Welcome to Senior Cannabis Digest. This week we look at cannabis and presidential politics, Snoop Dogg’s weather forecast on “The Today Show,” J.D. Vance promoting an unfounded rumor and more. Enjoy.
Cannabis and Presidential Politics
Mature consumers and others are getting a chance to show their support for the presidential candidate of their choice at cannabis dispensaries in Arizona. TG Branfalt, writing for Ganjapreneur, reports that Curaleaf dispensaries there are selling election-themed cannabis flower strains named after the Republican, Democratic, and Green Party candidates for U.S. president.
According to Branfalt, the strains are called Kamala Kush, for Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris; Donald OG, for Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump; and Space Jill for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
In an interview, Curaleaf representative Luke Flood told the Fox News affiliate in Phoenix, “This is a fun industry and we tried to have as much fun as possible with this from an ideation side of things.”
Added Flood, “So all three are testing right now around 29.5 percent. We want it to be a relatively clean slate and with all being a hybrid dominance, it depends on the palette, from the flavor profile side of things, but overall would people refer to you know, the flavor profile, being a little bit on the earthlier side, cheesy, zesty potentially.”
Earthy, cheesy and zesty. Everything a voter could want from a presidential candidate and more. We suspect this is one recount voters would sign up for.
To learn more, we encourage you to read TG Branfalt’s article in the October 16, 2024 issue of Ganjapreneur.com.
Pop Culture Corner
Few things have demonstrated the normalization of cannabis in pop culture as the public career of rapper, actor, community activist, product spokesperson, cannabis advocate and Martha Stewart’s BFF—the Zelig of cannabis—Snoop Dogg.
Now, thanks to that most mainstream of all morning television programs—”The Today Show”— he can add “freelance meteorologist” to his list of accomplishments.
Snoop recently visited “The Today Show ” where he was welcomed by the program’s resident weatherman, Al Roker, who led him to a specially constructed weather map of the U.S.
Snoop then proceeded to crack wise about the forecast for several cities that carry what some might think are cannabis-related names, such as Weed, California, Stoner, Colorado, Blunt, South Dakota, Roach, Missouri and, of course, Pottsville Pennsylvania.
It appears that advertisers have determined that when it comes to cannabis, consumers are already voting with their wallet and the early-morning appearance of Snoop Dogg chuckling about cannabis on a network TV show is no big thing. Actually, it’s more like a “G thing.”
If the federal government doesn’t catch up with public sentiment soon, legalization may end up being an afterthought. Except, of course, for those pesky court dates and fines.
Special thanks to Desiree Day for sending the clip our way.
To watch Snoop Dogg’s appearance, just click on the following link.
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/snoop-dogg-plays-marijuana-meteorologist-on-the-today-show-delivering-forecasts-for-real-cities-like-blaze-kentucky-and-stoner-colorado/?
Cannabis, Seniors and Mental Health
According to a new study, having cannabis legally available improved self-reported mental health among people aged 65 years and older who participated in the study.
So says Ben Adlin, reporting for Marijuana Moment. According to Adlin, the study found that for people 65 and older, living within 30 minutes of a dispensary “decreased the probability having a poor mental health day in the past month by about 10 percent,” which the authors pointed out was “a 3.5 percentage point decrease from an original probability of roughly 36 percent.”
Issue of causality and correlation aside, the authors of the study, the Libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, wrote in their research brief, “What may explain our finding that medical cannabis availability improves the self-reported mental health of people aged 65 and above? Likely pain relief. Cannabis is a good treatment for chronic pain caused by nerve disease (neuropathy)—the most common justification for medical cannabis and a common chronic condition among older adults.”
Adlin concurred with their position, writing, “Most 50 and older said they use cannabis to relieve pain, help with sleep, improve mental health and achieve other benefits.”
