Welcome to Senior Cannabis Digest. This week we look at cannabis consumption at California’s State Fair, an update on supplying cannabis to Martha’s Vineyard, treating schizophrenia with CBD and more. Enjoy.
Travel News and Notes
Mature consumers who like to mix travel with cannabis now have another reason to add California to their destination list—the California State Fair to be exact.
Those who go will find there is more to the Fair than livestock, midway rides and corndogs. Visitors can now smoke’em if they’ve got’em.
In 2022, the California State Fair introduced an educational cannabis exhibit and awards competition to showcase the plant alongside California’s other agricultural bounty, such as wine, cheese, olive oil and craft beer. This year, the event will expand to include a broadened cannabis competition and onsite sales and consumption, bolstering the significant efforts already made to destigmatize cannabis through education, advocacy and access.
Tom Martinez, the state fair’s chief executive officer, told Graham Abbott, reporting for Ganjapreneur, that “onsite [cannabis] sales and consumption in a designated area [would] provide a platform to amplify California’s rich agricultural bounty and facilitate storytelling for farmers from diverse backgrounds and experiences.”
Lauren Carpenter, co-founder of the Embarc cannabis dispensary, also told Abbott that the company is preparing an experimental dispensary site for the 17-day state fair next month.
Said Carpenter, “Hosting cannabis sales and consumption is a groundbreaking milestone in destigmatization by facilitating a deeper connection between consumers and the farmers who cultivate their products with such cards.”
The cannabis exhibition hall for state fair attendees ages 21 and over is packed with educational information about the state’s cannabis history and exhibits of top California brands and farms. Attendees can scan QR codes to learn more about Golden Bear award-winning products, add items to a virtual shopping basket and purchase them at Embarc’s on-site dispensary. The area will feature a 30,000-square-foot consumption lounge, accessible via a designated walking path, to provide attendees over the age of 21 with an opportunity to try winning products from diverse farms and brands from across California.
To learn more, we urge you to read Graham Abbott’s article in the June 19, 2024 issue of Ganjapreneur.com.
www.ganjapreneur.com/california-state-fair-to-allow-cannabis-sales/?
You can also visit the California State Fair’s website to learn more about the cannabis exhibits and awards.
Cannabis Regulations: Martha’s Vineyard Update
In a followup to a story we ran last week, Massachusetts cannabis regulators, in a moment of common sense, have issued an administrative order to allow cannabis companies to transport cannabis products from the mainland to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket islands.
According to TG Branfalt, reporting for Ganjapreneur, the Associated Press reports that regulators issued an administrative order allowing cannabis to be transported from the mainland to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket islands, the Associated Press reports.
However, in what might be described as a typical bureaucratic response to a problem, the order says that any cannabis transported from the mainland to the islands must remain entirely in state territorial waters. That means cannabis cannot be transported via the ferry and must be transported on alternative, approved boats.
The decision comes following a lawsuit by Martha’s Vineyard dispensary Island Time which argued that the ban on transporting cannabis from the mainland to the island is arbitrary and puts an undue burden on dispensaries on the island, who must rely on cannabis grown only on the island. Island Time owner Geoff Rose told the AP that he expected he’d be able to reopen sometime this week. Rose also indicated plans to drop the lawsuit.
Branfalt noted that Ava Callender Concepcion, the acting Cannabis Control Commission chair, told the AP the commission reached out to federal authorities and did not receive any pushback to the plan.
You can learn more by reading TG Branfalt’s reporting in the June 18, 2024 issue of Ganjapreneur.com.
www.ganjapreneur.com/massachusetts-regulators-allow-cannabis-to-be-transported-to-islands/?
Stats of the Week
This week’s magic number is 175,000. That’s the number of convictions for low-level marijuana and paraphernalia offenses Maryland’s Gov. Wes Moore (D) has pardoned in what’s been described as a “sweeping act of clemency.”
According to Kyle Jaeger, reporting for Marijuana Moment, the Governor described the mass pardon as “the largest such action in our nation’s history,” noting that legalization alone “does not turn back the clock on decades of harm that was caused by this war on drugs.”
He added, “We cannot celebrate the benefits of legalization if we do not address the consequences of criminalization.”
Jaeger noted that the pardons cover about 100,000 misdemeanor marijuana convictions and 75,000 paraphernalia cases. The clemency is also being offered posthumously in certain instances.
Eligibility criteria for the pardons under Moore’s order include:
- Convictions for misdemeanor possession of cannabis or misdemeanor use or possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia;
- Convictions for misdemeanor use or possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia were in cases associated with misdemeanor cannabis possession and no other charges were incurred;
- Related disposition of guilty or probation before judgment;
- Charges occurring prior to January 1, 2023, when possession of personal use amount of cannabis was decriminalized.
Jaeger points out that Moore signed the executive order using the Last Prisoner Project’s “Pen to Right History,” which people across the country have used to write letters urging elected officials to take cannabis justice action. The Last Prisoner Project (LPP), is a non-profit dedicated to releasing cannabis prisoners and helping them rebuild their lives.
It is thought by some that the Governor has his eyes on national office and his act of clemency is a step toward building a national profile.
To learn more, we suggest reading Kyle Jaeger’s article in the June 17, 2024 issue of Marijuana Moment.net.
Spotlight on CBD
A study that appeared in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet suggests CBD can be used to decrease cognitive impairments in those with schizophrenia. It also claims CBD can decrease addiction-related cravings in patients with the same condition.
While we welcome this news, given that it is a study based on a relatively modest literature review, and not research, it might be wise to view the conclusions of the authors, while hopeful, with cautious optimism.
In an abstract of the study, the authors—Joanna Maj of Harvard University and Alan N. Francis, of Harvard Medical School—estimated that the burden of schizophrenia affects 20-million people worldwide and drug or alcohol addiction affects nearly half of all schizophrenia patients. They contend CBD can be used to decrease cognitive impairments and THC-induced psychotic symptoms in this population.
The study consisted of a review of 24 articles selected from a larger pool. Literature searches were done using the National Center for Biotechnology Information, PsychInfo, Pubmed, and the American Journal of Psychiatry.
After the review, the authors held that based on the selected articles that they reviewed, the optimal dosage of CBD to achieve the desired results is 600 mg or less for young individuals who were described as being at clinically high-risk for psychosis and 800-1000 mg for standard treatment of schizophrenia. They report that this dose demonstrated a significant reduction in psychotic symptoms and helped to prevent the craving which precedes addiction A dose of 1000 mg was only used for patients with a treatment-resistant diagnosis of schizophrenia.
The authors went on to state that they believe CBD can reverse effects of psychosis and break the craving cycle in addiction. Specifically, when it comes to using CBD to decrease drug-related craving, the authors contend that studies show CBD can be very effective for the at-risk young population, patients with a schizophrenia diagnosis, and even patients with a treatment resistant schizophrenia diagnosis.
That being said, as hopeful as this sounds, these are conclusions based on a very small sample size in terms of a literature review of existing studies and not direct research. We hope this study helps to lay the groundwork for substantial research.
To read an abstract of the study, we suggest reading the article that appeared in the June 10, 2024 issue of The Lancet. Simply click on the link that follows.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4857098 CBD
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.
