From a medical standpoint, this information could help health practitioners diagnose and support their patients better.
Living alone is preferable for many, but for men, it could spell trouble for their health. According to a new study, men who live alone have a higher risk of inflammation, something that could affect different aspects of their health.
The study was published in the journal BMJ, and it looked at people’s health and their years living alone, analyzing over 4,835 blood samples of people with an average age of 54. Researchers kept track of participants’ breakups since these tend to preclude periods of solo living. While in women researchers found no negative side effects, men showed interesting findings.
“We have found a significant association between partnership breakups or years lived alone and inflammation for men only, after adjustment for selected confounders,” study author Dr. Karolina Davidsen told CNN. Inflammation can refer to a lot of things, but researchers have found connections between it and people’s nervous system, suggesting that stress can trigger this physical response and increase the odds of heart disease and other adverse conditions.
Dr. Davidsen says that while women didn’t report this finding, one reason for this could be the fact that there were fewer women in the study than men.
Living alone for long periods of time is not something that can be easily corrected, so researchers suggest fighting off these possible negative side effects by maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle, like eating healthy and keeping your body moving. Maintaining an eye on your feelings and keeping track of them could also be positive, helping people gauge whether or not they’re feeling lonely, supplementing this with time spent alongside friends and family.
From a medical standpoint, this information could help health practitioners diagnose and support their patients better. Now that there are scientific studies that show evidence that single men are at higher risk of inflammation when compared to other groups, medical practitioners could advise their patients more accurately and build off of these findings.
Vaping sweet spots differ from one user to another. Achieving this phenomenon involves making a raft of adjustments on your vaporizer as well as choosing suitable e-juice.
There is plenty of vaping lingo to learn for any new or aspiring vaper. Some of these terms are relatively basic and not necessarily key to the success of your vaping sessions. However, others must be understood fully before joining in on the vaping craze. What is the sweet spot for vaping, an easy guide to mod setting is provided below.
“Sweet spot” is a common vaping-related phrase that you’ll frequently stumble upon in numerous vape-related publications. But what exactly does this term denote, and how central is it to your success as a vaper? That question shall be the focus of this post.
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What Is right for Vaping
Your sweet spot refers to the point during vaping when you can enjoy an optimal vaping experience. It’s a combination of factors, including implementing specific settings on your vaporizer and choosing the right vape juice. The quality of your vaporizer also plays a crucial role in determining your sweet spot.
Another thing worth noting is that sweet spot varies from one vaper to another. Plus, it depends on your vaping level. Seasoned vapers more commonly experience the phenomenon compared to beginners.
Vape Quality
As we’ve just highlighted, the quality of your vaporizer plays an instrumental role in determining how efficiently you can achieve your sweet spot. With low-quality e-cigs, it’s almost impossible to experience your vaping sweet spot.
Fortunately, there are numerous retail outlets where you can buy the best selling vape juice. While these retailers offer reasonably priced vaporizers, their devices are designed using high-end materials that guarantee an optimal vaping experience.
When looking for quality vaporizers, pay particular attention to brand recognition. Endeavor to find out how famous the brand is and how long they’ve been plying their trade.
It’s also best to check for public reviews from reputable review websites or online community forums. These reviews will offer you a sneak preview of the quality of vaporizers the company deals in.
If you can, also find out the materials used in manufacturing a vaporizer’s components before ordering the device. These materials will typically differ depending on the specific vaporizer part in question.
Photo by Ilias Chebbi via Unsplash
For instance, high-quality vape tanks tend to be made from first-grade titanium. That’s due to the metal’s incredible durability and corrosion resistance.
Kanthal and Nichrome are best for vape coils. These alloys are super heat conductors. Plus, they lack the signature metallic taste, which might impact your vape juice flavors adversely.
When it comes to the drip tip/mouthpiece, glass and ceramic are your best bet. Both materials are poor heat conductors. So, they’re unlikely to burn your mouth while vaping. Glass and ceramic are easier to clean and maintain than other common mouthpiece materials, such as plastic and metal.
There are two significant settings to implement on your vaporizer to achieve your vaping sweet spot. They include airflow and temperature.
Airflow
Decreased airflow results in richer flavors. So, if your idea of a vaping sweet spot mainly depends on the fullness of the flavors generated by your vaporizer, then you might want to experiment with reduced airflow.
However, note that reducing airflow translates to more forceful draws, resulting in a harsher throat hit. The throat hit is a vaping term for the sensation of vapor as it hits the back of your throat.
Besides, reducing the airflow might diminish vapor production. Remember that you need your e-cig to generate a significant amount of vapor to achieve your sweet spot.
So, the convention is to start with standard airflow and then decrease it gradually until you achieve your optimal vaping experience.
