Author: Joy

Editors’ Note: This is an excerpt from our Monthly Playbook. If you would like to read the full monthly playbook and join the thousands of others you can sign up below.

Editors’ Note: This is an excerpt from our Monthly Playbook. If you would like to read the full monthly playbook and join the thousands of others you can sign up below.

Part IV – Community Reported Outcomes

Validating Cannabis Effects

According to a report on the Health Effects of Cannabis (2017 National Academies of Science), Cannabis use has steadily increased over the last twenty years. From many sectors of the population, data on Cannabis use is accumulating. Yet, predictive analysis of Cannabis products has proven elusive. The holy grail of Cannabis retail sales is letting the consumer know what to expect from a particular variety of flower or ingested product. As a solution the Dosing Project sources data from Community Reported Outcomes (CRO) to predict Cannabis effects.

Randomized controlled trials (RCT) require standardized, stable products to be tested against other standardized products. The chemically variable Cannabis is not well suited for RCT.Standardized Cannabis products are rarely consumed by communities. Therefore, RCTs involving Cannabis lack external validity. As well, RCTs are intensive, expensive interventions.

As a solution, the CESC’s Dosing Project attests to the real-world effects of Cannabis products through non-interventional study. The approach reduces costs and increases the speed at which evidence is generated. Additionally, the Dosing Project serves as a precursor to RCT when more specific drug development is indicated.

In earlier analysis, distinct ratios of Cannabis terpene content were used to categorize Type I Cannabis into subtypes (See The Dosing Project, Part III – Cannabinoid Playbook). Cannabis plant aroma and terpene content led to the discovery of two surrogate terpene markers. Subsequently, the Dosing Project turned to open-sourced community reviews from an online Leafly survey. The data from Alethia et al (2019)1 characterized over eight hundred Cannabis samples by evaluating the relationship between their effects, perceptual profiles, and chemical compositions. The authors concluded, “While cannabinoid content was variable even within individual sample, terpene profiles matched the perceptual characterizations made by the users and could be used to predict associations between different psychoactive effects.”

We explored the aggregate of sample results and consumer survey data to quantify the extent that surrogate terpene markers (specifically, the Beta-Pinene: Limonene Ratio Group) might predict effect. In the graph below, the relative outcome of descriptors garnered from the data describes the effect of High Beta-pinene: Limonene Ratio Group Cannabis.

Based on the analysis, energetic, paranoid, and talkative are common descriptors when smoking High Beta-pinene: Limonene Ratio Group Cannabis, whereas relaxed, hungry, and sleepy are associated with smoking Low Beta-pinene: Limonene Ratio Group Cannabis. As a result, we describe an association between word descriptors and Cannabis terpene content. Our initial conclusion that surrogate terpene markers predict the effects from inhaled Cannabis flowers is supported.

The analysis of Community Reported Outcome (CRO) proves useful when Cannabis products are accessible yet require validation. CRO enables product characterization and can be interpreted to predict Cannabis effects. CRO analysis saves time and expense, serving as precursor to traditional Randomized Controlled Trials.

SAFE Banking may soon be available for the Cannabis Industry. The CESC mitigates risks by validating your Cannabis products for banking compliance and scientific underwriting.

The CESC is a non-profit organization that relies on community support for its ongoing investigations. DONATE to Cannabis Science For more information visit the CESC at www.thecesc.org.

1 Over eight hundred cannabis strains characterized by the relationship between their psychoactive effects, perceptual profiles, and chemical compositions Laura Alethia de la Fuente, Federico Zamberlan, Andres Sanchez, Facundo Carrillo, Enzo Tagliazucchi, Carla Pallavicini (2019).

Editors’ Note: This is an excerpt from our Monthly Playbook. If you would like to read the full monthly playbook and join the thousands of others you can sign up below.

By Shaleen Title and Matt Stoller (September 21, 2022)

Consider the history of another major mind-altering product: alcohol. In 1919, the U.S. government banned the sale and possession of alcohol due to moral concerns and an epidemic of alcoholism. Little more than a decade later, confronted with crime and corruption that resulted from Prohibition, the nation reversed course, and Prohibition was repealed.

But the reversal didn’t return alcohol laws to the pre-1919 status quo. Instead, new policies allowed individual states tight regulation over the industry. Most prevented vertical integration, separating retailers, distributors and producers from one another to prevent consolidation, promote open markets and maintain more effective regulatory control over businesses.

Such a framework prevented the emergence of dominant alcohol conglomerates, fostered local control, kept use relatively low and all but eliminated organized crime activity.

After years of corporate lobbying, these protections have ebbed in much of the world; the alcohol industry has reconsolidated, and problematic alcohol use has, in turn, increased. In the U.K., which gradually deregulated its alcohol markets, prices dropped dramatically, and deaths from alcoholism spiked.[2]

Still, alcohol regulation in the U.S. can illustrate novel approaches to avoid monopolies and uplift small businesses.[3] Some states allow exemptions for small beer suppliers to directly reach customers through tasting rooms and direct sales at festivals, for example, and some also allow small wineries to ship directly to consumers around the country, as the recently introduced Small and Homestead Independent Producers Act would allow small cannabis farmers to do.[4]

We can see parallels in our approach to cannabis today. Because of federal prohibition, marijuana is only regulated at a state level.

Read the rest of the article here: https://www.parabolacenter.com/cannabis-legalization-must-address-monopoly-dangers/

Editors’ Note: This is an excerpt from our Monthly Playbook. If you would like to read the full monthly playbook and join the thousands of others you can sign up below.

1 Maryland is likely to legalize recreational cannabis this November. This group is leaving nothing to chance.

2 Cannabis companies are reeling from the market downturn, and they’re slashing jobs and reining in spending to survive

3 Female-led cannabis companies receive ‘fraction of capital’ of male counterparts: Wana Brands CEO

4 The Messy Breakup Behind the Hottest Instagram in Weed

5 Alabama gets 221 requests for cannabis business applications in only 2 weeks

6 Idaho outlawing pet CBD products starting Nov. 1

7 Arkansas Poll Shows Growing Majority Support For Marijuana Legalization Ballot Initiative As Top Republicans Urge ‘No’ Vote

8 California Governor Signs 10 Marijuana Bills, Including Interstate Commerce, Employment Protections And Record Sealing

Editors’ Note: This is an excerpt from our Monthly Playbook. If you would like to read the full monthly playbook and join the thousands of others you can sign up below.

By Alex Halperin, Editor and Publisher

While California’s market remains challenging for many operators, the year’s legislative session ended with Gov. Gavin Newsom signing a slew of industry supported legislation designed to normalize the plant and the business surrounding it.

Of these the most closely watched lays the foundation for interstate trade. The bill, the nation’s second after New Jersey, allows the state to make trade agreements with other states, subject to testing, labeling and other requirements. Though interstate trade likely remains a few years off, and could have unpredictable results, the industry generally applauded the law for creating new markets for California products and potentially influencing federal reforms.

Additional new laws signed by Newsom include:

• A clarification that insurers can offer coverage for cannabis businesses
• A requirement that child welfare workers consider cannabis use by parents the same way they consider drinking and prescription drugs in how they resolve custody disputes.
• Protections for workers who smoke off the clock.
• A ban on doctors discriminating against patients for using MED
• Permission for delivery services to operate in cities which don’t allow cannabis retail and for temporary retail permits on premises which also have alcohol permits. Both of these have the potential to relieve the state’s dispensary shortage relative to other markets

PLUS: Veterinarians can now prescribe MED.

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Editors’ Note: This is an excerpt from our Monthly Playbook. If you would like to read the full monthly playbook and join the thousands of others you can sign up below.