Welcome to Senior Cannabis Digest. This week we look at the changing product preferences of women who use cannabis, treating chronic illness with cannabis-based medicine, the reasons why rescheduling is taking so long and much more. Enjoy.
Cannabis Stats of the Week
This week’s magic number is 29 percent. According to the researchers at New Frontier Data, that’s the percentage of women who use cannabis who have expressed a preference for non-flower products, such as edibles or tinctures. Only 15 percent of the men polled expressed a similar interest.
These findings reflect what the folks at New Frontier Data refer to as “an intriguing shift in the preferences of cannabis consumers, particularly among women.” In their most recent article they held that in 2023, there was a noticeable increase in the percentage of individuals favoring non-smokable cannabis products, rising from 17 percent to 21 percent.
In the article, the researchers noted that these findings suggest there’s a growing market for non-flower cannabis products among women and a potential shift away from traditional smoking methods. They also argued that dispensaries could benefit by expanding their product offerings to better serve this segment of the market, specifically by including more non-smokable options, such as edibles, tinctures, and topicals.
The research also showed that 27 percent of men and 19 percent of women said they only consume cannabis flower.
To learn more about how the consumer market for cannabis is evolving, we urge you to read the article, “Beyond the Bud: The Rise of Nonflower Cannabis a Growing Trend Among Women.” It appeared in the March 19, 2024 issue of Cannabis Insights, a publication of New Frontier Data.
As always, the research findings from the folks at New Frontier Data are clear, on point and useful.
newfrontierdata.com/cannabis-insights/beyond-the-bud-the-rise-of-nonflower-cannabis/?
Treating Chronic Illness with Cannabis
Findings from a new study offer more support for the idea that medical treatment that includes cannabis products can improve the quality of life for individuals dealing with chronic conditions.
Recently, a German research team conducted a survey of patient-reported outcomes (PRO) on the effectiveness of cannabis medical products for the journal Copeia.
A standardized questionnaire was administered online nationwide in dialogue form over a 15-week period to collect itemized symptoms and PRO. A total of 1,582 participants were recruited through pharmacies, prescribing physicians, and patient associations. Criteria for inclusion in the survey included being treated with cannabis medical product therapy.
The most common feature of the individuals who participated in the study was that they were dealing with some form of chronic illness. The six conditions most frequently described by participants were pain (71 percent), sleep disturbance (64 percent), stress/tension (52 percent), inner restlessness (52 percent), depressive mood (44 percent) and muscle tension (43 percent).
When participants were asked to provide a subjective assessment of the impact treatment with a cannabis-based medicine has had on their condition, 84 percent of respondents said their quality of life improved significantly because of the treatment.
To read an abstract of the study, which appeared in the March 7, 2024 issue of the journal Copeia, click on the following link.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38451340/
A Few Thoughts on Cannabis and Rescheduling
If, like many, you are wondering why the rescheduling of cannabis at the federal level—from a Schedule 1 drug to a Schedule 3 drug— is proceeding at a pace that might best be described as glacial, consider the following.
What we are getting to witness in public is a full-on policy battle—some might call it a turf war— between two institutions that have different missions and two very different views of the world.
For example, the mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is “to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans, by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services.”
On the other hand, “The mission of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is to enforce the controlled substances laws and regulations of the United States and bring to the criminal and civil justice system of the United States, or any other competent jurisdiction, those organizations and principal members of organizations, involved in the growing, manufacture, or distribution of controlled substances appearing in or destined for illicit traffic in the United States; and to recommend and support non-enforcement programs aimed at reducing the availability of illicit controlled substances on the domestic and international markets.”
Clearly, these two mission statements represent very different views of how best to serve the public when it comes to regulating access to cannabis products—one based on enhancing the well-being of Americans, the other on enforcing the controlled substances laws and regulations of the United States.
Add in the fact that institutions don’t like to be pushed around and know that once they surrender control of a particular piece of their domain, they will never get it back, it’s easy to see why the DEA is reluctant to do what HHS has requested, which is to move cannabis from a Schedule 1 to a Schedule 3 status—particularly since that “ask” has become public.
We suspect this conflict will not be resolved until Dad— in the form of President Biden—steps in and forces these siblings to play nice and get something done.
It’s not personal, just business. More news as more news develops.
Cannabis Quote of the Week
“All the diverse effects of legalizing recreational marijuana may not be clear for a number of years, but one consequence has become evident almost immediately – Weed has never been so cheap in America. The retail price of a gram of cannabis dropped 13 percent to $9.43 in Q3 of 2022 from $10.83 in the same period the previous year – the steepest fall ever seen for marijuana in a 1-year period.