Temperature
Many seasoned vapers are already familiar with the concept of Temperature Control (TC). Also known as Variable Temperature (VG), temperature control refers to a practice where you set your vaporizer at a specific temperature mode during your vaping sessions.
Now, the ideal vaping temperature for most people ranges from 390 degrees Fahrenheit to 480F (200C to 250C). But since each vaper is unique, there’s no guarantee that this temperature range will guarantee you an optimal vaping experience. Therefore, you’ll need to experiment with different temperature thresholds until you achieve your sweet spot.
Another thing worth noting is that the temperature control feature is only available in later-generation vaporizers. Earlier-generation e-cigs, such as cigalikes and most vape pens, may lack this feature.
Photo by Christian Wiediger via Unsplash
Sweet Spot and Vape Juice Composition
The composition of your e-juice is another crucial consideration when trying to achieve your vaping sweet spot. Most e-juices contain base liquids (vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol), nicotine, and flavorings.
Each of these compounds plays a significant role in helping you achieve an optimal vaping experience. For instance, vegetable glycerin is noted for its vapor-producing abilities, whereas propylene glycol enhances flavor generation. Cloud chasers generally prefer VG-based e-juices, whereas flavor chasers are more at home with PG-based e-liquids.
Start with vape oils formulated with 60% vegetable glycerin and 40% propylene glycol if you’re new to vaping. Then, adjust as required until you achieve your sweet spot.
Also, note that each vaper has its ideal nicotine tolerance. To achieve your vaping sweet spot, you’ll need to choose e-liquids formulated with the nicotine potency your body is already used to.
Vaping sweet spots differ from one user to another. Achieving this phenomenon involves making a raft of adjustments on your vaporizer as well as choosing suitable e-juice.
In November, taxes for recreational marijuana sales in Arizona totaled around $5.05 million, slightly above medical cannabis tax, which amounted to $5.03 million.
Arizona continues to smash cannabis sales records, with yet another milestone of over $1.23 billion of marijuana products sold during the first 11 months of 2021, Arizona Mirror writes.
After soaring to record highs in October to nearly $58 million, adult-use recreational cannabis sales hit a new peak in November by surpassing $60 million for the first time. On the medical side, after reaching $73 million in March and April, sales fluctuated throughout the year.
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In October, estimated cannabis sales for both programs were within $7 million of each other, representing the first time recreational sales came so close to medical sales. With the state collecting a 16% excise tax on recreational sales in addition to the standard sales tax, cannabis sales provided a solid tax contribution in the previous year.
In November, taxes for recreational marijuana sales totaled around $5.05 million, slightly above medical cannabis tax, which amounted to $5.03 million.
Arizona voters approved the use of recreational cannabis in November 2020. According to the New York Times and The Associated Press, 59.9% of voters in the Grand Canyon State voted “yes” for Proposition 207, dubbed Smart & Safe.
Michigan Cannabis Sales Still Booming
In the meantime, Benzinga’s home state of Michigan ended 2021 with a strong December in terms of cannabis sales, which increased by 66% year-over-year to $168 million.
Medical cannabis sales fell 17% from a year ago, to $32.9 million, according to Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency’s data. Adult-use sales, meanwhile, increased by 119% over the same period to a record $135 million, representing a sequential improvement of 12%.
Flower and trim sales represented 56% of the overall market, consistent with the prior two months but lower than the 57% in the third quarter and 58% in the second quarter.
In addition, flower pricing for adult-use cannabis saw a dramatic decline of 47% year-over-year and 3% from November to $2,958 per pound.
In 2021, year-to-date combined sales were up 82%, reaching $1.79 billion.
The new provisions are expected to help streamline oversight of the industry, reduce violence and help keep children from accessing hemp products containing THC.
As of Jan. 1, Oregonians can legally purchase up to two ounces of cannabis flower from licensed retailers, NORML reports.
In a Dec. 28 meeting, Oregon’s Liquor and Cannabis Commission approved new rules, including doubling how much marijuana customers can purchase and giving the green light to home delivery across city and county lines, among other issues.
Photo by José Antonio Luque Olmedo/Getty Images
The new provisions are expected to help streamline oversight of the industry, reduce violence and help keep children from accessing hemp products containing THC, the agency said.
Last year, lawmakers enacted legislation, Senate Bill 408, allowing the amount of cannabis flower that adults can possess to two ounces and more when they’re in their homes.
The new rules have taken effect on the heels of Oregon lawmakers passing Senate Bill 893 and Senate Bill 5561 last month, with a goal of putting an end to illicit cannabis cultivation by creating better infrastructure to fight the proliferation of illegal marijuana grows in Southern Oregon.
SB 5561, a funding bill, includes $20 million for the Illegal Marijuana Market Enforcement Grant Program and another $5 million to the state Water Resources Department for increased water rights enforcement.
