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Level, a California-based extraction company, creates cannabis products with a scientific point of view. Focused on quality, Level uses advanced techniques to extract the purest medicinal value while retaining the best natural qualities of the plant.
Recently, Level released a new type of product: the tablingual. It’s a fast-acting sublingual tablet, which quickly dissolves under your tongue. Ever since we tried Level’s minty marijuana tablinguals, we’ve been crazy about them. Each member of the HelloMD team has their favorite tablingual, or combination of tablinguals.
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In our interview with Chris Emerson, Ph.D., chief scientist and co-founder of Level, Chris talks to us about the cannabis-infused tablingual product line.
What’s a tablingual?
Chris Emerson: A tablingual is a sublingual formulation with a standardized dose of 3 mg of active cannabinoids. The product line, which includes six different products, has individual cannabinoids for each formulation. So, you don't get a mixture of cannabinoids; you're getting a single cannabinoid that you can use. And you can mix and match with the others.
For instance, Remedy is our cannabidiol (CBD) tablingual, which eases mental and physical stress. And Relieve is our tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA) tablingual, designed to alleviate pain. We often suggest taking them together.
Our tablinguals are based on single cannabinoids:
- Elevate tablingual, which contains tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is meant to give a classic high, uplifting both mind and body.
- Relieve tablingual, with THCA, doesn’t produce any high and is designed to alleviate pain.
- *Soothe tablingual contains Delta-8 THC; it gives a mild high that relaxes both mind and body.
- Remedy tablingual, with CBD, creates a barely there high, easing mental and physical stress.
- Calm tablingual contains cannabigerol (CBG), which can help ease mental and physical stress without any accompanying high.
- Stimulate tablingual, which has tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV), is meant to give an energizing high and focuses the mind.
Why is it important to allow people to experiment with individual cannabinoids such as CBD and THCA?
CE: We feel it’s important for people to experiment and understand which products and in what combinations work best for them. We all have our own individual endocannabinoid system, or ECS. This leads people to have unique experiences based on their own body composition. For instance, some people like indicas and other people may like sativas, but it's important for people on their cannabis journey to have a tool kit so they can discover what's going to work best for them.
RELATED: WHAT IS THE ENDOCANNABINOID SYSTEM?
In your experience, do most people do well with a single cannabinoid, such as the Calm CBG tablingual, or is the power in the combination of the cannabinoids?
CE: I think it's yes to both of those. Most people can find a single cannabinoid that does work well for them. But when you start to combine cannabinoids, that's where the synergy, the real magic, of cannabis comes together.
Cannabis is about polypharmacy. So it's the combination entourage effect, if you will, of different components working in concert; they give you the maximum effect so you can have an effective treatment with a single cannabinoid. But really when you start combining them, that's when you can start getting the most therapeutic benefit from cannabis.
You’ve actually created a whole new cannabis product type here. What makes the tablingual different from other marijuana products?
CE: So, when you ingest cannabis from an extract, such as an oil, you’re taking something that's essentially an oil, and you're putting it into a water environment: your mouth. We know that oil and water don't mix. At Level, we've engineered a tablet that allows you to sublingually take a very small amount of active cannabinoid, which is taken up through your mucous membranes in your mouth and enters into your bloodstream very quickly. The onset is pretty fast, at about five to 10 minutes. It wasn’t an easy thing to achieve; it was actually quite challenging.
Would you say a tablingual or sublingual is more effective, when microdosing cannabis, than a marijuana edible that's being metabolized by the liver?
If you were to swallow an oral tablet that’s 3 mg, it takes a lot longer to get into the system, and the potential for the cannabinoids to be spread out or last within the body is much greater. When you eat an edible and swallow it, you’re putting it through an acidic stomach environment, which then has to be absorbed through the intestines and go to the liver. There are a lot of different biological processes that can happen during that time.
When you take a tablingual, it's immediately taken up into your mucous membranes or any sublingual route of administration. And then it goes through a different pathway; it actually goes through one of the major veins that takes it right into your heart and is then distributed throughout your system. Due to this, you can have a much smaller dose, and have it be more effective, because you're not metabolizing the compounds.
RELATED: GETTING THE MOST OUT OF SUBLINGUAL CANNABIS
You’ve created a wheel that suggests how to combine cannabinoids within the tablinguals. Is this meant to show people how to take tablinguals in combination?
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CE: Yes. When people enter into cannabis consumption slowly, and they don't have any adverse events and they're not scared away, they build a lot more confidence. They can trust themselves and their own judgment. At this point, they may be willing to experiment more. Right now, we're in a place where there’s a lot of experimentation. The wheel was developed for people who have the confidence to try combining cannabinoids, and we try to give some guidance in how we might do it.
For instance, pain is one of the most common conditions. When you look at the wheel, there are many different cannabinoid combinations. So. for instance, for pain, the first thing we recommend is a THCA and CBD together. There's no psychoactivity associated with that combination, and the suggestion combines two very powerful anti-inflammatory cannabinoids together.
If someone is dealing with inflammatory pain, you actually need THC in the system as well, so adding a THC tablingual may be the right thing for that particular person. Keep in mind everyone has a slightly nuanced ECS from everybody else, so this is only a suggestion of what we think may work best.
If you’re new to cannabis and want to learn more, take a look at our Cannabis 101 post. HelloMD can help you get your medical marijuana recommendation; it's easy, private and 100% online.