In some cases, legalizing cannabis has caused its prices to drop by up to 90 percent, when compared with prices during prohibition. At the peak in the 90’s, you could get $6,000 a pound for indoor OG Kush in California. Right now, farmers are reportedly getting $600 a pound for that very same strain. Notably, even high taxes on legal marijuana don’t keep the legal price anywhere near what it was when the drug was more broadly illegal.”—Sultan Khalid
Mr. Khalid’s comment is taken from an article he penned for the website Survey Monkey. In his article, Khalid offers a detailed analysis of the cannabis industry in America, the effect of legalization on prices, and the growing cannabis-based pharmaceutical industry.
In his article, he makes the following observations:
• The United States of America is the country that buys the most “weed” in the world. More specifically, he notes that the annual revenue of the industry was estimated at $31.8 billion by the end of 2023, growing to $50.7 billion by 2028. The increasing legalization of cannabis and rising acceptance of its use for medical purposes are the key factors driving the growth of the market.
• Legalizing the plant also opens doors to more innovation. Khalid gives the example of growers who figured out that they could trick the plant into flowering early by depriving it of light by covering plants with tarps and creating ‘longer nights’. He contends the practice of light deprivation has revolutionized cannabis cultivation and consumers will now be able to have the best products year-round and pay very low prices for it.
• He believes the $7.2 billion acquisition of GW Pharmaceuticals—maker of a cannabis-based drug to treat epilepsy— by the global biopharma giant Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc (NASDAQ:JAZZ) is a sign of the growing legitimacy and increased receptivity of cannabis-based drugs in the pharma industry.
Khalid thinks the same can be said for Pfizer Inc.’s entrance into the medical cannabis industry by betting on what has been described as a promising cannabinoid-based bowel disease treatment.
He closes his article by listing the five states where cannabis is, in his words, “the cheapest.”
They are:
No. 5: Montana —$266.23 per pound.
No. 4: California — $258.88 per pound.
No. 3: Colorado — $241.49 per pound.
No. 2: Washington—$233.93 per pound.
No. 1: Oregon—$210.19 per pound.
You can learn much more by reading Sultan Khalid’s informative and entertaining article. While it was originally written for Survey Monkey, it also appeared in the March 18, 2024 issue of YahooFinance.com under the banner Insider Monkey.
finance.yahoo.com/news/20-states-cheapest-weed-america-192830411.html
Cannabis Corner
In its own way, the fact that cannabis remains illegal but tolerated at the federal level and legal, to various degrees, in 38 states, provides consumers with a lesson in both federalism and market dynamics.
Some states, such as Illinois and Colorado, seem to have followed a Goldilocks approach, creating a regulatory environment for the production of cannabis that’s “just right.” Growers are able to provide enough material to legal retailers to meet consumer demand in a way that is safe and profitable while providing the state with a revenue stream in the form of taxes—all without a surplus of product that could drown the market.
However, there are other states, such as New York, that have legalized recreational cannabis but can’t seem to get out of their own way when it comes to bringing product to market in a timely and profitable manner.
In fact, the cannabis market in New York is in such a sorry state that the budget recently approved by the New York Senate allocates $128 million to aid the state’s struggling cannabis industry, introducing financial support for farmers and tax adjustments amidst criticism over the slow rollout of the market.
You read that right, New York is taking steps to support cannabis growers.
That’s the word from TG Branfalt, reporting for Ganjapreneur. According to Branfalt, the budget includes $60 million for cannabis farmer loans, $40 million for grants through a new Cannabis Farmer Relief Fund, and $28 million for refundable tax credits for cannabis farmers who lost money due to the state’s slow market rollout.
O tempora, o mores.
Said state Sen. George Borrello (R) on the senate floor, “We are now three years into where we have passed the legalization of recreational marijuana in New york state – three years now this month. We are now proposing a bailout for pot farmers of $128 million. … Somehow New York state has managed to screw up pot. I don’t know how that happens, but we did.”
Borello represents the 57th district, which takes in the counties of Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Genesee, Wyoming and part of Allegany County in New York State.
Branfalt also reported that the budget includes a proposal backed by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) to replace the state’s potency tax on cannabis products with the phase-in of a permanent rate for the new wholesale tax and a repeal of the tax on medical cannabis products.
You can learn more by reading TG Branfalt’s excellent reporting in the March 18, 2024 issue of Ganjapreneur.com.
www.ganjapreneur.com/new-york-senate-budget-includes-128m-to-support-cannabis-farmers/?
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.
