Before too long it may become common for holiday revelers to toast the season with a different kind of beverage—cannabis-infused beer.
Reporting for Weedmap News and the investment hub Benzinga Cannabis, Tess Rose Lampert writes that it’s important to understand that so-called weed beers or canna-beers are not typical beers at all because they don’t contain any alcohol. In fact, current laws prohibit the mixing of any cannabis product with alcoholic beverages. Such brews are actually considered beer-like beverages that are designed to taste and be consumed like beer. However, the alcohol is replaced with cannabinoids, such as CBD and/or THC.
According to Kevin Barnes, the Executive Vice President of Brewing Operations and the man behind the Two Roots line of beverages, the company makes five styles of non-alcoholic beer, each with 5 milligrams of THC per can. Barnes, who has been a professional brewer for 10 years, told Lampert that it can be a challenge to craft a beverage without alcohol that retains the characteristics of beer, such as body and flavor.
Said Barnes, “You can’t just make normal beer, you really have to brew differently .”
Lampert writes that the current industry standard is to add a flavorless and colorless THC and/or CBD isolate in liquid form to the non-alcoholic beer. The compounds are generally nano-emulsified, a process which breaks down the particles small enough to be water-soluble and relatively stable once mixed with the beer. This also helps to make the cannabinoids more bioavailable, which means the effects of the THC become evident faster and can feel more intense.
In her article, Lampert writes that weed beer—particularly since it is usually available in low-dose containers—is positioned to take advantage of two current overall trends in cannabis. According to the research of BDS Analytics, the top two cannabis trends for 2019 are social consumption and infused beverages.
To learn more about cannabis-infused beer and the role some think it will play in the cannabis industry in the near future, visit Tess Rose Lampert’s article for Weedmaps News which appeared in the December 17, 2019 edition of Benzinga.com.
Cannabis and Opioid Use.
While it is always important to distinguish between correlation and causality when discussing the relationship between legal access to cannabis and opioid use, there is new research that bears watching. Researchers contend doctors in states with recreational and medical cannabis laws on the books prescribe fewer opioids.
So says Matt Saintsing writing for Marijuana Moment. He reports that researchers at the University of Alabama School of Law, and Vanderbilt University Law School concluded that legal access to medical and recreational cannabis can help to reduce “the total days supply of opioids prescribed, the total number of patients receiving opioids, and the probability a provider prescribes any opioids.”
According to Saintsing, the researchers believe the study suggests that passing cannabis access laws reduces the use of prescription opioids “across several different measures of opioid prescriptions.”
In addition to an overall decline in opioid prescriptions, the researchers also reported that in the five medical specialties with the highest opioid prescribing rates, prescriptions fell by 28 percent in states with legal adult-use marijuana, and seven percent when medical marijuana was available. The research team is of the opinion that this suggests that the physicians who prescribe the most opioids are most affected by the greater availability of cannabis.
For more detailed information on the study visit Matt Saintsing’s article in the December 18, 2019 edition of Marijuana Moment.
www.marijuanamoment.net/opioid-prescriptions-down-in-states-with-legal-marijuana-study-finds/
Travel Tips
Holiday travelers who carry cannabis oil on an international flight may be courting legal problems when they arrive at their destination.
That’s the word from Tom Angell writing for Forbes. He reports that the U.S. State Department is warning international holiday travelers that carrying CBD can land them in trouble in certain countries. According to Angell the State Department recently tweeted that travelers need to research what is and isn’t allowed in their destination countries before they travel.
In the same article he pointed out that the TSA announced back in May of this year that airline passengers are allowed to travel with CBD derived from hemp within the United States. He also noted that back in June the U.S. Postal Service announced that it is now legal to mail hemp products, including CBD, within the country.
To learn more you can visit Tom Angell’s article in the December 13, 2019 issue of Forbes.
Cannabis and Public Safety
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) claims millions of Americans are driving under the influence of marijuana and public health officials need to develop tools that can quickly identify if a driver is operating under the influence of marijuana or other drugs.
So says Jen Christensen reporting for CNN.com. She writes that the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that 12 million American adults surveyed in 2018 said they had driven under the influence of marijuana in the 12 months prior to the survey. In the same survey 2.3 million respondents said they had driven under the influence of illicit drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamine.
Christensen points out that unlike standardized tests for driving under the influence of alcohol, there are no national standards or standardized tests to determine if an individual’s ability to drive is impaired by marijuana.
She reports that several agencies have asked states and the federal government to do more to protect the public from these drivers. In 2018, officials with the National Transportation Safety Board cited an increase in the number of drug-impaired drivers across the country and issued a call to action to do more to stop the problem.
Christensen also noted a 2017 study found that the legalization of recreational marijuana did not increase the number of accidents involving fatalities, but states that legalized its use are seeing more crashes overall. It appears that the 2018 survey cited by the CDC did not inquire if the drivers surveyed had driven while using legal prescription drugs, such as opioids or Xanax.
To learn more, you can visit Jen Christensen’s article in the December 12, 2019 edition of CNN.com.
www.cnn.com/2019/12/19/health/marijuana-driving-study/index.html
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.
