Welcome to Senior Cannabis Digest. This week we look at using brain scans to test for cannabis impairment, new CBD products from Martha Stewart, a snapshot of how some mature consumers feel about legalization and more. Enjoy.
Cannabis Quote of the Week
“You kids today with your legal weed…
Back in my day, we had to walk a mile uphill in the snow to meet a sketchy guy in an alley.
We paid what he asked,
and we smoked what he had,
and WE LIKED IT.”—Sallying@sallying
We “borrowed” this Facebook post from a friend of Senior Cannabis Digest, the inimitable Michael Kelly McCloskey.
We’re sharing it here because we think it expresses an opinion held by mature consumers who pine for the “old days,” when they got to feel like an outlaw for a moment or two by going out to “score.” We also suspect some actually liked that more than the cannabis they purchased from that “sketchy” guy.
In its own way it also makes the case for more cannabis education for older folks who think there is something going on there, but they’re not quite sure what it is when it comes to new products that are now available and how best to use them.
For many mature consumers, cannabis—whether in the form of marijuana or CBD—has come to represent an opportunity for less pain, less stress, better sleep and increased wellness. The good news is that they no longer have to deal with that “sketchy” guy.
Senior Celebrity Spotlight
There’s helpful news for mature consumers who use CBD as part of their wellness routine. Domestic Goddess, cannabis entrepreneur and Snoop Dogg’s BFF—Martha Stewart—has introduced a new line of products designed to help consumers manage their wellness needs throughout the day.
Called Martha Stewart CBD Wellness Topicals, the topicals line consists of Super Strength CBD Cream designed for muscle recovery, Sleep Science CBD Cream designed for better sleep and Daily De-Stress CBD Cream designed for stress management. Each is formulated with US-derived broad-spectrum CBD.
The formulas behind the products were created by Martha in partnership with Marquee Brands and Canopy Growth Corporation, a world-leading diversified cannabis and cannabinoid-based consumer product company.
The new line is also described as using “cutting edge aroma-technology proven to activate key areas of the brain to induce mood state change around the areas of relaxation, reduced anxiety, emotion and memory.”
Said Stewart, “I believe that living well can be simplified by focusing on practical and effective solutions, which is why I created this line of CBD Wellness Topicals with the Canopy Growth team. I am thrilled to help improve our customers’ daily lives through proven formulations that make wellness accessible and convenient, with offerings that address muscle discomfort, sleep deprivation, and stress.”
To learn more you can visit marthastewartcbd.com.
Political News and Notes
Here is another example of how opinions about cannabis are changing. It wasn’t that long ago that acknowledging any kind of cannabis use was often a death sentence for a political candidate, even if they dressed it up as a youthful indiscretion that they have come to regret.
Lukas Barfield, reporting for Ganjapreneur, tells the story of a Louisiana Democratic U.S. Senate candidate who is seen smoking a blunt in a New Orleans field in his first campaign ad. For the uninitiated, blunts are cigars that have had the tobacco removed and replaced with marijuana. They can also be rolled using tobacco leaf wrappers. The name comes from the Phillies Blunt cigar brand.
In the ad, the candidate, self-described progressive activist Gary Chambers Jr., is seen smoking the blunt for 37 seconds. According to Chambers, the 37 seconds is significant because “every 37 seconds” someone is arrested for cannabis possession in the U.S.
According to Barfield, Chambers also highlights what he calls the disproportionate effect cannabis laws have on the Black community and the money spent on cannabis enforcement. He contends that the majority of people who police arrest for cannabis “aren’t dealers,” but are arrested for possessing small, personal amounts of cannabis, “like me.”
We don’t know how the ad will affect his candidacy. We do believe, however, that it is further evidence that when it comes to cannabis, “things sure are different than they used to be.”
To learn more, we suggest you read Lukas Barfield’s article in the January 19, 2022 issue of Ganjapreneur.
www.ganjapreneur.com/u-s-senate-candidate-smokes-blunt-in-campaign-ad/?
Cannabis and Safe Driving
Increasingly, researchers and members of law enforcement are acknowledging that existing tests for the presence of THC in a driver’s bloodstream—whether by testing a driver’s blood or saliva—are relatively poor or inconsistent indicators of cannabis-induced impairment.
However, a new approach to testing impairment may change all that. According to Jelena Martinovic, writing for Benzinga, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have used a non-invasive brain imaging procedure to measure brain activation patterns that, they contend, correlates to impairment from THC intoxication.
According to Martinovic, the study examined a total of 169 cannabis users who underwent a brain imaging procedure before and after receiving a dose of oral THC or a placebo. Those who experienced intoxication after using oral THC showed an increased oxygenated hemoglobin concentration (HbO) in the brain’s prefrontal cortex.
Said Jodi Gilman, an investigator at the Center for Addiction Medicine, MGH and associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, “Our goal was to determine if cannabis impairment could be detected from the activity of the brain on an individual level. This is a critical issue because a ‘breathalyzer’ type of approach will not work for detecting cannabis impairment, which makes it very difficult to objectively assess impairment from THC during a traffic stop.”
Gilman added,”We need a method that won’t penalize medical marijuana users or others with insufficient amounts of cannabis in their system to impair their performance.”
The researchers concluded, “it is likely that a brain- or behavior-based metric (e.g. eye tracking or cognitive testing), rather than a per se blood or oral fluid limit of THC, is required to distinguish THC impairment from simple exposure.”
To learn more, we urge you to read Jelena Martinovic’s article in the January 13, 2022 issue of Benzinga. As always, her reporting is engaging and on point.
Stats of the Week
This week’s magic number is $423 million. That’s how much the State of Colorado earned in tax revenue from marijuana sales last year, according to the latest market report from the state’s Department of Revenue (DOR).
That’s the word from Robert Davis, writing for The Center Square. Davis reports Colorado has sold more than $2 billion in marijuana through November 2022. That made it the second consecutive year that the state has eclipsed the $2 billion mark. In 2020, the state collected $387 million in taxes from the sales.
Davis also reports that more than $12 billion in marijuana has been sold since legalization in 2014. As a result, in that time the state has collected over $2 billion in taxes.
Granted, billion dollar marijuana sales figures in Colorado may not seem like news. It is, after all, one of the oldest legal cannabis markets in the U.S.
However, we like to point out that $423 million in tax revenue certainly qualifies as “walkin’ around money” and offers yet another reason why a growing number of states are charting their own path to legalization.
If you care to learn more we suggest you read the article by Robert Davis. It appears in the January 14, 2022 issue of Marijuana Moment.
www.marijuanamoment.net/colorado-earned-423-million-in-marijuana-tax-revenue-last-year/
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.
