBD e-juices into vapors that the consumer inhales. This method is yet another way to consume CBD quickly. The consumer gets a quick and big enough dose of CBD with the inhalation of the vapors that its effects can be more quickly noticeable. But it’s very important to be aware of the type of vaping devices, vape pens and the e-juices that are being used. There are many types of vaping products such as small dab pens for sale on the market. It is important to go to a trusted source. Then you can experiment your way around and decide on what you love best.

4. CBD Oil

The CBD oil and CBD tinctures are pretty similar when it comes to their packaging and application. In fact, they are even produced in somewhat similar manners (i.e. with the CO2 or alcohol extraction). One of the main differences includes is the time of soaking. In this manner, CBD oils are considered to be of better quality than CBD tinctures in comparison. But on the other hand, CBD oils have no flavors to help improve their tastes. As a result, they taste very bitter and that might be a problem for some.

CBD oil can also be consumed by way of vaporizing and there are many vaping devices that use CBD oils. CBD oils have a higher concentration of CBD.

5. CBD Edibles

With the expansion of the cannabis industry, CBD has been incorporated into edible products as well. There are a variety of CBD edibles available in the market such as CBD chocolates, gummies, candies, etc., that all have CBD in them. In fact, nowadays you can easily find many beverages such as CBD teas, milkshakes and other products that have CBD infused in them. So if you want a sweet, tasty and simple way to consume CBD, then you can try out these CBD edible products. In fact, these are the perfect choice for CBD beginners.

In short, there are many fun ways in which you can consume CBD in your daily life. These are convenient, easy and cost friendly.

Pain is an unpleasant sensation that indicates tissue injury or damage. Pain can be pinching, stabbing, aching or throbbing. All these sensations make the individual uncomfortable and may affect body functions. Analgesics are useful in managing pain, but the root cause of the pain needs to be treated for long-term outcomes.

Cannabis Oil is increasingly becoming a popular analgesic. The controversial plant is gaining popularity as an alternative to opioids, known for their adverse side effects.

When you walk into any cannabis dispensary and ask for cannabis oil, you will get a list of varieties. Sativa strains are known to have an energizing, invigorating effect, but they are also known to have pain-relieving properties, useful for muscle pain.

What Causes Muscular Pain?

Muscular pain is primarily inflammatory pain. It presents as acute throbbing. This type of pain can be caused by tissue damage or injury. An injury can be the result of an external object stressing the muscle or general overuse of the muscle. When you stretch your muscles, you can subject them to strain or sprain, resulting in injury.

Stress can also cause muscle pain. When the body is stressed, the brain produces more adrenalin, and blood is diverted from other areas to the muscles to prepare the body to fight the source of the stress.

This is the process through which the body reacts to stress and causes muscles to become tense. These tensed muscles can cause body aches, headaches, and even shoulder and back pains.

Studies on cannabis show that the plant can have beneficial stress-relieving properties, in addition to anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. Since cannabis can relieve both stress and inflammation, which are the major causes of muscle pain, cannabis oil can be useful in treating muscle pain.

Best Ways to Use Cannabis Oil for Muscle Pain

1. Topical Application

Topical applications are mainly in the form of creams and are probably the most common way of administering cannabis for muscle pain relief. Topical applications are mainly in the form of creams. These are typically found as jelly or creams infused with cannabis oil.

If your work mostly involves sitting at a computer or a desk, then you are probably familiar with tension in the shoulder and neck muscles. Rubbing a few drops of cannabis-infused cream on the area can help alleviate such muscle pain and soreness.

A recent study found that cannabis oil applied on the skin could alleviate muscle inflammation and pain resulting from arthritis. Similar studies have also found that topical applications alleviate inflammation or neuropathic pain.

2. Edibles

Cannabis edibles mostly come as gummies, but you can also find them as cookies, mints, and truffles. CBD oil can also be added to drinks and taken for pain relief.

Edibles may take longer to work, but the effects are known to be more durable. It might take a half-an-hour to two hours before you start feeling the effects when ingesting cannabis oil; it does not go directly to the bloodstream.

