Welcome to Senior Cannabis Digest. This week you’ll find tips on CBD and sleep, new products that use THC and CBD as ingredients, a market report that examines the range of prices consumers pay for CBD and a new take on legal cannabis and pensions. Enjoy.
CBD and Sleep
If, like many people, you experience trouble sleeping at least one night a week there may be good news and it doesn’t come in the form of an over-the-counter drug. Instead it involves CBD—a substance derived from the cannabis plant that is said to reduce pain and anxiety without intoxication.
According to Lisa. L. Gill, writing in Consumer Reports, about ten percent of those who told investigators they had tried CBD reported that they took it as a sleep aid—and the majority of those said they found it helpful.
Gill cites the work of Joseph Maroon, M.D., a clinical professor and neurosurgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who has researched the effect of cannabis on the brain. Maroon suggests that CBD has properties that could help some people sleep better. Most notably, he points to CBD’s ability to ease anxiety and pain, both of which can make it harder to fall asleep or stay asleep.
Gill acknowledges that there is still some debate as to just how CBD induces sleep. Some experts believe it helps by reducing pain and anxiety while others believe it helps people sleep by interacting with specific receptors in the body. And there are some consumers who report that while CBD did help to reduce anxiety and inflammation, it did not help them sleep.
One researcher, Mitch Earleywine, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University at Albany, State University of New York, who also sits on the advisory board of the marijuana advocacy group NORML, contends CBD’s effectiveness as a sleep aid is determined by a number of factors, including how much you take and how you take it.
For example, he suggests a person should start with a modest dose of 30 mg and slowly increase the dosage until he or she finds a level that works. He cautions that relying on higher dosages for the desired effect, for example a dose of 160 mg, “is going to be incredibly expensive.”
Earlywine also told Gill that while taking CBD through some kind of vaporizer can achieve a more immediate effect, using it in the form of pills, oils, and edibles such as gummy bears might help a person sleep longer, because these products release the CBD more slowly. If you opt for one of those forms, Earlywine suggests taking it about an hour before bedtime.
Since CBD can interact with other medications, he also said it’s important to discuss using it with your doctor.
To learn more, visit Lisa L. Gill’s article in the February 6, 2019 issue of Consumer Reports.
www.consumerreports.org/cbd/can-cbd-help-you-sleep/
New Cannabis Products
Cannabis, in the form of THC and CBD, continues to show up as a surprising ingredient in a wide variety of products. Javier Hasse tracks such products for Benzinga and recently found two new ones—a coffee that incorporates CBD and a collection of cannabis-infused red wines.
The first, called Crazy Calm, is a CBD-infused, organic instant coffee. The company says the CBD and coffee complement each other for a relaxing energy boost with no caffeine. Each box comes with ten individual packets that contain 20 mg of broad spectrum CBD each. The product does not contain THC.
The company’s founder, Matt Aaron, told Hasse he started brewing CBD coffee in January 2019 and loved the way it made him feel. Said Aaron, “I travel a lot and realized there wasn’t an on-the-go version, so I decided to make one.”
Hasse also found a collection of cannabis-infused red wines from a company named Viv & Oak. Called the Shimmering Scarlett Collection, the wines are made with 100 percent Zinfandel grapes. Using what’s called a “nano-encapsulation” process, 99.5 percent of the alcohol is removed from the grapes before the wine is infused with cannabis. Removing the alcohol is thought to make the cannabis take effect more quickly and is said to result in a wine with “notes of cherry, plum and blackberry”
Consumers can choose from one wine that contains just THC and one that contains a CBD and THC combination. A third wine offers a combination of THCv, THC and CBD. Less well-known than THC and CBD, THCv is described as a cannabinoid may combat anxiety. In addition, it is also considered an antioxidant and potent anti-inflammatory agent.
According to Viv & Oak founder and President Alana Burstein, each five-ounce serving contains just 16 calories and three grams of sugar. Onset of the cannabis ingredients may take effect as quickly as just ten minutes and may last for a few hours. Said Burstein,“We want to offer our customers something truly unique, and with this release, we’re doing just that.”
The wines are available at select dispensaries throughout California and direct to California consumers through a cannabis delivery service called Big Moon Sky.com.
To learn more read Javier Hasse’s article in the January 31, 2020 issue of Benzinga.com.
CBD Spotlight
Those who use CBD may soon long for the “old days” when all they worried about was the source of their tincture and whether it was full spectrum, broad spectrum or isolate.
Now it seems there is a new concern to add to their list of worries. Consumers may be paying an inflated price for their CBD products for no apparent reason.
Amanda Hoover, writing for NJ.com, examines a market analysis conducted by Leafreport, a CBD dedicated portal focused on bringing transparency to the CBD industry. Leafreport compiled a market report comparing over 3,500 products — including tinctures, gummies, capsules, pet treats, topicals, isolates, vaporizers, and bundles — from more than 53 brands and found a 3,200 percent price discrepancy between some of the least and most expensive products. It also found no underlying reason for the range in prices.
Clearly, the report underscores the need for mature consumers of CBD to be vigilant and demanding when it comes to buying quality products and getting the most for their money.
For example, the market report found that with tinctures—often referred to as CBD oil—”there is a huge variation in price and often in potency with tinctures and with any CBD liquids.” The report indicates that companies producing higher-quality CBD are often more expensive, but this is not always the case.
Similar discrepancies were also found with other types of CBD products, such as gummies and capsules, as well as CBD products for pets.
Noa Givony, Leafreport’s Head of Product told Hoover, “The conclusion that we got to is that it’s probably all the brands just want to make money. There’s no real reason that there should be such a discrepancy in prices.”
Givony also indicated that their analysis examined a company’s USDA certification status, manufacturing processes, and third party testing policies to try to explain the price discrepancies, but could not find a direct relationship between those aspects and price point.
Hoover concluded that price discrepancies such as these demonstrate the need for regulation in the industry.
To learn more, read Amanda Hoover’s article in the February 1, 2020 edition of NJ.com and “The CBD Market Consumer Research: A Guide to Become a Smart Consumer,” which appeared in the January 9, 2020 edition of Leafreport.
www.nj.com/marijuana/2020/02/you-might-be-overpaying-for-cbd-and-theres-no-reason-why.html
www.leafreport.com/education/the-cbd-market-explained-a-guide-to-become-a-smart-consumer-3159
Cannabis and Pensions
Economists have long considered the unfunded and underfunded pension obligations of municipal and state governments to be a financial time bomb.
The good news is some states and municipalities are starting to see the tax revenue generated by the legal sale of cannabis as a way to address the problem.
For example, Illinois has long been considered the “poster child” when it comes to underfunded pension obligations. However, Ted Rehl, the mayor of South Beloit, Illinois—a city that hopes to collect as much a one million dollars a year in taxes on the sale of marijuana products—told the Wall Street Journal he intends to apply the tax revenue from marijuana to police and firefighter pensions and repairing the city’s streets.
To learn more, you can read the article by Heather Gillers in the February 4, 2020 edition of the Wall Street Journal.
www.wsj.com/articles/is-your-citys-pension-fund-a-little-short-marijuana-might-help-11580812201
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.
