Welcome to Senior Cannabis Digest. This week you’ll find the FDA may be signaling a new approach to regulating CBD, a survey that shows Pennsylvania patients are getting the results from cannabis they desire, new CBD products for cats and horses and more. Enjoy.
CBD and the FDA
When it comes to prohibiting the use of CBD products the FDA appears to be taking what could be called the Van Morrison approach, deciding “It’s too late to stop now.”
In what may be a real turning of the page when it comes to regulating products that contain CBD, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn recently said “People are using these products. We’re not going to be able to say you can’t use these products. It’s a fool’s game to try to even approach that.”
Hahn was addressing the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture at its winter policy conference and was commenting on the question of whether the FDA would try to remove products containing CBD from the market.
Writing for Marijuana Moment, Ben Adlin reported that Hahn’s latest comments suggest that while the FDA may not be happy with CBD’s explosion onto the consumer market, the agency at least isn’t planning an immediate, industry-wide crackdown.
Hahn also acknowledged the FDA had to be “open to the fact that there might be some value in these products, and certainly Americans think that’s the case. But we want to get them information to help them make the right decisions.”
You can learn more by reading Ben Adlin’s detailed and informative article in the February 27, 2020 edition of Marijuana Moment.
www.marijuanamoment.net/banning-cbd-products-would-be-a-fools-game-fda-chief-admits/
Seniors, Cannabis and Pain Relief
The weekly shuttle bus that transports residents of Laguna Woods Village, a retirement community, to the Bud and Bloom dispensary in Santa Ana, California, has already been the topic of numerous articles.
So it was refreshing when Roxy Szal, writing for Leafly, decided to tackle the story from a different angle. She found that in addition to educational programs and the free lunch that are part of the shuttle experience, many seniors were riding the bus in hopes of finding pain relief—and a good night’s sleep.
Szal describes the experience of one passenger, 78-year old Sharon who suffers from three autoimmune diseases. Said Sharon, “I was in a bad state. I was feeling really ill. It’s made me feel so much better: I sleep better, I have less pain, and I feel better emotionally because of the release of pain.”
Another rider told Szal, “There’s always people that have tried it before, but I’ve also noticed a lot of new faces, a lot of really scared people who are in pain. They’re looking for help, and they haven’t been able to find it. So, they’re adding cannabis as an option. They’re usually repeats after that.”
When asked what kinds of products they were purchasing, many of the seniors told Szal they preferred to use tinctures or edibles, such as gummies or chocolates, as opposed to flower. Many of them cited poor lungs as their motivation for avoiding smoke.
To learn more you can read Roxy Szal’s informative and entertaining article in the February 26, 2020 issue of Leafly.
www.leafly.com/news/health/riding-the-senior-bus-to-the-dispensary
Stats of the Week
According to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) the number of Americans ages 65 and up who smoke marijuana or take edibles jumped up by 75 percent in just three years.
Nichole Lyn Pesce reported for MarketWatch that researchers analyzed the data from just under 15,000 adults and found that the number of people 65 and older who had smoked or ingested “marijuana, hashish, pot, grass and hash oil” grew from 2.4 percent in 2015 to 4.2 percent in 2018. A decade earlier, just 0.4 percent of people in this age group copped to using cannabis in any form.
To learn more, you can read the article Nicole Lyn Pesce wrote for MarketWatch which appeared in the February 25, 2020 edition of Yahoo Finance.
finance.yahoo.com/m/cb7f2190-5785-3a97-9d38-bf0b6645d675/there
The Effectiveness of Medical Cannabis
The findings from a recent survey show that a significant percentage of Pennsylvania patients who use medical marijuana are getting the results they desire. The survey, conducted by Compassionate Certification Centers, a medical cannabis healthcare system, in collaboration with Affinity Bio Partners, a Clinical Research Organization (CRO) and AI Health Outcomes, CannaBot, found that over 99 percent of those queried reported that they have reduced symptoms when using medical cannabis.
In addition, nearly 65 percent of respondents said they were able to identify one or more specific cannabis strains that were most effective for them.
While we would like to find more information on specific symptoms that the marijuana addressed, we have to admit that 99 percent is a rather respectable measure of effectiveness when it comes to a patient reporting that a medication achieved a particular objective.
Perhaps just as impressive is the idea that over half of the respondents became educated consumers and acquired enough experience to tell which strains are most likely to achieve the effect they desire.
To learn more about the survey and its sponsors you can read Stephanie Price‘s article in the February 24, 2020 edition of Medical Cannabis Network or the article in the February 26, 2020 issue of Cannabis Magazine
www.healtheuropa.eu/over-99-of-patients-able-to-reduce-symptoms-using-medical-cannabis/98001/
cannabismagazine.com/over-99-of-medical-cannabis-patients-confirm-reduced-symptoms/
New CBD Products For Cats and Horses
Increasingly, older individuals who use CBD to relieve a variety of ailments are looking for ways to provide their pets—both large and small—with CBD products designed to provide animals the same relief from aches and pains that mature consumers experience.
Fortunately, a growing number of companies are responding to the demand. For example Nina Zdnjak, writing for Benzinga, reported that a company that specializes in CBD products for pets called Hempvet has announced the launch of nine pet wellness products that include the company’s first products for cats and horses.
Each of the products was created to address a particular disorder, such as anxiety, hip and joint pain and various immune deficiencies.
For horses the company has produced powder-based remedies for minimizing anxiety, helping with digestive disorders and hip and joint inflammation.
The new products for cats—which come in the form of soft chews—were created to help with anxiety, hip and joint pain and provide an immunity boost.
According to company CEO Will Billings,”We believe that the industry has not even scratched the surface of the potential of hemp to improve animals’ lives. With this next phase of our growth, we are excited to treat a wider range of health concerns while providing pets with safe, natural alternatives to traditional medicines.”
Additional new products offered by the company include hemp-infused flea and tick sprays for both dogs and cats.
You can learn more by visiting Nicole Lyn Zdinjak’s reporting in the February 26, 2020 issue of Benzinga.
Senior Cannabis Digest is compiled and edited by Joe Kohut and John Kohut. You can reach them at joe.kohut@gmail.com or 347-528-8753.
