Welcome to Senior Cannabis Digest. This week we look at support for rescheduling and descheduling, using cannabis to reduce opioid use, tips on when to trim cannabis plants and more. Enjoy.
Notable Numbers
This week’s notable numbers are nine out of ten. According to the cannabis intelligence firm Headset, about nine out of every ten comments submitted to the DEA on the proposal to federally reschedule cannabis either favored the proposed reform or called on the government to go further and remove cannabis entirely from the federal drug schedule.
That’s the word from TG Branfalt, reporting for Ganjapreneur. Branfalt writes that a deep dive into Headset’s analysis of the comments shows that 57 percent of comments submitted favored descheduling cannabis entirely, 35 percent supported rescheduling cannabis, and just 8 percent opposed the reforms, favoring keeping cannabis as a Schedule I drug.
In all, more than 42,000 comments were submitted during the comment period.
Said the analysts at Headset in a statement,“These numbers paint a clear picture: over 9 out of 10 individuals who took the time to comment believe that cannabis should not remain a Schedule I substance. Moreover, the majority of commenters went beyond the proposed rescheduling to Schedule III, arguing for complete removal from the controlled substances list.”
It is important to remember, however, that these are comments and not votes on the proposal. Powerful institutional and political forces still oppose rescheduling and continue to work behind the scenes to prevent it.
Branfalt also noted in his article that many of the comments opposing the reforms appeared to be form letters provided by anti-cannabis groups, such as Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), which on July 15 issued a call to action for its supporters and provided the form letter.
To learn more, we suggest reading TG Branfalt’s insightful reporting in the July 29, 2024 issue of Ganjapreneur.com.
Spotlight on Cannabis
In what might be considered a surprising move by some, the American College of Physicians (ACP) has called for the decriminalization of marijuana possession as well as increased resources to treat problematic use. It also promotes taking an evidence-based approach to medical education around cannabis and its health effects.
Its position is laid out in detail in a report published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
According to Ben Adlin, who covered the story for Marijuana Moment, ACP represents nearly 161,000 internal medicine doctors, subspecialists and medical students and is said to be the largest medical specialty organization in the U.S. with members from more than 168 countries.
Adlin makes the point in his article that some of the issues on which ACP is calling for reform include insurance coverage of evidence-based medical marijuana treatments, improved education for physicians and other health care providers, science-backed policies around delta-8 THC as well as shielding care providers from criminal liability or professional consequences for recommending or dispensing cannabis in accordance with state law.
Said ACP President Isaac O. Opole in a statement about the new policy paper, in which he acknowledges that the legal status of cannabis is changing rapidly, “We need to ensure that regulations are based on a public health approach in jurisdictions where it is legal and that they include consideration of prohibiting use among young people and unsafe use among adults.”
Adlin notes that ACP’s new policy statement comes about a month after the American Medical Association (AMA) formally endorsed drug decriminalization more broadly.
In his article he reports that at its recent annual meeting, AMA delegates voted in favor of decriminalizing cannabis, 345–171. More specifically, they called for the “elimination of criminal penalties for drug possession for personal use as part of a larger set of related public health and legal reforms designed to improve carefully selected outcomes.”
You can learn much more on the policy positions of these two organizations by reading Ben Adlin’s revealing article in the July 25, 2024 issue of Marijuana Moment.net.
Cannabis Corner
A small change in how and when cannabis plants are trimmed can make a big difference in the way cannabinoids and terpenes are concentrated in the flowers of the plant after harvesting.
That’s a key finding of a research team affiliated with the Department of Food Science, Institute for Postharvest and Food Sciences, Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center, Rishon LeZion, Israel. Their work is summarized in an article that appeared in the journal Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoids.
The objective of their study was to identify the optimal trimming conditions for a commercially available medicinal cannabis hybrid chemovar, with the goal of maximizing its cannabinoid and terpene content.
The term chemovar refers to a way to categorize cannabis strains based on one to two dominant cannabinoids plus two to four dominant terpenes, instead of just cannabinoids alone.