Instead, it goes to the liver, where it is first broken down. Due to this first-pass effect, ingesting cannabis oil may not be the best method if you want instant relief. Furthermore, the bioavailability of ingested cannabis oil is only about 20%.

3. Pills/Capsules

Various manufacturers also pack cannabis oil in capsules. If you are often out and about and have recurrent muscle pain, capsules are an ideal option. You can easily ingest them at just about any time, even on the train or any other public place.

Besides the convenience that capsules offer, they also mask the cannabis smell. If you don’t like the earthy cannabis taste and smell, consider using pills or capsules.

4. Tinctures

Like edibles, Tincture cannabis products are taken orally. But unlike edibles, tincture products do not contain additives such as sugars. Tinture products are, therefore, ideal for people who want to avoid additives.

If you take cannabis oil as a tincture, it gets absorbed under the tongue and goes directly into the bloodstream. If you prefer taking your cannabis oil orally and are looking for quick results, then tinctures offers a superior route to edibles.

5. Vaping

Vaping is a novel way of heating cannabis without allowing it to reach a combustion state. This allows the cannabinoids in the cannabis to be released without the other effects of combustion.

If you prefer to avoid smoking your cannabis, vaping is an option you may consider. When you vape cannabis, the cannabinoids reach the bloodstream immediately. The bioavailability of cannabinoids is also high in vapor form.

Vaping is also discreet. So, you can carry your cannabis-infused vape oil anywhere and vape it anytime without worrying about the smell.

6. Smoking

Everyone is familiar with smoking cannabis, as this is the most common and traditional means of taking cannabis. Smoking gives almost instant results as the cannabis passes the lungs with air directly into the bloodstream.

Smoking offers results in less than ten minutes, and the bioavailability of cannabinoids is almost 60%. Besides the advantages of smoking cannabis, experts advise against smoking due to the side effects of combustion.

What’s the point?

Cannabis contains anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties that can be useful in relieving different types of pain. This means that cannabis oil can benefit people with chronic pain as well as acute pain resulting from muscle strain.

But between pliés and pirouettes, Doug Goodwin, the team’s director of high school relations, called CJ’s father, Curtis, and everything fell apart.

Auburn had been CJ’s dream school for as long as he could remember. He loved the campus, loved the Tiger blue and orange, loved the rivalry with Alabama. But after a dominant senior season as a safety at Warner Robins High School in Georgia, he barely was being recruited.

His father sent his film to Auburn coaches on a whim. The Tigers thought he was such a steal, they offered him a roster spot in January and said he could play his way into a scholarship. Word spread, and Warner Robins started to celebrate its prized defensive back.

And then the questions started: How would Auburn handle CJ’s medical condition, epilepsy, and the medication he takes to control it, a hemp-based cannabis oil?

In April, Goodwin asked for Harris’ complete medical records. He called back weeks later, in the middle of ballet. CJ couldn’t come to Auburn if he kept taking the cannabis oil, he told Curtis.

“He said, ‘It hurts us because we really like CJ as a player and he was going to do good things for us,’ ” Curtis Harris told The Washington Post in an interview.

Auburn players run through drills during NCAA college football practice, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018, in Auburn, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said in June that Harris’s medication was not what caused the football team to withdraw the roster invitation.

“He wasn’t cleared by our medical staff. That was really the bottom line,” Malzahn said. “It didn’t have anything to do with anything else like some people reported.”

CJ had his first seizure as a seventh grader in 2013 and didn’t have another until three years later, when he was a sophomore in high school. But when the episodes returned, he’d sometimes have multiple seizures each month.

During one episode, he fell while strolling down the sidewalk and cut his head. Curtis rushed his son to the hospital, where CJ had another.

“If you see your child have a seizure, it’s hard to watch,” Curtis said. “You don’t know what’s going on. You just want it to stop.”

Doctors prescribed Keppra, an anticonvulsive medication, but the substance made Harris irritable. Curtis dropped his son off at school each day and stared at his phone until Warner Robins’ lunch period hoping he wouldn’t get a call from the school nurse. Mornings were CJ’s most vulnerable time.

