Welcome to Senior Cannabis Digest. This week we look at a cannabis-based Ponzi scheme, the growing interest in cannabis as a “love drug,” using CBD to keep produce fresher longer and more. Enjoy.
Investor News and Notes
Increasingly, mature consumers are learning that investing in the cannabis sector can involve navigating more than just the standard risks associated with the fluctuations of the market. Investors also need to be on the lookout for schemers and charlatans.
Case in point: TG Branfalt, in an article for Ganjapreneur, reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has shut down a multi-year, $60 million cannabis industry “Ponzi-like scheme” by a company called WeedGenics — and its owners. According to Branfalt, the SEC said WeedGenics owners Rolf Max Hirschmann and Patrick Earl Williams—a rapper also known as “BigRigBaby”—raised more than $60 million from the scheme and used the majority of the funds to make $16.2 million in Ponzi-like payments and to enrich themselves.
Branfalt notes that since June 2019, Hirschmann and Williams told investors they would use the funds they raised to expand WeedGenics facilities, which they guaranteed would produce up to 36 percent in returns for investors. The problem is that Hirschmann and Williams never owned or operated any facilities.
So what did the larcenous duo do with the money folks invested in their mythical company? According to the SEC, they transferred the money through multiple accounts to enrich others and for personal use such as entertainment, jewelry, luxury cars, and residential real estate.
Said Michele Wein Layne, director of the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office, “Rolf Hirschmann and Patrick Williams allegedly had no real company, no product, and no business, yet despite this, they promised investors everything and then delivered nothing.”
Branfalt notes that the court granted the SEC emergency relief against the company, Hirschmann, Williams, and several relief defendants, including a temporary restraining order, an order freezing their assets, and appointment of a temporary receiver over the company. One can assume this will lead to trying to return funds to investors that they bilked.
A hearing is scheduled for June 2, 2023 to consider whether to issue a preliminary injunction and appoint a permanent receiver.
To learn more, we suggest reading the article by TG Branfalt in the May 24, 2023 issue of Ganjapreneur.com. As usual, his reporting is thorough and insightful.
www.ganjapreneur.com/sec-shuts-down-60m-ponzi-like-scheme-tied-to-non-existent-cannabis-farm/?
Cannabis Trends
You may want to have a little Barry White playing in the background while you read this story.
A growing number of cannabis products sold in New York City are being infused with aphrodisiacs. That’s the word from Carl Campanile who reported on the trend for the New York Post.
For example, according to Campanile, a store located in New York City’s East Village neighborhood called The Union Square Travel Agency is now selling dark chocolate “Love Beans for Arousal” made with cannabis and what are described as five “exotic herbs renowned for their love-enhancing properties” to “increase sensuality.” A package of 20 beans sells for $35.
The company that manufactures the “love beans,” called 1906, says, “it’s not just our bodies that have trouble getting in the mood, but our brains as well. That’s why Love Beans are formulated for both a physical and psychological high, working to increase blood flow to the pelvic area and boost sensation while also helping you relax and get out of your head.”
In addition, 1906 claims its cannabis products are made with the “first aphrodisiac that was designed to be equal opportunity and works consistently well on all genders.”
Said John Kagia, policy director for the state Office of Cannabis Management, “Cannabis infused with aphrodisiacs is one of the categories {of products} where there is huge innovation. People want to improve their sexual experience “
He added that it’s only a matter of time before cannabis-infused sexual enhancing gels and lubricants are available in the New York market.
In fact, that part of the future may already be here. Campanile reports that a company called Foria makes gels and lubricants for women that contain CBD, a compound found in marijuana said to promote relaxation.
Said the company, “Our formulas support transformational life experiences, with the most innovative, clean, and effective ingredients available. The sexual needs of women have been overlooked and under-addressed for too long. We’re working to change that story every day.”
