Welcome to Senior Cannabis Digest. This week we look at using medical cannabis to address the effects of cancer treatment, managing pain with CDB, the challenges of running a consumption lounge in Las Vegas and more. Enjoy.
Spotlight on Medical Cannabis
Using cannabis can help address the effects associated with undergoing treatment for cancer. While this may sound like a bold assertion, it is a key takeaway from a recent meta-analysis of over 10,000 medical studies.
A meta-analysis is an examination of data from a number of independent studies of the same subject, in an effort to identify overall trends.
According to Graham Abbott, reporting for Ganjapreneur, the study, which was published in Frontiers of Oncology, found that medical cannabis has the potential to help treat symptoms of cancer and may, in some cases, even inhibit tumor growth. The analysis, which reviewed over 10,000 medical cases, is the largest-ever investigation of the interplay of cannabis and cancer.
In his article, Abbott noted that the researchers conducting the study found a “significant majority” of the relevant studies fell predominantly in favor of medical cannabis use.
According to Abbott, the research team was expecting what was described as “a moderate consensus” about the potential of cannabis as a cancer treatment, but that the actual results were closer to three-to-one in favor of cannabis as an effective medical treatment for cancer-related inflammation, appetite loss, and nausea, according to the report.
Said Ryan Castle, research director at Whole Health Oncology Institute and the study’s lead author, “That’s a shocking degree of consensus in public health research, and certainly more than we were anticipating for a topic as controversial as medical cannabis.”
Dario Sabaghi, who covered the story for Forbes, wrote that many of the studies emphasized the role of cannabis in alleviating the side effects of chemotherapy. He made the point that while medical cannabis was consistently supported for managing pain, nausea, and appetite loss during chemotherapy, the evidence for pain relief was particularly strong, showing clear positive correlations and little negative sentiment. He added that nausea and appetite loss showed slightly weaker support, with some variation depending on the cannabis formulation used.
He also reported that one of the most promising findings, said the researchers, is that cannabis might help inhibit tumor growth, encourage apoptosis (cell death) in cancer cells, and reduce inflammation. The topic of its anticancer effects showed no significant opposition in the literature, indicating what they described as a growing consensus, while acknowledging clinical trials are still limited.
The study also revealed that different cancers, such as breast, glioblastoma, and melanoma, can respond differently to cannabis treatments. This, they felt, highlighted the need for personalized cannabinoid therapies and more research into how cannabis affects specific cancer types.
Said the researchers, “Future clinical trials should move beyond generic CBD-based studies to explore the full therapeutic potential of comprehensive cannabinoid formulations, incorporating THC and other cannabis-derived compounds where legally and ethically feasible.”
The reporting by both Graham Abbott and Dario Sabaghi is insightful, revealing and helps to illuminate various aspects of what is a complicated, if not controversial, story. Graham Abbott’s reporting appears in the April 21, 2025 issue of Ganjapreneur.com. Dario Sabaghi‘s reporting appears in the April 21, 2025 issue of Forbes.
https://www.ganjapreneur.com/new-study-finds-medical-cannabis-has-potential-to-treat-cancer/?
CBD and Pain Management
A new study indicates CBD can help patients manage chronic pain even at low dosages, making it what researchers describe as “a promising alternative to conventional pain management strategies.”
So says Ben Adlin, reporting for Marijuana Moment. According to Adlin, the key takeaway from the peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Cureus, was that “the use of cannabinoids is positively associated with decreased chronic pain, even at low dosages (<100 mg).”
The study involved 121 adults aged 21 and older who self-reported as having chronic pain, which is defined as pain lasting six months or longer. Respondents were an average age of 37 years, and 61.2 percent were male. Most—100 people—said their pain had lasted two years or longer, while 21 said their pain had lasted 23 months or less.
The most common causes of pain cited by the participants were arthritis (15.7 percent), disc herniation (14.9 percent), fibromyalgia (7.4 percent), headache or migraine (6.6 percent) and neuropathy (6.6 percent). Participants could select multiple responses.