The researchers investigated the effects of pre- versus post-drying trimming and evaluated the impact of mild versus aggressive trimming prior to drying on the cannabinoid and terpene profiles using liquid and gas chromatograph.
What they found was that pre-drying mild trimming yielded the highest cannabinoid concentration, possibly due to optimal balance between stress signals and precursor influx from the sugar leaves to the inflorescence. On the other hand, post-drying trimming yielded the highest terpene content.
An inflorescence, in a flowering plant, is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches.
The researchers concluded growers face a decision in their trimming practices: to prioritize either enhanced cannabinoid content or increased aromatic terpene concentrations, as optimizing for both simultaneously appears to be difficult.
Once again, timing is everything.
To read an abstract of the study that appeared in the June 27, 2024 issue of the journal Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoids, simply click on the following link.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39015609/
Cannabis and Opioid Use
A new study by researchers at the University of Southern California indicates using cannabis may help those who want to reduce or eliminate their dependence on opioids.
That’s the word from Kyle Jaeger, reporting for Marijuana Moment. According to Jaeger, the study, which was published by the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports and was partially funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), supports a sizable body of scientific literature that indicates that access to marijuana can offset the harms of the opioid epidemic, either by helping people limit use or giving them an offramp altogether.
During the study, researchers conducted interviews with the participants to learn about how cannabis has affected their opioid use. In his article, Jaeger notes that among the themes that emerged from the interviews was that marijuana co-use “assisted in developing patterns of reduced opioid use in a number of ways: 1) maintain opioid cessation and/or adhere to opioid use disorder treatment by managing cessation-specific symptoms, 2) manage symptoms of opioid withdrawal episodically and, 3) decrease opioid use due to low barrier accessibility of cannabis.”
Jaeger makes the point that the research team contends there are two key harm reduction implications from their findings.
First, they concluded that distributing marijuana via peer programming can significantly influence opioid use patterns. Second, they said cannabis could be added as an opioid treatment option alongside other existing medication, which “may improve efficacy of uptake and treatment outcomes and goals.”
As one participant, a 26-year-old male, told researchers “[S]ome people can use pot to stay off of it. Whereas doctors will say, ‘Oh no, it’s not true. People that use pot, they’re just jonesing to get high.’ Some people really use weed as a maintenance to stay off opiates. I truly believe that. And doctors need to look into it and start really being okay with that…Marijuana, maybe this is a real thing.”
The researchers also revealed that, “Participants emphasized low barrier access due to legalization and numerous dispensaries as a resource that facilitates co-using cannabis for reduced opioid use.”
As always, Kyle Jaeger does an excellent job of reporting on a complex issue. To learn more, we urge you to read his article in the July 26, 2024 issue of Marijuana Moment.net.
Cannabis Quote of the Week
“Edibles produce a more sustained effect than other methods of cannabis consumption. This is because, when eaten, the cannabinoids (such as THC, CBD, CBN, CBG, THCV) are metabolized and converted by the liver, which is not the case with smoking or vaping.”—Kirsti Palmer.
Ms. Palmer is co-founder and president of Kiva Confections, a line of weed edibles available in gummies, mints, bites and chews. Her comment is taken from a statement she made for an article on edibles by Kathleen Willcox for Paste magazine.
In her article, Willcox makes the point that, “When you eat your cannabis, in other words, you can expect a long-term whole-body effect that will last longer, usually four to six hours but up to 24 if you take a higher dose than your body can process. It can take anywhere between 15 minutes and two hours to kick in, depending on your metabolism, height, weight, the food in your system and your cannabis tolerance.”
Palmer also noted that “For beginners, we recommend starting small with 2.5 mg of THC or less and waiting two hours for the full effects before consuming more.”
To learn more, including how the market for cannabis edibles is evolving into two main camps—high vs. low dose—we urge you to read Kathleen Willcox’s article in the July 25, 2024 issue of Paste.com.
https://www.pastemagazine.com/food/edibles/cannabis-edibles-dosing
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.