Adlin also noted that The Cato Institute’s research brief prominently features concerns that the broader proliferation of cannabis legalization and use is happening while science still knows too little about the effects of using marijuana. The brief is based on a working paper from the same authors that was published in May by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
To learn more we urge you to read Ben Adlin’s excellent reporting in the October 14, 2024 issue of Marijuana Moment.net.
Just for the Record
Repeating a rumor countless times doesn’t make it so. Case in point: No matter how often the GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance reports the baseless canard that there’s a widespread trend of black market marijuana being laced with fentanyl, it’s just not true.
That’s a key takeaway from a new federally-funded study that was published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health–Americas. According to Kyle Jaeger, reporting for Marijuana Moment, researchers analyzed nearly 12 million samples of nine types of illicit drugs, including cannabis, from 2013-2023 in an effort to identify trends in fentanyl co-occurrence.
Wrote Jaeger, researchers at Harvard Medical School, Brown University and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that while approximately half of heroin samples contained fentanyl, and there’s been a more recent uptick in fentanyl being found in stimulants such as methamphetamine, that’s not the case when it comes to cannabis.
Said the research team in the article, “Our results show no evidence of widespread fentanyl co-occurrence with cannabis.” Jaeger noted that of the nine drugs that were reviewed, marijuana was the least likely to contain fentanyl.
Unfortunately, despite these findings, Vance continues to tell his tall tale on the campaign trail.
To learn more, including an in-depth look at Vance’s record on cannabis issues, we suggest reading Kyle Jaeger’s work in the October 22, 2024 issue Marijuana Moment.net. As always, his reporting is clear, concise and on point.
Cannabis, Highway Safety and the Law
The Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled that the state can’t suspend a person’s driver’s license just because they have THC in their bloodstream—unless they are actually impaired while behind the wheel.
That’s the word from Jim Small, reporting for the Arizona Mirror. According to Small, the ruling upholds a provision in a marijuana legalization law that voters passed in 2020.
In this case, the appeal was brought by Aaron Kirsten who was pulled over for speeding in 2022. Smalls notes in his article that Kirsten refused a field sobriety test, but when he did take a breathalyzer test, he registered 0.083, slightly above the legal limit, and he was arrested. In addition, while in custody, Kirsten consented to a blood draw, and upon testing the sample DPS found he had tetrahydrocannabinol metabolites in his blood. As a result, the Arizona Department of Transportation suspended his license for 90 days, citing a state law that bars driving if THC metabolites are present.
Kirsten appealed the loss of his license but the administrative law judge said it was “irrelevant” whether Kirsten had smoked marijuana within 24 hours of his arrest and the state DOT didn’t need to prove he was impaired by THC to suspend his license for using it previously.
However, Smalls reports in his article that the appellate court said both rulings effectively ignored voter-created laws that bar the state from punishing drivers who have legally used marijuana products but are not impaired while driving.
According to the appellate court, Smalls writes, the first law says that the state cannot limit “any right or privilege conferred or protected by the laws of this state” for legal use of marijuana. Driving, the appellate court noted, is a privilege under Arizona law, and thus Kirsten’s driving privileges are among the things that cannot be limited merely because he had THC metabolites in his blood.
Secondly, according to the court, Proposition 207 spelled out that the state was allowed to penalize people for driving “while impaired to even the slightest degree” by marijuana, something that wasn’t the case for Kirsten.
Wrote the three-judge panel in its ruling, “Taken together, those two laws approved by voters mean a driver can only be guilty of violating an earlier state law that bans driving with THC metabolites in the blood — even if they’re inactive metabolites and the person is not intoxicated — if he or she is “also impaired to the slightest degree.”
They added, “This reinforces our understanding of the voters’ intent, expressed through their enactment of Proposition 207, that unimpaired driving after consuming marijuana cannot be penalized.”
To learn more, we urge you to read Jim Small’s article in the October 2, 2024 issue of The Tucson Sentinel, which reprinted the article that originally appeared in the Arizona Mirror.
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.
