Welcome to Senior Cannabis Digest. This week we look at big changes proposed for Amsterdam’s famed cannabis cafes, a study that compares the effects of cannabis smoke and tobacco smoke, a promotion that offers free marijuana to those who get a shot of the COVID-19 vaccine and more. Enjoy.
Travel Tips
Eventually, once the pandemic is under control here and abroad, individuals will again be able to travel outside of the United States. However, if a trip to Amsterdam’s famous cannabis cafes is an item on your “bucket list” you may be disappointed.
Louis O’Neill, reporting for The Green Fund, writes that Amsterdam’s mayor, Femke Halsema, has proposed banning cannabis for non-residents in an effort to curb cannabis-driven tourism. Under her proposal only the residents of Amsterdam would be allowed to consume cannabis in the city’s cafes.
Prior to the coronavirus lockdown, it’s estimated a million tourists visited Amsterdam every month—A total of 46 million people visited the Netherlands in 2019—many purely for the purpose of consuming cannabis. According to a 2019 survey of young tourists aged between 18 to 35, 57 percent of visitors had decided to travel to Amsterdam primarily because they wanted to visit the city’s cannabis cafes.
While the mayor is aware of the economic benefits that cannabis tourism brings to the Netherlands’ capital, she also contends the cannabis tourist trade has attracted hard-drug criminality in the process.
Said Halsema, “We can be an open, hospitable and tolerant city, but also a city that makes life difficult for criminals and slows down mass tourism.”
According to Cecelia Rodriguez, who covered the story for Forbes, the public prosecutor and the police are supporting the mayor’s move as is the business community. Under the mayor’s plan, the number of “coffee shops” licensed to operate in Amsterdam would be reduced from 166 to 68 . It’s believed that would be enough to support local demand.
Said Halsema, in an interview with Dutch Public television “Amsterdam is an international city and we want to welcome tourists, but we would like tourists who come for the wealth of the city, for its beauty, for its cultural institutions.”
It’s still not clear what the city council’s response to the proposal will be or when the proposal would go into effect, so stay tuned. It is also not clear how this proposal, if enacted, would affect the ability of tourists to use cannabis in other Dutch cities.
You can learn more by reading Louis O’Neill’s reporting for the Green Fund. The article also appeared in the January 14, 2021 issue of Benzinga. The thorough and insightful reporting by Cecilia Rodriguez on this issue appears in the January 10, 2021 edition of Forbes.com.
www.benzinga.com/markets/cannabis/21/01/19109756/cannabis-may-be-banned-for-tourists-in-amsterdam?
Medical Matters
If a recent study is any indication, those who believe smoking marijuana is safer than smoking cigarettes because it doesn’t contain all of the harsh chemicals found in cigarettes may be in for a surprise.
That’s the word from Mike Adams, writing for The Fresh Toast. Adams says researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston recently determined that cannabis smokers have higher concentrations of dangerous toxins such as naphthalene, acrylamide and acrylonitrile in their system than non-smokers. These chemicals have been linked to anemia, liver and neurological issues, and in some cases, cancer. The study was published in the journal EClinicalMedicine.
In an interview with CNN, the study’s lead author said, “The increase (in these chemicals) has renewed concerns about the potential health effects of marijuana smoke, which is known to contain some of the same toxic combustion products found in tobacco smoke.” He went on to say this is the first study to compare exposure to acrolein and other harmful smoke-related chemicals over time in exclusive marijuana smokers and tobacco smokers, and to see if those exposures are related to cardiovascular disease.
Now, before you flush your stash and throw out your rolling papers, here are a few things mature consumers should consider. The study acknowledged that while participants who exclusively smoked marijuana had higher blood and urine levels of several smoke-related toxic chemicals such as naphthalene, acrylamide, and acrylonitrile metabolites than non-smokers did, the concentrations of these substances were lower in marijuana-only smokers than in tobacco smokers.
Nor it is not clear how much cannabis participants consumed on a regular basis or for how long they had been consuming cannabis. Nor does the study appear to address the effect of vape products or other methods of consuming cannabis, such as edibles or tinctures.
