Welcome to Senior Cannabis Digest. This week we look at tobacco sales in states that legalize cannabis, how cannabis consumers choose where to shop and what to buy, the lowdown on the term “California sober” and more. Enjoy.
Consumer Spotlight
A new study indicates that when a state legalizes cannabis it’s likely that the sales of tobacco products in that state will slowly go up in smoke.
According to Ben Adlin, reporting for Marijuana Moment, the authors of the study—which appeared in the Journal of Health Economics —concluded that state-level cannabis reforms are mostly associated with “small, occasionally significant longer-run declines in adult tobacco use.”
It’s important to note that they said “associated,” not caused.
Adlin writes that the authors of the study—researchers affiliated with Bentley, San Diego State and Georgia State universities—drew on federal data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) and the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).
Adlin also points out that the research team reported that legalization initially has “a (largely) statistically insignificant 0.5 to 0.7 percentage-point decline in tobacco use,” which includes cigarettes, pipe tobacco, smokeless tobacco and cigars.
However, they also found that three or more years following the adoption of legalized adult use cannabis, “adult tobacco use falls by approximately 1.4 to 2.7 percentage-points.”
Perhaps what is equally significant is what the study did not find. The study did not find that legalization of adult use cannabis leads to an increase in the use of tobacco, nor do researchers believe it is likely to erase the drop in cigarette smoking rates that, “have fallen dramatically since the first Surgeon General’s report in 1964, with rates among male adults dropping from 55 percent to 16 percent and female smoking rates declining from 35 percent to 12 percent.”
In addition, Adlin notes that the researchers also speculated that potential health care cost savings resulting from consumers moving away from cigarettes and toward cannabis “could be substantial.”
To learn more, we suggest reading Ben Adlin’s detailed and insightful reporting in the May 15, 2023 issue of Marijuana Moment.net.
www.marijuanamoment.net/states-that-legalize-marijuana-see-reduced-tobacco-use-study-finds/
CBD and Dementia
Adding CBD to a dementia patient’s treatment regimen can prove to be beneficial when it comes to managing behavioral and psychological problems (BPSD) associated with the condition. That’s a key finding of a study conducted by a group of researchers affiliated with Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Makedonia, Greece.
In particular, the research team wanted to study the effect of CBD on behaviors such as apathy, agitation, irritability, sleep and appetite disorders, and mood disorders.
During the study, a total of 20 dementia patients with severe BPSD were recruited from the database of Alzheimer Hellas. They were then divided into two groups. Ten of the patients were assigned to a group that received what was described as the usual medical treatment (UMT.) The other ten were assigned to a group that for six-months received treatment with a three percent dose of cannabidiol (CBD).
A follow-up assessment was performed using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI), both clinically and by structured telephone interview. The NPI was developed to assess dementia-related behavioral symptoms. It specifically examines behavioral problems such as delusions, hallucinations, agitation/aggression, dysphoria, anxiety, euphoria, apathy, disinhibition, irritability/lability, aberrant motor activity, night-time behavioral disturbances and appetite and eating abnormalities.
The researchers reported that the follow-up assessment with the NPI showed significant improvement of the BPSD in all of the patients who received CBD, and no or limited improvement in the second group, regardless of the underlying neuropathology of dementia.
Based on their study, the researchers concluded that the administration of a three percent dose of CBD to patients with dementia is an effective way of restricting behavioral and psychological dementia symptoms and that healthcare providers and caregivers should consider including CBD in their clinical practices.
While the study showed promise, additional randomized clinical trials with larger groups of patients are needed.
The study appeared in the May 8, 2023 issue of the journal Clinical Gerontologist. To learn more, simply click on the link that follows.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07317115.2023.2209563
Cannabis Quote of the Week
“Running errands for groceries, pet food, toiletries, and other goods is an ingrained part of daily life. We may choose stores because they are convenient for us, because we like the product selection, or because we know the staff can answer our questions. Purchasing cannabis used to be an act of availability, not of convenience. Consumers were often at the mercy of the seller when it came to product availability, price and points of access. With cannabis legalization for adult use now the law in 22 states and 74 percent of the total U.S. population living in a state with adult-use or medical access, the normalization of cannabis for many Americans has resulted in a shift in terms of overall sourcing and what drives consumers to specific dispensaries.“—Dr. Amanda Reiman (Ph.D., MSW)
Dr. Reiman is the Chief Knowledge Officer for New Frontier Data. Her comment is taken from her recent article on the choices cannabis consumers make, based on what she describes as the “normalization of cannabis.”
For example, she notes that the reasons that consumers give for choosing a particular brick and mortar cannabis dispensary often mimic their mainstream consumer choices, such as product quality, product selection, price, knowledgeable staff, and convenient location—the same reasons consumers often give for choosing particular grocery stores (location, price, product selection, product quality, and friendly and knowledgeable staff).
