Welcome to Senior Cannabis Digest. This week we look at a program that trains Veterans to use cannabis to manage pain, adding CBD to cosmeceuticals, tips for home growers and much more. Enjoy.
Veterans, Cannabis and Pain Management
Veterans who suffer from chronic pain may benefit from what’s described as a “novel coaching intervention.” Its objective is to help Veterans get the most out of the medical cannabis products they are using for pain management.
That’s the word from a group of researchers affiliated with the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center at the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI.
The intervention’s design, which is described in an article that appeared in the Journal of Cannabis Research, incorporated input from scientific literature, consultation with cannabis experts, Veteran input via a Community Advisory Board, and basic techniques developed for motivational interviewing.
Motivational interviewing is a counseling style that is described as an evidence-based, person-centered approach that has been tested in other substance use contexts.
Participants were Veterans with chronic pain who endorsed current use or interest in using cannabis for pain management.
In this intervention, 22 participants engaged with trained cannabis coaches (research interventionists with a Master of Social Work degree) to learn how to methodically use self-selected cannabis products for pain management and received personalized, scientifically guided content related to their symptoms.
These participants were adults aged 18 or older who were Armed Services Veterans with self-reported chronic pain lasting three or more months and were interested in using or currently using cannabis for chronic pain management.
According to the research group, among those who completed end of intervention surveys , 87.5 percent were very or completely satisfied with the intervention and 81.3 percent rated coaching as very or extremely helpful.
The participants noted that helpful intervention elements included co-developing a personalized plan for cannabis use, discussing questions/concerns about cannabis, and trying different approaches to cannabis-based treatment.
All participants reported improvement on the PGIC, with 63 percent reporting much or very much improvement. The Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC) reflects a patient’s belief about the effectiveness of treatment. This seven point scale is widely used in chronic pain clinical trials to assess a patient’s rating of overall improvement.
The article describing the study appeared in the January 25, 2025 issue of the Journal of Cannabis Research. To read an abstract of the study or the study itself, click on the following link.
https://jcannabisresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42238-025-00265-z
Notable Numbers
This week’s notable number is one in ten, as in ten percent. According to a new study, that’s the percentage of Americans who say they used CBD, the non-psychoactive component of cannabis, in the last month.
The study, which draws on data from the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an annual federal survey backed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and was published in journal Preventive Medicine Reports, also found that among people who used marijuana within the past 30 days, 40.7 percent also used CBD within that period.
In addition, of those who reported they have ever tried marijuana, 19.1 percent were consumers of CBD during the past month. At the same time, the rates of use of CBD for those who do not use marijuana was much less: non-current users: 5.09 percent, non-past year users: 4.38 percent and never users: 5.09 percent.
According to Ben Adlin, who reported on the study for Marijuana Moment, the study findings suggest using CBD “could lead to increased marijuana consumption” and that “co-use of marijuana and CBD products can lead to significant drug-drug interactions.” At the same time the study also indicates people may use CBD products for therapeutic reasons or as a substitute for marijuana.
The analysis also indicates that women, white people, adults and people who reported either fair/poor health were also more likely than their counterparts to use CBD.
The author of the study, Ji-Yeun Park, a professor at Biola University in California, contends her research is “the first study to date that provide (sic) the prevalence of CBD use in the general United States population and shows its associations with marijuana use status and demographic characteristics.”
Writes Park in her analysis, “It is unknown whether individuals who use marijuana consume CBD to replace marijuana, relieve health conditions, or simply to enhance recreational effects. Further research is warranted to explore and understand the reasons behind the co-use of marijuana and CBD.”
Adlin notes in his reporting that the use of CBD has become much more prevalent since the legalization of hemp through the federal 2018 Farm Bill.
This bill had a number of unintended consequences, one of which was the legal development of a wide variety of hemp-based products containing CBD and, in some cases, THC. However, it should be noted that the FDA has put very stringent regulations in place to prevent the use of CBD as an additive in food and beverage products.
To learn more, we suggest reading Ben Adlin’s article in the February 14, 2025 issue of Marijuana Moment.net.
CBD Spotlight
Given its anti-aging and antioxidant properties, as well as evidence that it may speed the healing of wounds, a new study suggests CBD could be a useful addition to certain skin products.
So says Ben Adlin, reporting for Marijuana Moment. According to Adlin, the authors of the study—who are affiliated with Prince of Songkla University and the National Science and Technology Development Agency, in Thailand—contend that CBD appears to influence a range of skin processes, making it “an appealing natural ingredient for the development of cosmeceuticals.”
Cosmeceuticals are cosmetic products with bioactive ingredients that are said to have medical benefits. The term is a blend of “cosmetics” and “pharmaceuticals.”