If you have read this publication before you probably know by now that we do not encourage folks to use cannabis. However, if mature consumers choose to use cannabis we encourage them to do their homework and make informed choices.
That being said, there can often be some distance between the headline and the facts of the story. For instance, in this case this was not a cannabis study as much as it was a smoking study, so when someone asks if you’ve seen the article that says smoking cannabis causes cancer you may want to suggest they take a deep breath.
To learn more you can read Mike Adams’s article for the Fresh Toast. It appears in the January 13, 2021 issue. If you care to, you can also go to the news release on the study from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. It was posted online on January 11, 2021. A link to the release can be found below.
Cannabis and Sports
In the matter of punishing professional athletes for cannabis use, it seems another domino has fallen. The Canadian Press reports the UFC, the world’s largest mixed martial arts promotion, has announced that it will no longer worry about positive tests for carboxy-THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, “unless it believes a fighter used it intentionally to enhance performance.”
In addition all other cannabinoids derived naturally from marijuana will no longer be prohibited substances.
Said Jeff Novitzky, the UFC’s senior vice-president of athlete health and performance, “The bottom line is that in regard to marijuana, we care about what an athlete consumed the day of a fight, not days or weeks before a fight, which has often been the case in our historic positive THC cases. UFC athletes will still be subject to marijuana rules under various athletic commission regulations, but we hope this is a start to a broader discussion and changes on this issue with that group.”
Novitsky made it clear that while the UFC won’t allow fighters to compete while under the influence of cannabinoids, it does recognize that MMA fighters often use marijuana for pain management or relaxation.
It is important to note that the UFC’s position doesn’t affect the rules of various state athletic commissions and international governing bodies.
You can learn more by reading the Canadian Press article. It appeared in the January 14, 20212 edition of Yahoo Sports.com.
ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/ufc-wont-punish-fighters-marijuana-192533168.html
Cannabis Trends
So when it comes to public opinion on cannabis use it’s like that Zimmerman guy once said. The times are indeed changing.
More specifically, according to Thomas Edward, reporting for High Times, new survey data published recently in the journal Addictive Behavior, showed that a majority of United States consumers now believe marijuana to have less potential for abuse than both alcohol and prescription drugs.
The researchers wrote that a majority of the public perceives THC—the intoxicating ingredient in cannabis and marijuana—when considered together with prescription medications, instead of as an illicit substance, to have more medical value and less abuse potential than alcohol.
In addition, researchers said that among “the substances studied that have both medical uses and potential for abuse… THC and marijuana are the only ones that can be purchased in some U.S. states without a prescription. Overall, the public perceives THC and marijuana as having some potential for abuse but not as much as several prescription medications.”
To learn more about the survey findings we encourage you to read the article by Thomas Edward in the January 12, 2021 edition of High Times.com.
hightimes.com/news/survey-finds-majority-americans-view-cannabis-less-harmful-alcohol/
Cannabis and COVID
It appears some folks in Michigan think receiving a free bag of cannabis can be more of a motivator than a toaster or a set of steak knives. A dispensary in the town of Walled Lake, a suburb of Detroit, is offering free cannabis to those who get a COVID vaccine shot.
Reporting for the Detroit Metro News, Lee DeVito writes that a dispensary called the Greenhouse of Walled Lake has instituted a promotion it’s calling Pot for Shots. Anyone who brings in written proof that they received a COVID-19 vaccine will get a free pre-rolled joint.
Dispensary owner Jerry Millen told DeVito, “Our goal is to raise awareness of the importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccination as we as a community battle this horrible pandemic. ‘Pot for Shots’ is our way of showing our commitment in assisting helping the community (sic) get back to normalcy. We support the safe and responsible use of cannabis and hope this is the beginning of the end of this insidious pandemic.”
The folks in Michigan are not alone. A.J. Herrington, writing for Forbes reports cannabis activists in Washington D. C. are planning to offer a free bag of marijuana to those receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. They have dubbed their effort, “Joints for Jabs.”
To learn more you can read Lee DeVito’s article in the January 18, 2021 issue of the Detroit Metro Times and A.J. Herrington’s reporting in the January 14, 2021 edition of Forbes.com.
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.