According to the research team, which included individuals from the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine as well as Firelands Regional Medical Center and NOMS Healthcare, in Ohio, “The average baseline level of chronic pain across participants before CBD was 5.4 ± 1.8, which decreased to 2.6 ± 1.7 (p < 0.0001, n = 121) after CBD, which is a decrease of 2.8 ± 1.7.”
Improvement was reported by 98.3 percent of subjects, while the remainder (1.7 percent, or two participants) reported no improvement at all. Three subjects “reported complete resolution of their baseline chronic pain after CBD,” according to the research.
According to Adlin, individual doses varied widely, but the most common (33.9 percent of respondents) was between 50 mg and 100 mg. After that came sub-50 mg doses (22.3 percent). Four respondents (3.3 percent) said doses were more than 1 gram (1,000 mg).
A majority of respondents (55.4 percent) reported no side effects. Among the side effects that were reported—all of which were mild—drowsiness or fatigue were most common, at 29.8 percent. Another 5 percent reported diarrhea, followed by headaches and cramping each at 2.5 percent.
The researchers concluded “Altogether, these findings may be comforting to individuals concerned about taking pain medication too frequently, at high doses, or about its associated adverse effects. While our research is certainly not exhaustive, it is a clear indication that the possibility of great benefit of CBD treatment exists in treating chronic pain. As such, additional research is warranted to explore this topic further.”
To learn more about this and other studies focused on CBD and pain, we urge you to read Ben Adlin’s article in the April 16, 2025 issue of Marijuana Moment.net. Adlin’s work brings clarity to a complicated story.
Tips on Trips
Mature consumers who are planning to visit a Las Vegas consumption lounge on their next trip to Sin City may have to change their itinerary.
Smoke and Mirrors, the lounge that was located inside the Thrive Cannabis Dispensary has closed after about 14 months of operation. The dispensary operators said they plan to turn the space into a special event venue.
With the exception of Sky High, a consumption lounge operated on tribal land by the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, which is not subject to Cannabis Compliance Board (CCB) oversight, this leaves just Dazed!, which is located inside the Planet 13 Dispensary complex, as the only open state-licensed consumption lounge.
It seems that, at least for the moment, running a cannabis consumption lounge in Las Vegas has not been a winning bet after all.
Not by cannabis alone
According to Howard Stutz and Isabella Aldrete of the Nevada Independent, experts believe there are a number of reasons why the concept of a consumption lounge hasn’t succeeded or sparked the predicted boost to the legal cannabis industry in Las Vegas. They cite stringent regulations, a high financial barrier to entry, and a lack of consumer interest in the model.
Said Christopher LaPorte, a partner of RESET Hospitality, a Las Vegas-based cannabis consulting firm, “What we learned over the past year is that venues open today appeal to a traditional cannabis consumer, and that is not enough for these to be viable businesses. What we’re trying to figure out is how do you make a venue that’s approachable to a larger tourist market and a larger local market.”
La Porte contends that to be successful a “lounge” has to be about more than just consuming cannabis.
Added his partner in RESET Hospitality, Scott Rutledge, “For whatever reason, that business model did not succeed. These cannot be (just) cannabis venues. They need to be hospitality businesses where cannabis is something that you can choose to participate in.”
RESET Hospitality consulted with Smoke and MIrrors before its opening.
The failure of the consumption lounge concept to catch on isn’t just a Las Vegas problem. Said Robin Goldstein, an economist at the University of California, Davis, who studies consumer behavior in the cannabis, food, wine and beer industries and who has visited the two Las Vegas lounges located in industrial areas just west of the Strip, “I haven’t seen consumption lounges succeed in any widespread way anywhere in the country,” “(The businesses) have to be more than just a place to sit around and smoke weed, or else you face the same challenges as anyone who wants to open a bar. You have to have a great concept or you lose your audience.”