Similarly, nutricosmetics are related dietary supplements or food or beverage products with additives that are marketed as having medical benefits that affect appearance.
Adlin notes in his article that the authors wrote, “Overall, we suggest that CBD exhibits many potential characteristics that can be used to develop topical cosmeceutical products, such as sun protection products, hair care products, or wound healing products.” They also noted that low concentrations of the cannabinoid were also not toxic to cells during short-term treatment.
In addition, Adlin points out that the researchers noted that the antioxidant effects of CBD appeared to counteract oxidative stress at the cellular level, which otherwise damages cell components and disrupts their function.
Also, the study’s findings suggest “that CBD influences the expression of key genes involved in all phases of the wound healing process, supporting its potential as a therapeutic agent for skin repair and anti-aging applications.”
Adlin also cites another study conducted by researchers at George Washington University, Northwestern University, the University of Miami and the Center for Clinical and Cosmetic Research and published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, that found that applying CBD-infused lotion to the skin appeared to be tied to a lower risk of damage from exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays.
They wrote that 21 percent of those who used the CBD cream had less damage than the control group that received a placebo. Another 47 percent had comparable damage, and 11 percent showed better results after taking the placebo versus the cannabis lotion.
You can learn much more by reading Ben Adlin’s informative article in the February 13, 2024 issue of Marijuana Moment.net.
Tips for Home Growers
There’s helpful news for mature consumers and others who grow their own cannabis indoors. A few simple steps can help to produce hardy and resilient plants and maximize plant yields.
So says Stoney Tark in an article that appeared in The Emerald Magazine, a cannabis-focused publication. Tark is a journalist who has written a number of articles on cannabis cultivation.
Here are several tips Tark has taken from the expert breeders he interviewed for his article.
• Tying plants down is a straightforward technique that involves using string or gardening wire to lower the highest part as well as the side branches of the plant, allowing it to grow vertically within a few days. This, in turn, produces a wider plant canopy and multiple crown tops, resulting in numerous main colas once the plant flowers. A cola is a cluster of flowering buds at the top of a female cannabis plant.
• Topping is a cannabis training technique that involves cutting off the top of a main stem. The technique is designed to give you a way to create more colas as well as spread out the plant so you can take advantage of all available light. This results in two main growth sites instead of just one. Topping is done by using a clean pair of sterile scissors, a sharp scalpel, or the forefinger and thumb.
• Lolly Popping is a technique that involves pruning away all the nodes beneath the highest point of the plant’s canopy. This can be performed using a scalpel or scissors by carefully slicing away the leaves and shoots. This process prevents small buds from developing once the plant has flowered, while increasing yields. Also, experts say this can be an excellent time to take cuttings and allow cannabis plants to grow top-heavy colas.
• Mainlining is a cannabis training process that can last several weeks and incorporates topping, pruning, and tying down. The result will be a top-heavy canopy that diverts all the plant’s energy to the crown shoots and can be a highly productive way of growing cannabis plants. However, Tark writes in his article that only growers who are familiar with all three training methods described above should perform this technique.
Tark notes that the best time to apply low or high-stress training methods is during the vegetative stage. This is typically when the grow lights are set to 18 hours of light and 6 hours of darkness. The reason is that plants will have more time to recover, and will have not entered the flowering stage.
You can learn much more by reading Stoney Tark’s article in the January 31, 2025 issue of The Emerald Magazine.com.
https://theemeraldmagazine.com/training-techniques-to-maximize-your-indoor-cannabis-yields/?
Consumer Corner
A group of researchers affiliated with the Psychology Department at the University of British Columbia recently took on the daunting task of trying to create a standard by which to measure a dose of cannabis.
Their work, which was published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, starts from the assumption that standard dosing units can be useful tools for regulation, substance use guidelines, data collection, consistency of research, as a means of communicating low-risk recommendations and dose-related effects, and for self-monitoring.
Previously, efforts to standardize a cannabis dose have focused on cannabinoid content without considering tolerance or method of consumption. In this case, cannabis users with diverse motivations for use and varying experience, rated low, medium, and high doses across seven modes of use to create an Index of Cannabis Equivalence, or ICE.
According to the journal article, 1,368 individuals participated in the effort to create the Index. Of that group, 42 percent were female, ages ranged from 18 to 93 and all had a history of cannabis use.
Based on the responses of the participants, the Index of Cannabis Equivalence (ICE) identified the following low-dose cannabis equivalencies: two puffs on a joint, pipe, herbal or concentrate vaporizer is equivalent to one hit on a bong, a 5 mg/THC edible, and ¼ dab of a concentrate.
Now you know.
To learn more, we suggest reading the article that appeared in the January 9, 2025 issue of the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. To read an abstract of the study, click on the following link.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02791072.2025.2449932
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.