Doctors kept upping his doses – at one point, he took four pills in the morning and two at night, and a missed dose could result in more episodes – but the seizures continued.

Desperate for a better solution, CJ switched to cannabis oil, which he squirts beneath his tongue with a syringe and waits for it to dissolve, in January 2017. He takes a dose every six hours. He hasn’t had an episode since. Doctors were so pleased with the results, they told him to keep playing football and there was no reason he couldn’t play in college.

“Any time you have a situation like that, you got to be concerned about it, but I never, not one time, saw anything close to him having any sort of episode or health problem,” Warner Robins coach Mike Chastain told The Post. “When you get that paperwork in, you’re a little concerned, but I never had any problems with him at all.”

Still, CJ wasn’t getting much recruiting attention, unusual for a defensive back who stands 6-foot-1, weighs 201 pounds, runs the 40-yard dash in 4.58 seconds and excelled both defensively and as a running back for one of Georgia’s top teams.

“I couldn’t believe none of the college coaches would recruit him,” Curtis said. “He’s a good kid. He’s a great student, teachers love him, he’s a great player, got the size. I had no idea why no one was coming to talk to him.”

Neither did Auburn – which knew about his epilepsy diagnosis when it offered him a roster spot, Curtis said – until it reviewed his medical records.

That night after ballet practice, Curtis stood in the doorway of CJ’s bedroom for 20 minutes trying to find the words to tell his son his college football dream was over.

“Once he told me that, all my dreams were crushed,” CJ said. “I knew, if Auburn was my dream school and they won’t let me play, none of the other schools would take me either.”

The NCAA bans consumption of THC, the active chemical in marijuana and hemp that causes a high. It classifies the substance in its drug-testing handbook as an “illicit drug” and does not have a medical exemption, even though medical marijuana is legal when prescribed by a doctor in Georgia and Alabama, where Auburn in located.

The father and son spent the summer traveling to recruiting camps around the South hoping another coach would think enough of CJ’s talent to fight the NCAA. They went to camps at Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Miami. At each university, coaches told CJ pretty much the same thing: “I hope they clear you, and we’ll talk.”

“It’s kind of heartbreaking when I hear it,” CJ said. “They like me during the drills, but they hear my story and they say, ‘That’s too bad.’”

By mid-July, Curtis was tired of hearing it. He took CJ to a family doctor to get tested for THC, hoping just maybe he’d test below the 15 nanograms per milliliter threshold proscribed by the NCAA.

Cannabinoids “were present,” the doctor wrote in the test results, a copy of which was provided to The Post, “but no THC metabolite is detected even down to the cut off of 15ng/ml and below.”

“I was thinking, all my prayers, God answered them,” CJ said when he read the results. “I thought I was clear. I didn’t think the NCAA would have a problem.”

And the NCAA indeed doesn’t have a problem, but college coaches still do. Multiple recruiters have told Curtis they risk too much offering CJ a roster spot when the test was conducted by a family doctor and not by a lab that works with the NCAA.

That leaves the Harris family hamstrung; the NCAA contracts with anti-doping agency Drug Free Sport to administer its banned substances policy, and Drug Free Sport does not test individual athletes.

“We are essentially client driven,” said Mark Bockelman, the agency’s vice president of collegiate and amateur sport. “We do not take walk-in individuals to do testing.”

Additionally, the NCAA only accepts test results from World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratories. There are only two such labs in the United States, one in Salt Lake City and one in Los Angeles.

“If the NCAA will test him and clear him, then coaches will come recruit him,” Curtis Harris said. “It’s easy for the coaches to blame the NCAA right now and for the NCAA to blame the coaches.”

In the meantime, CJ enrolled at East Coast Prep in Monterey, Massachusetts, for this school year, where he can take college-level courses, play a full football season and retain all four years of NCAA eligibility while waiting for some sort of official green light or for a coach to offer a roster spot while allowing him to take his medication.

“Every day I wake up,” he said, “and the first thing that comes to my mind is that I have to be ready for that call from a college coach and I pray that someone takes a chance on me.”