1. Can I buy Cosmic View online?

No, sorry. We are a whole plant cannabis medicinal product, not an isolate, not from hemp. Therefore, thanks to archaic federal drug laws, our products are available only for purchase in California at licensed dispensaries. For a full list of retailers including delivery services, visit our Stockist page.

2. So can I just buy hemp CBD on the internet?

Here’s the deal. Not all hemp CBD is bad. But you generally just don’t know what you are getting in terms of potency, purity, solvents, sourcing. Most hemp CBD on the net are isolates, which means the CBD has been stripped from the other cannabinoids naturally found in the plant. Emerging studies (and lots of anecdotal evidence) show that the full spectrum of cannabinoids, terpenes and phytonutrients are critical for the full benefits of the plant to be realized in the body. Furthermore, recent reports show that unregulated CBD products more often than not do not meet purity or potency claims and many of these products that claim to be “full spectrum” actually are isolates with lab-created terpenes added in. Here at Cosmic View, we believe in supporting the small, organic California cannabis farmers and have been making medicine for generations. So the moral of the story: Go to a dispensary, know what you are getting, be a steward of your body, and often pay less. Trust me on this one.

3. Are all your ingredients certified organic?

While not all ingredients are certified organic, we do extensive due diligence (including visiting farms) to make sure farmers are engaged in organic farming practices. Our olive oil — which is the base of every Cosmic View product — is grown by a small farm in Sonoma County currently undergoing Oregon Tilth certification. Cannabis cannot be certified organic but we have visited our supplier farm and are familiar with their regenerative farming practices. Part of supporting small, local farmers means that sometimes organic certification is too expensive. This is a choice that we have made and we believe that supporting the most sustainable practices often happens outside of the official organic certification system.

4. Do you test your products?

So. Many. Times. In addition to testing our cannabis and other ingredients before adding them to formulation, our finished products are tested for: potency, solvents, pesticides, microbes, heavy metals (beginning January). We have never failed a test due to any contaminant and we are meticulous about all of our ingredients. We’re happy to share lab tests so shoot us an email if you have any questions.

5. What does “science-based” mean?

Science based means just that — that all of our formulations are based on research. This includes the addition of additional herbs that are not estrogenic or otherwise toxic to the human body (yes, many traditional herbs from Chinese and Western herbalism are actually toxic). Having a founder with a PhD in environmental health sciences from UC Berkeley (and who also had her own research lab for years) means that we stay on top of research and don’t just claim to be science-based. We walk the talk, and this means sometimes sharing inconvenient truths about cannabis safety.

6. So What’s all this craze about CBD? Does that mean I don’t need THC?

Various research studies (see blog and resources page) show that CBD has many powerful properties such as: mood stabilizing, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative / anti-cancer. While CBD can be effective for some individuals on its own, anecdotal evidence and research tells us that whole plant CBD is the most effective. This means that the other cannabinoids found in any cannabis plant (THC, THCA, CBDA, etc) will have some presence. Plant medicine is highly complex and there is a lot that we don’t know about how plant compounds work to exert their medicinal properties. We do know from personal experience that isolating compounds in the plant often destroys the plant’s ability to work its magic. If you do not want to get high, we recommend a whole plant, high CBD tincture such as a 20:1.

7. What’s a sublingual and how does it work?

A sublingual is a product (in our case drops) that you place under the tongue to be absorbed by the mucous membranes. Absorption is slower than smoking, but quicker than an edible and is a healthy way to consume cannabis. Our products have no sugar, flavorings or additives, only the highest quality olive oil and whole plant cannabis extract. Sublinguals should be held under the tongue for 30 seconds and effects are usually felt within 15-20 minutes.

8. Do I need a tincture or a topical?

Often times, depending on the condition, it’s useful to use both. It depends on the circumstances. For example, if you are interested in something to help with mood, well then a 20:1 tincture is your best bet. If you are looking for something to help with chronic pain or an auto-immune skin condition, then we recommend both a tincture to help quell internal inflammation to to temper an overactive immune system and a topical to soothe the muscle soreness or the skin condition externally. It’s really personal, but our belief and what we have seen with patients is that tinctures are useful to treat a condition from the inside and topicals provide more surface level relief. Soothing and tempering inflammation externally will also promote healing.

9. What’s the difference between medicinal and recreational cannabis?

For our purposes, not much. At Cosmic View, we are dedicated to making medicinal, therapeutic grade products. That means that while our products are available on the recreational and medicinal markets, we have maintained a focus on developing products that are targeted, extremely high quality and medicinal in nature. While we love pretty packaging and branding, we believe that the quality of our products are of the utmost importance.

10. What’s “whole plant medicine”?

“Whole plant medicine” is a term used to describe medicines utilizing the full spectrum of therapeutic compounds cannabis has to offer. Cannabis is a complex plant with over 400 chemical entities of which more than 60 of them are cannabinoid compounds. There are also an array of terpenes, waxes, resins, fats and other chemical compounds that work synergistically to create “the entourage effect.” The entourage effect is broken when cannabinoid compounds are pulled apart and isolated or stripped with heavy processing. We know from anecdotal evidence and emerging research that whole plant medicine from a gentle extract (such as some ethanol or low-pressure, minimally winterized CO2 extracts) keep these compounds intact and make the resulting product more medicinal. (See research page for more information and recent studies). We are believers in whole plant medicine and will never, ever stray from this core principle.