Slightly after midnight on December 19, 1974, I was in the backseat of a Mazda RX2 that took a curve in the Everglades at over 100mph, rolled – throwing me from the car. I was Life Flighted to James Archer Smith Hospital in Homestead, Fl. I had many broken bones, a head injury and took 177 stitches in my face and head. To this day, 45 years later, I still have a chunk of windshield in my head.

In the ensuing years, I developed the same type of arthritis that plagued Evil Knievel, which was caused by too many broken bones. By 1980, I would stop by the VA Hospital each morning at 6am, on my way to work, for treatments. I was prescribed Indocin – which made my hair fall out; Napersin – which caused stomach problems; Zomax – which was taken off the market for liver problems; Viox – which was taken of the market for causing heart issues; and finally high dosages of Celebrex – which I quit taking because of concerns. I just muscle through the chronic pain with 800mg of ibuprofen twice day. I’ve lost 80 pounds, which has helped some – but much.

I’ve had about a dozen orthopedic surgeries, including three on my shoulder. After the last one (about 15 years ago) I was told I’d need a shoulder joint replacement, which I’ve yet to do. I can no longer throw overhand, reach above my head or in back of my neck. All of the discs in my back have degenerated, and after my last MRI, the surgeon told me that the arthritis surrounds the nerves and I’m too far past surgery. He suggested shots into the spine and burning the nerve ends to help the pain, but I have a brother-in-law who having that treatment who scared me away from that because of side effects.

So family, friends, former athletes on tv and others have been preaching CBD. To me, it sounds like snake oil. For kicks my wife bought a month’s supply of 750mg CBD at the pharmacy – for $89.95. I’ve been taking one each morning for the last week. I’m told it takes at least a month for it to help.

The last few weeks my right shoulder has given me unbearable pain. Again at our Pharmacy, my wife buys 3ozs of 500mg CBD topical lotion, again for $89.95. I scoffed at it. She put some on her back, which was aching. A couple hours later she said it felt a lot better. So I tried a squirt on my shoulder before going to bed, as my shoulder makes it hard to sleep. I actually slept through the night and had less pain in the morning. I’ve used it twice since then and feel like it is giving me some relief.

So because I’m such a cheap Bastard, I decided that I needed to find it cheaper on-line. I go to Amazon at find stuff claiming to be ten times stronger and ten times cheaper littered all over the site. I’m the type that believes that if its too good to be true (the strength and price) then its not true.

I spent the next five hours researching. What I found was the following:

• Amazon doesn’t sell real CBD, but only sells Hemp Oil claiming to be CBD
• Hemp Oil is pressed from hemp seed, and not true CBD chemically
• Hemp Oil has no anti-inflammation or pain reducing qualities
• True CBD is extracted from the mamajuana flower with an expensive process using CO2
• The expensive stuff that the pharmacy sells is Green Roads, and it is legit.
• The other well respected legit CBD product is CBDMD. It uses the same process, a 3rd party lab analyzing every batch, and is same price as Green Roads.
• The difference for me is that CBDMD will give Military/Veterans a 30% discount, and Service Connected Disabled 40%. You need a military id, DD214 to prove military or veteran status; and a statement from the VA on your disability status.

https://www.cbdmd.com/military-disability?rfsn=2915221.841272&subid=xyyCCxyy211348090

So for me, I’m not 100% convinced. However, I’ll give it a month or two to see if I get some long term relief. More importantly, I’ve learned that:

• Real CBD ain’t cheap
• There’ currently no real regulations to protect the end user that they’re getting legit CBD, and not Hemp Oil being called CBD
• Less 1% of the CBD bought is real CBD
• I’ll save 40%

I hope this helps others from getting suckered into Hemp Oil claiming to be CBD. I’ll post a follow up a month or so down the road. I’m a skeptic, and feel like I’m hard to fool. If anything, I’ll most likely error in feeling that I didn’t get relief when I might have received minor relief.