To learn more, we encourage you to read Carl Campanile‘s article in the May 21, 2023 issue of the New York Post.
nypost.com/2023/05/21/marijuana-infused-aphrodisiacs-emerge-as-new-love-drug-in-new-york/
CBD Spotlight
There’s good news for consumers who love fresh fruit and vegetables. It appears the antimicrobial properties of CBD might make it useful for more than reducing stress and relieving aches and pains.
Researchers in Thailand say they have found an innovative way to extend the freshness of produce by using CBD to create an invisible, edible coating that can preserve fruit for much longer.
According to Michael Irving, reporting for the website New Atlas, scientists at Thammasat University and Chulabhorn Research Institute in Thailand set out to investigate whether CBD could be used to keep fruit fresher longer.
Irving notes that during their research the team combined CBD with biodegradable polymers—which are already used to enhance effectiveness when CBD is used as a drug—to make nanoparticles measuring 400 nanometers wide. These were then mixed with water and a food additive called sodium alginate. The researchers then coated strawberries with the solution. This step was then followed by a second bath in ascorbic acid and calcium chloride, which turned the coating into a gel.
To test the coating’s preservation abilities, Irving writes that the team placed treated and untreated strawberries into open plastic containers and kept them at fridge temperatures for several weeks.
They found the CBD-treated berries decayed far less over 15 days and kept their color longer than the untreated ones. The researchers also found that higher amounts of CBD also seemed to enhance freshness more than weaker amounts.
To learn more, you can read the article by Michael Irving in the May 21, 2023 issue of the website New Atlas.com.
newatlas.com/science/edible-cbd-coating-preserves-fruit-food/
To read the study, which was published in the May 4, 2023 issue of the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, click on the link that follows.
pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsami.3c04036
Safe Driving and Testing for Cannabis
If you’re waiting to see an effective and accurate breathalyzer-style test for cannabis use, don’t hold your breath.
Experts say with more states legalizing cannabis, a growing number of scientists and entrepreneurs have tried to develop field sobriety tests for THC, with some pursuing breathalyzer-inspired devices. That’s because many policymakers see field sobriety tests as an important step toward combating impaired driving.
For example, one California company, Oakland-based Hound Labs, said in 2015 that it expected widespread rollout of its device to law enforcement by the end of the following year. However, up to this point no cannabis field sobriety test has been widely adopted by law enforcement.
Part of the challenge faced by researchers is that since THC can linger in a person’s system well past the period of intoxication, the presence of THC in a person’s system is not a reliable indication of impairment at the time of testing.
According to Ben Adlin, writing for Marijuana Moment, a new federally funded study—conducted by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder—illustrates the difficulty of developing a breathalyzer-like device for cannabis.
He reports that even when using carefully collected samples and laboratory analysis, researchers found THC levels were too inconsistent to tell whether someone had smoked marijuana recently.
Adlin explained that to conduct the study, researchers took breath and blood samples from 18 participants in Colorado who smoked the same kind of retail marijuana, which contained roughly 25 percent THC. The samples were collected in what was described as “a comfortably appointed white van that would park conveniently outside participants’ homes” both 15 minutes before and an hour after people smoked marijuana.
Said one member of the research team, because the goal “is not working on developing a roadside breathalyzer device” but instead to better understand “the basics of how to accurately measure THC and related compounds in breath,” analysis of the collected samples was done in a lab, not in the field.
Unfortunately, the authors of the study said the findings, “do not support the idea that detecting THC in breath as a single measurement could reliably indicate recent cannabis use.”
Added co-author Kavita Jeerage, a NIST materials research engineer, “A lot more research is needed to show that a cannabis breathalyzer can produce useful results. A breathalyzer test can have a huge impact on a person’s life, so people should have confidence that the results are accurate.”
You can learn much more by reading Ben Adlin’s article in the May 23, 2023 issue of Marijuana Moment.net.
To read the study conducted by the researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder that appeared in the May 23, 2023 issue of the Journal of Breath Research, click on the following link.
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1752-7163/acd410
Senior Cannabis Digest is compiled and edited by Joe Kohut and John Kohut. You can reach them at joe.kohut@gmail.com and at 347-528-8753.