For instance, LaPorte told Stutz and Aldrete that venues in Southern California, such as PleasureMed in West Hollywood and Sessions By the Bay in San Diego, have multiple restaurants and bars, along with a dispensary and consumption lounge.
Said LaPorte, “They’re positioned as restaurants and entertainment venues, first, with cannabis as an additional supplemental revenue stream. They have found a lot of success where you include other amenities outside of weed to make it an attraction.”
Rob Hill, editor of Hii Magazine, which focuses on the Los Angeles-area cannabis market, suggested Las Vegas could rival some of the consumption lounges in West Hollywood, which bills itself as the “most cannabis friendly city in America.”
As an example of surrounding a consumption lounge with different venues and amenities he points to the strategy employed by actor Woody Harrelson, who owns a dispensary called The Woods. Harrelson was able to include a cocktail lounge with an address separate from the dispensary and consumption lounge.
Said Hill, “They are like 20 feet apart. West Hollywood is allowing people to do stuff that is different from other cities.”
Hill noted that other communities are starting to catch on and allowing a little more leeway to help their cannabis businesses.
Stated simply, it looks like businesses that want to promote consumption lounges for recreational cannabis in Las Vegas need to pay just as much attention to opportunities for recreation as they do to the consumption of cannabis.
More news as more news develops.
Howard Stutz and Isabella Aldrete do an exceptional job of painting a detailed picture of the cannabis industry in Las Vegas and the challenges faced by those who want to open a consumption lounge. To learn more, we urge you to read their article which appeared in the Nevada Independent and was reprinted in the April 21, 2025 issue of Associatedpress.com.
Investor News and Notes
The world’s leading marketer of branded consumer lawn and garden products has decided, at least for the moment, that cannabis may not be part of its core business after all.
That’s the word from Tony Lange, reporting for Cannabis Business Times. According to Lange, Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. has announced the transfer of its wholly-owned subsidiary, The Hawthorne Collective Inc., to an independent strategic partner.
In his article, Lange noted that the company created The Hawthorne Collective in 2021 as a vehicle to invest in areas of the cannabis industry that are not pursued by its Hawthorne Gardening Co. subsidiary, a leader in cultivation supplies such as lighting, nutrients and other materials for cannabis growers and hydroponic cultivators.
Included within The Hawthorne Collective’s holdings are investments in Fluent, previously Cansortium, a vertically integrated cannabis company with licenses and operations in Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas and New York.
Said ScottsMiracle-Gro Chairman and CEO Jim Hagedorn, “The Hawthorne Collective transaction is the initial step in our plan to move our cannabis-adjacent subsidiaries into a separate and independent company as we further our strategic focus on our core lawn and garden business. For our shareholders, this will reduce the impact of the cannabis sector’s volatility on our company’s stock and provide opportunities to drive meaningful and immediate value creation through increased investments in our consumer business. As we further advance this plan, we next will look to separate The Hawthorne Gardening Co. from ScottsMiracle-Gro by the close of fiscal 2025.
Added Hagedorn, “The Hawthorne companies were intended to capitalize on the legal cannabis sector, but the ability to achieve sustained growth within this industry has been challenged by four years of unkept promises resulting in total inaction at the federal level on cannabis-related issues. President Trump has supported a range of much-needed reforms, from rescheduling cannabis to adoption of the SAFER Banking Act. The actions he has endorsed would accelerate industry growth and increase the value of these investments. Until they become a reality, we believe the Hawthorne companies can be a greater asset within an independent cannabis-dedicated entity, specifically one in which our cultivation supply business can partner with a multistate operator or leading cannabis brands.”
Lange pointed out that under terms of the deal, ScottsMiracle-Gro transferred The Hawthorne Collective to the strategic partner in exchange for an interest-bearing promissory note. The company retains an option to reacquire The Hawthorne Collective or its assets should cannabis legalization and other measures to positively impact the industry be approved at the federal level.
To learn more we suggest reading Tony Lange’s article in the April 11, 2025 issue of Cannabis Business Times.com.
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
