Responding to pressure from consumers and manufacturers, a group of Senators recently urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to move to implement regulations for CBD in order to protect consumers and free up the industry.
According to Kyle Jaeger, writing for the website Marijuana Moment, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) announced at a press conference that he is urging the FDA to issue what he termed “guidance” so that CBD products can be lawfully marketed. Blumenthal and five of his colleagues in the Senate also sent a letter to the FDA stating that they think it is critical, both for consumers and manufacturers, for the agency to speed up the regulatory process.
Said Blumenthal, “What we need to do is stop the bad actors, rid the market of unsubstantiated and inaccurate health claims, make sure the good guys have a leveled playing field where truth and accuracy are valued and rewarded by consumers and by the regulatory framework.”
In his remarks, Blumenthal added that hemp growers, manufacturers, food producers and consumers deserve a ‘regulatory framework that will set rules for classification, labeling, marketing, quality and other important features so that we stop the ‘Wild West’ claims and make available products that are truly helpful and beneficial to consumers.
The Senator expressed that he believes the treatment of pain, anxiety, inflammation and other kinds of maladies may be aided by CBD and that consumers deserve the benefits of those treatments. He also believes consumers deserve to know the truth about the oils, lotions, gummies and other products that are available in the marketplace.
Recently, a bipartisan coalition of 26 members of the House sent a letter to the FDA, asking that the agency issue enforcement discretion guidelines that outline its enforcement priorities when it comes to taking action against companies that make inappropriate claims about the compound.
Illustrating the growing bipartisan support for the issue, Bluenthal noted that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel (R-KY) has been a champion of the hemp industry for some time.
Jaeger reported in his article that as recently as this past September Sen. McConnell worked to insert language into a congressional spending report that also called on the FDA to provide for the lawful marketing of CBD products.
Lending their support to Sen. Blumenthal’s letter were Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Jon Tester (D-MT), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
Kyle Jaeger’s in-depth reporting on this issue appears in the October 8, 2019 edition of The Marijuana Moment, an online publication that covers developments and trends affecting cannabis.
www.marijuanamoment.net/more-senators-are-demanding-that-fda-speed-up-cbd-regulations/
Health Matters
Medical marijuana may soon take a significant step toward becoming a more common part of medical treatment and pain management in a hospital setting.
According to Meg Hartley, reporting for Leafly, the California State Legislature has unanimously approved Senate Bill No. 305, also known as “Ryan’s Law.” The bill is now on its way to Governor Gavin Newsom, who is expected to sign it in the coming weeks, making the new law effective January 1st, 2020.
Ryan’s Law will make it possible for terminally ill patients who have a prescription for medical marijuana to use cannabis in a hospital setting as part of an inpatient treatment plan. The law stipulates the cannabis will be procured by the patients, not the hospital, and will be used in methods other than smoking or vaping. The bill prevents hospitals from interfering with the patients when using the cannabis, but it does allow hospital staff to assist if needed.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMIIjmba80Y
Consumer Corner
There’s good news for mature consumers who turn to medical marijuana to ease the pain from a wide variety of ailments. A new product has been developed primarily for the medical marijuana market that’s designed to increase convenience without sacrificing effectiveness.
According to Erik Volkman writing for The Motley Fool, the product is described by its manufacturer as a cannabinoid-infused sublingual wafer. In layman’s terms, it’s a thin strip of cannabis-infused polymer meant to be held under the tongue until it dissolves. Called Dissolve Strips, the product was developed by the Canadian company Aurora in conjunction with CTT Pharmaceutical Holdings. Initially, the product will only be available in Canada.
Volkman says that Aurora believes the strips offer a number of advantages. For instance, the strip dissolves in five to 15 seconds and doesn’t require swallowing or a drink of water. This is said to make the strip appropriate for those who have difficulty taking medication in more traditional ways.
Also, Aurora has yet to indicate if it has plans to introduce the product into Canada’s recreational market. The company is said to be the second largest cannabis company in the world by market capitalization, after its Canadian counterpart Canopy Growth Corporation.
To learn more you can read Erik Volkman’s insightful article in the October 9, 2019 edition of The Motley Fool.
www.fool.com/news/2019/10/09/aurora-cannabis-rolls-out-cannabis-strips.aspx
Concentrates: a Primmer
If you are a mature consumer of cannabis who feels dazed, confused and downright dazzled by the range of legal product options available in a medical marijuana dispensary or adult-use shop, take heart. Help is on the way.
The kind folks at Harvest Health and Recreation have put together a guide to one of the most popular types of cannabis products now available—concentrates. Concentrates have been in the news a bit recently because of the controversy over vaping. Their guide, “What Everyone Should Know About Cannabis Concentrate” appeared this past spring as a blog post on the company website. It was written by jmacdonald who has authored a number of blog posts for the site.
