On the other hand, I’ve had friends swear by CBD tinctures. They were doing large doses (like 50mg+) daily and claimed it had all sorts of benefits for their chronic pain or upset stomach.

That's because their endocannabinoid system is actively in use, unlike people who do not take CBD supplements. We metabolized CBD very well and our bodies will use it when it's there, so for a lot of people taking CBD they need to jump-start the endocannabinoid system to start processing it.

Often times people will take 1000mg for the first week (or two), then cut that in half to 500mg, then in half for until you are down to 50mg or 15mg doses. Normally we'd have been getting our CBD compounds from the things we eat that eat hemp, something that was prevalent as a feed in the U.S. and is still prevalent in other countries (Nepal, for example). However since we stopped using hemp, animals stopped passing on CBD compounds to us and here we are today with a society full of symptoms of a non-working endocannabinoid system (and well, signs of lead poisoning but lets just move past that...) which include - chronic nerve pain, gastrointestinal issues, issues with insomnia, mood and anxiety. You know, everything that we attribute to just the daily struggles of society today.

Of course, they most likely are just that, but it seems pretty crazy to me that we have a whole system in our body that is essentially on the backburner with very high correlation to many of the health problems.

Just remember, don't be afraid of THC. They need each other to work effectively, and THC doesn't have to mean high. Obviously, if it's a legality issue that's a different story, but in regards to an edible that has >5% or uses the letters LOC then don't even think about it for a second - it's fine. Think of its present as the catalyst for the reaction.