Reiman also notes that according to the 2023 Consumer Survey published by New Frontier Data, in states with adult-use access, 52 percent of current consumers say their primary source of cannabis is a brick-and-mortar dispensary and only 6 percent say their primary source is a dealer. In addition, 29 percent of current consumers in illicit markets say that their primary source is also a brick-and-mortar dispensary compared to 17 percent who say they use dealers. She contends that this means that, even in illicit markets, consumers are willing to travel across state lines to obtain cannabis from a regulated source.
Truly, convenience, quality and predictability are what consumers look for—and that includes cannabis consumers as well.
If you want to learn more we urge you to read Dr. Amanda Reiman’s article, “The Normalization of Cannabis: Product and sourcing choices.” It appears in the May 16, 2023 issue of Cannabis Insights, a publication of New Frontier Data. As we have said before, Dr. Reiman and the other folks at New Frontier Data do excellent work.
newfrontierdata.com/cannabis-insights/the-normalization-of-cannabis-product-and-sourcing-choices/?
Cannabis and Health
It’s taken a while, but it looks like the American Medical Association (AMA) has decided to join the party. According to a new study published by the AMA, the use of medical marijuana is associated with “significant improvements” in quality of life for people with conditions such as chronic pain and insomnia. And, they concluded, those effects are “largely sustained.”
The study was published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Health Policy.
That’s the word from Kyle Jaeger, writing for Marijuana Moment. Jaeger reports that the research the study was based on consisted of a “retrospective case series analysis” that involved 3,148 people in Australia who were prescribed medical cannabis for the treatment of certain eligible conditions.
According to Jaeger, patients in the study were asked to rate their wellness in eight categories on a scale of 0-100 at different stages of treatment. Those categories were general health, bodily pain, physical functioning, physical role limitations, mental health, emotional role limitations, social functioning and vitality.
The researchers found that for all eight wellbeing indicators that were tested, marijuana appeared to help, with adverse side effects that were “rarely serious.
The researchers from the Swinburne University of Technology, University of Western Australia and Austin Hospital wrote, “These findings suggest that medical cannabis treatment may be associated with improvements in health-related quality of life among patients with a range of health conditions.”
Jaeger notes that the most common conditions for which marijuana was prescribed were non-cancer chronic pain (68.6 percent), cancer-related pain (6.0 percent), insomnia (4.8 percent) and anxiety (4.2 percent).
The researchers did write that while the study “suggests a favorable association between medical cannabis treatment and quality of life among patients with a diverse range of conditions,” “further high-quality trials are required.”
We would expect nothing less.
To learn more, we suggest reading the article by Kyle Jaeger in the May 16, 2023 issue of Marijuana Moment.net. As always, his work is clear, concise and on point.
To read an abstract of the study, click on the link that follows.
amanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2804653
Cannabis Trends
Until scientists tell us differently, it’s not really possible to be just “a little bit pregnant.” However, a growing number of mature consumers believe it is possible to indulge in cannabis and still be sober—or at least what they call “California sober.”
The term is also the title of a new song by Willie Nelson—who at 90 is a mature cannabis consumer if there ever was one—and guitar wunderkind Billy Strings. Dan Gentile, writing for SFGate, notes that the song celebrates “a unique approach to sobriety.”
According to Gentile, the term “California sober” generally refers to a lifestyle that excludes alcohol and stimulants, such as cocaine, but still includes cannabis and other psychedelics. He credits the term to Michelle Lhooq, a journalist and author of “Weed: Everything You Want To Know But Are Always Too Stoned To Ask,” who elaborated on the philosophy in a 2019 Vice article.
Said Lhooq in that 2019 article, “Being Cali sober allows me to keep my feet in both subcultures, while its parameters make it easier not to cave to temptation. I am able to take from these experiences what I’m looking for—mind-expansion, self-exploration, empathetic connection, sensorial amplification—without the addiction and selfishness, and other types of ugliness that I associate with many non-psychedelic drugs.”
The song by Nelson and Strings might be considered a testimonial to the wisdom that comes with survival and finding that you can cut yourself some slack without dancing with disaster. While it may not be right for everyone, it is a lifestyle that seems to fit some folks, many of whom might be considered high achievers.
Or, as they sing in the song’s chorus:
“So I’m California sober as they say,
Lately I can find no other way.
I can’t stay out and party like I did back in the day,
So I’m California sober as they say.”
To learn more, we suggest reading the article by Dan Gentile in the May 9, 2023 issue of SFGate. He does good work.
www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/willie-nelson-california-sober-meaning-18082070.php
The quote from Ms. Lhooq is taken from her article in the April 29, 2019 issue of Vice.com.
www.vice.com/en/article/a3xvga/california-sober-quitting-drugs-alcohol-weed
If you care to listen to the song, just click on the youtube link below. We can’t recommend it enough.
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.