For starters, Macdonald makes the point that concentrates are products made to preserve high levels of cannabinoids and terpenes found in cannabis. It’s thought concentrates, in one form or another, have been around since about 10,000 BC, probably originating in the Steppe Mountains of China. Their long-term popularity is attributed to the way they exhibit what the blog refers to as the three Ps: purity, potency and portability.
Purity – The process that creates concentrates extracts the most desirable parts of the plant (a.k.a. cannabinoids and terpenes) and discards the leaves, stems and other impurities. That results in a pure final product.
Potency – As the name suggests, ounce for ounce cannabis concentrates have a greater concentration of cannabinoids and terpenes than natural cannabis flower. It’s been reported that it’s not uncommon to find concentrates that contain 80 percent THC. As a consequence, users often report they feel the effects within moments and their experience can last for several hours.
Portability – Because they’re produced in so many different formats, some types of concentrates, such as extracts, are easier to enjoy on the go than flower.
The article also explains that while the terms “extract” and “concentrate” are often used interchangeably there is a difference. An extract is a type of concentrate. Put another way, all extracts are concentrates, but not all concentrates are extracts. The difference lies in the processing method. Concentrates can be produced through solvent or non-solvent methods. If a solvent is used to draw the trichomes from the plant, the resulting product is an extract. If mechanical or physical means – such as water, pressure or heat – are used, the result is a concentrate, but not an extract.
Macdonald goes on to describe a number of concentrates that are now available commercially. Here are three.
Wax is one of the most common concentrates. It’s shiny, sticky and crumbly, and is commonly consumed by “dabbing.” which involves using specially designed equipment to heat the concentrate to a specific temperature and inhaling the vapor.
Shatter can have a brittle, glass-like or a snap-and-pull consistency (like taffy candy). These concentrates are high in terpenes, giving them a strong aromatic profile, and can range from a golden yellow to dark amber in color.
Budder and badder are described as being softer and glossy, looking much like a stick of butter. It has the advantage of being easy to handle and can be spread on blunts or joints.
We urge those who want to learn more about this trend in cannabis consumption to read jmacdonald’s excellent article in the March 16, 2019 edition of Harvest House of Cannabis, a blog produced by Harvest Health and Recreation, a ,major multistate cannabis operator.
In addition jmacdonald supplied a link to another publication, PotGuide.com, which has a very detailed history of various concentrates and how each is manufactured.
www.harvestinc.com/blog-what-everyone-should-know-about-cannabis-concentrates/
https://potguide.com/guides/cannabis-concentrate-guide/
Travel Tips
Mature consumers who enjoy both cannabis and travel may want to keep a close eye on Mexico. According to Mexico Daily News, lawmakers there are currently considering 13 different proposals and comments from the public on the best way to make cannabis legal nationwide.
Mexico decriminalized the possession of small amounts of cannabis in 2009 and in 2017 legalized medical marijuana that had a THC content of less than one percent.
One factor cited as motivation for the decision to move to legalization is the desire to reduce crime.There are those who think making cannabis unlawful has “only generated the creation of an organized mafia,” although it is still unclear how the cartels would react to such a move since so much of their product and sales target markets in the U.S.
Another reason cited for legalization is economic development. Sushree Mohanty, writing for Market Realist, reports that there are Mexican elected officials who think full-scale legalization and regulations could help Mexico economically. According to commentary from dispensares.com that appeared on the website GreenEntrepreneur, Senator Cora Cecilia Pinedo Alonso of the PT Parliamentary Group thinks legalization has enormous potential and could generate an estimated 12 trillion over the next ten years.
With draft legislation coming within the next couple of weeks, Mexico could find itself with legalized marijuana nationwide as early as 2020. At present, proposed legislation would make Mexico’s Ministry of Health responsible for designing regulations for the “planting, cultivation, harvesting, preparation, possession and transporting marijuana,” as well as laws governing its use by adults.
If Mexico legalizes marijuana for adult use nationwide, the country will become only the third in the world to do so. Uruguay and Canada have both made cannabis legal at the federal level.
More detailed information and analysis can be found in Sushree Mohanty’s article in the September 23, 2019 edition of Market Realist and the commentary penned by dispensaries.com for the October 10, 2019 edition of GreenEntrepreneur.
marketrealist.com/2019/09/marijuana-legalization-mexico-will-seal-deal/
www.greenentrepreneur.com/article/340607
Senior Cannabis Digest is compiled and edited by Joe Kohut and John Kohut. You can reach them at joe.kohut@gmail.com or at 347-528-8753.
