Welcome to Senior Cannabis Digest. This week we look at a beekeeper who says he’s found a way to train bees to make cannahoney, an online training program for those who want to work in the cannabis industry, tips on cutting back on consumption and more. Enjoy.
Bees, Honey and Cannabis
Thanks to a beekeeper in France, the phrase “catching a buzz” may soon have a whole new meaning. It seems the beekeeper, a self-described cannabis activist who calls himself Nicholas Trainerbees, claims that he has trained bees to make honey from marijuana flowers.
According to a story that first appeared in the Mirror.UK, Trainerbees calls the cannabis honey produced by the bees, “cannahoney,” explaining that it’s the result of a “training technique whereby the bees collect the resin and use it in the beehive.” The final substance, he explains, is the work of the bees, claiming they process the cannabis resin in the hive as if it were normal nectar.
Said Trainerbee, “For some time, I had known about the health benefits of bee products such as honey, propolis, pollen, wax and royal jelly, and also about the benefits of cannabis.”
“The bees that produce the cannahoney are not affected by cannabinoids, because they do not have an endocannabinoid system,” said Trainerbees. Essentially, he believes, cannabis is just another form of food for them.
When some skeptics called the story a hoax or unlikely, Mirror News asked the Bumblebee Conservation Trust whether the cannahoney claims were true. Darryl Cox, information officer of Bumblebee Conservation Trust, said, “Bees could collect cannabis pollen, which would potentially be intoxicating…You do find pollen in honey…Having seen the video – the bees are foraging for nectar, which contains lots of secondary metabolites, not just sugar, and could potentially be intoxicating.”
Also, the director of public affairs at the British Beekeepers Association said that it was “entirely possible to train bees to look for certain compounds,” adding that it would just take a lot of time and dedication to do so. Training a bee involves putting chemicals in sugar syrup, so that the bees get a taste for them.
While we can’t verify all of the beekeeper’s claims, the story does offer an alternative explanation for why the queen bee rarely leaves the hive. And no, we don’t know if the cannahoney is commercially available—yet.
Special thanks to the kind and thoughtful Blurtsy Touriotte for sending the story our way.
If you want to learn more, simply click on the link that follows.
livelovefruit.com/cannabis-infused-honey-cannahoney/?
Careers in Cannabis
There’s good news for mature consumers and others who want to pursue a second career in the cannabis industry but don’t know where or how to start.
An institution known as Cannabis Community College (CCC) has launched a new online education platform, which it describes as “one-of-a-kind, teaching every legal state’s educational requirement to work in a licensed marijuana establishment.”
That’s the word from TG Branfalt, writing for Ganjapreneur. Branfalt reports that CCC’s updated platform features its Cannabis Essentials 5 Course Bundle which includes compliance essentials, essential cultivation tips, dispensary essentials, production essentials, and tips on cultivating a career in the cannabis industry.
Said CCC Chairman Christi McAdams, the courses were “developed by some of the top names from several of the largest public and privately held, vertically integrated, multistate operators in the country.”
Added McAdams, “We did this specifically for two reasons: first, to provide leverage to job seekers applying in a highly competitive market where a single job post easily produces hundreds of applicants, and second, to offer employers a simple and streamlined way to train newly hired staff.”
According to Branfalt, the five-course bundle of “essentials” costs $270. Plus, students and course graduates also have access to CCC’s online community, which has various clubs such as the Global Cannabis Industry Networking Group, and live educational webinars.
To learn more we encourage you to read TG Branfalt’s article in the September 21, 2022 issue of Ganjapreneur.com. As always, his reporting is on point.
www.ganjapreneur.com/cannabis-community-college-launches-revamped-education-platform/?
Cannabis Use and Employment Trends
Soon, mature consumers and others in California may be able to breath a sigh of relief, knowing they can’t be fired for using cannabis when they are not at work.
That’s the word from Grace Toohey, reporting for the Los Angeles Times. According to Toohey, Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law a bill that does not allow employers to discriminate against workers who smoke weed “off the job and away from the workplace.” The law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2024. This makes California the seventh state in the U.S. to enact such a law.
More specifically, Toohey noted that the law—sponsored by Assemblymember Bill Quirk (D-Hayward)— prohibits employers from making hiring, firing or other employment decisions based on a drug test that finds “non psychoactive cannabis metabolites” in someone’s hair or urine, which do not indicate current impairment, but that someone consumed cannabis recently, up to weeks prior.
Toohey also noted that Jim Araby, the director of strategic campaigns for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5, called the new law a “victory for all workers.”
Said Araby, “No employee deserves to feel stigmatized and unsafe at work because of an outdated testing method. There are much more accurate, modern-day cannabis testing methods, like oral swabs, that are able to detect recent use and increase workplace safety.”
It should be noted the new law does provide exceptions for those working in building and construction and for people applying for or working in positions that require a federal background clearance.
The law does get at the issues of what constitutes impairment, what is the most accurate way to measure that impairment and how does that impaired state affect an individual’s ability to perform on the job—not to mention what restrictions an employer can place on an employee when not at work.
California’s legal restrictions on employers seems to be an indication this will continue to be an issue for some time, along with the growing trend toward the normalization of cannabis use by adults and how to accurately measure impairment.
To learn more, we encourage you to read Grace Toohey’s article in the September 19, 2022 issue of The Los Angeles Times.
www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-09-19/marijuana-law-california-employment-firing-hiring?
Cannabis Quote of the Week
“I first tried marijuana in the winter of 2014, and it was the only thing that stopped my nightmares and dark thoughts from my four deployments as a Marine in Afghanistan.
The brain injuries I suffered during my career and in an IED blast in Marjah, Helmand Province, in 2010 meant I had to be supervised while cooking, I struggled to get out of the house and I had constant flashbacks.
I tried it after an appointment with a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) psychiatrist who broke the rules.
For an hour, she made me go through the most traumatic moments of my time as a Marine, laid out a suggested treatment plan and then said: “I really shouldn’t be saying this, but I wish I could prescribe you cannabis.”
I ended up smoking with my neighbor and we sat, laughed and watched TV. I saw an infomercial for blue-light-blocking glasses and thought it was going to change the face of the Earth, so I figured I’d had too much, but it made me relaxed and gave me an escape.—Bill Bee
Mr. Bee is a 13-year veteran of the Marine Corps. His comment is taken from an op-ed he wrote for Marijuana Moment in which he describes how his Department of Veterans Affairs doctor broke the rules to suggest he try medical cannabis to treat PTSD and traumatic brain injuries—and it worked.
After leaving the Marine Corps, Bee went on to work as a counselor, teaching service members on how to use their VA benefits. He closed his op-ed with the following:
“I shouldn’t have to risk a drug charge just to get one of the few medications that show actual results. I’m not a criminal and never have been. Outside of some speeding tickets, I take pride in the fact I’ve never broken a law… other than trying to get treatment. My own doctor chose to risk her job simply by recommending a medication that works. It should not be this way.“
Mr. Bee’s op-ed appears in the September 21, 2022 issue of Marijuana Moment.net. He is also the author of the new book, “The Shot: The Harrowing Journey of a Marine in the War on Terror.”
To read the complete op-ed, please click on the link that follows.
Tips on Taking A Break from Cannabis
There are any number of reasons why a mature consumer may find it’s time to take a break from using cannabis or to use less—from a desire to save money to a change in your daily schedule and responsibilities.
At the same time, some consumers find it can be challenging to just up and quit using a substance that they believe contributes to their health and well being.
To help manage the process of cutting back on cannabis consumption, Nadir Pearson, writing for Leafly, offers several tips.
For starters, consider taking tolerance breaks, or what she calls T-breaks. These are short periods of time without cannabis. The point of a cannabis tolerance break is to allow your body to recalibrate its endocannabinoid system (ECS) and help restore the desired effects of your cannabis use.
She contends there are three factors to consider when taking a tolerance break:
- The way you enjoy your cannabis,
- The amount and variation of cannabinoids you are taking in each time you use it,
- How often you are consuming cannabis in a day, week, or month.
According to Pearson, altering any one of these factors can make the process of cutting back on cannabis use easier to manage. For example, if you tend to consume cannabis throughout the day, change to only using it at night. She also suggests switching to products with a lower dose of THC or only using CBD or products that feature other minor cannabinoids.
Pearson says another tip on how to manage cutting back is to switch from smoking cannabis to using topicals and edibles. This can help you manage your desire to use cannabis, while still tackling body pain. It also has the added benefit of giving your lungs a break.
You can learn much more by reading Nadir Pearson’s article in the September 20, 2022 issue of Leafly.com.
www.leafly.com/news/lifestyle/types-of-weed-tolerance-breaks-besides-going-cold-turkey?
Senior Cannabis Digest is compiled and edited by Joe Kohut and John Kohut. You can reach them at joe.kohut@gmail.com and at 347-528-8753.