In November, voters in Oregon approved Measure 110, which will decriminalize the possession of small amounts of all illegal drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, oxycodone, methamphetamine and LSD, as well as create a support program for drug abuse and addiction.
Oregonians also voted to approve another measure, which is seeking to create a program for the therapeutic use of psilocybin — the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms.”
Data on the Omicron variant of COVID-19 suggests people become infectious earlier on.
Since the pandemic started, one of the most important questions scientists tried to determine is the moment when infected people become contagious with COVID-19. While all variants work similarly, there are small differences. Have Omicron? Here is when you are contagious.
In the case of Omicron, a variant that’s vastly contagious, scientists have been gathering evidence over the past months to provide an answer, suggesting that people become contagious earlier than in previous variants.
“As we’ve seen these new variants develop – delta, now omicron – what we’re seeing is everything gets sped up from a COVID perspective,” Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady told NBC. “It is taking less time from when someone is exposed to COVID to potentially develop infection. It is taking less time to develop symptoms, it is taking less time that someone may be infectious and it is, for many people, taking less time to recover. A lot of that is because many more people are vaccinated.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people infected with COVID-19 become contagious days before and after their symptoms first appear. In the case of Omicron, AP News reports that this occurs earlier due to the variant causing symptoms sooner than previous versions of the virus. This might also be one of the reasons why the variant is so contagious.
Data suggests that Omicron prompts symptoms three days after infection. This could mean that people could be contagious as soon as a day after they were infected by the virus. In previous variants of COVID-19, people were contagious two to four days after they were first infected.
Once people are contagious, their tests are more likely to come back positive, presenting the chance to catch infections earlier on.
Photo by Mika Baumeister via Unsplash
Dr. Amy Karger, from the University of Minnesota Medical School, spoke with AP News and suggested people test themselves on days three and five after exposure. “A lot of people are turning positive by day three. There’s basically an opportunity here to catch people earlier than you would with the other variants.”
If you’re experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, you should get tested as soon as possible. If you think you were exposed, days three and five after exposure make for great times for testing, providing you with a chance to catch the virus earlier on and prevent its spread.
Maintaining the fiction that professional sports are THC-free is just an act of denial that we can no longer afford.
By Jim Higdon, co-founder of Cornbread Hemp
Drug testing for THC in professional sports is almost dead, as it should be — but not quite. It still lurks in the corners like a zombie, ready to attack anyone who points at it. The NBA has ended random drug testing, but it still has a policy in place for testing players “for cause,” which keeps those players from advocating for the full elimination of drug testing in the league.
The NBA rightly tests for performance-enhancing drugs that would give players an unfair edge, but THC is not a performance-enhancing drug. The only reason it’s banned in sports is because of a falsehood perpetrated by the federal government that cannabis is one of the most dangerous drugs in the world. It is not.
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For decades, sports leagues have done the dirty work of cannabis prohibition by insisting that THC is inconsistent with professional athletics, when nothing could be further from the truth. If the NBA imposed a zero-tolerance policy for cannabis use today, there wouldn’t be enough players for a full game.
Some recent estimates suggest that as many as 85% of NBA players use cannabis, yet the NBA still perpetuates the charade that it runs a THC-free workplace. It does not.
Everyone knows this. But still, the leagues and players are locked in a perpetual dance of keeping up the appearance of the THC ban, where players have every possible opportunity to dodge the consequences of that ban, as long as they don’t speak out.
This wink-and-nod system has run its course. Legal marijuana jurisdictions are no longer the exception to the rule. They are the dominant norm in America today. Every team of every sports league is based in a city with some form of legal THC — even those that play in states with no legal marijuana.
The National Football League has 32 teams. Of those, 14 play home games in a state with legal recreational marijuana, 11 in states with medical marijuana, and seven in states with no legal marijuana — the Cowboys, the Texans, the Falcons, the Packers, the Colts, the Titans, and the Panthers.
Major League Baseball has 30 teams. Of those, 16 play home games in a state or province with legal recreational marijuana, 10 in states with medical marijuana, and four in states with no legal marijuana — the Brewers, the Braves, the Rangers, and the Astros.
The National Basketball Association has 30 teams. Of those, 14 play home games in a state or province with legal recreational marijuana, eight in states with medical marijuana, and eight in states with no legal marijuana — the Bucks, the Hornets, the Mavericks, the Spurs, the Rockets, the Hawks, the Grizzlies, and the Pacers.
The National Hockey League has the greatest exposure to legal cannabis of any league because of the number of teams playing home games in Canada, where cannabis is fully legal. Of the 32 teams in the NHL, 22 play home games in a state or province with legal recreational marijuana, seven in states with medical marijuana, and only three in states with no legal marijuana — the Hurricanes, the Stars, and the Predators.
Photo by skynesher/Getty Images
But here’s the thing: even in the 14 states with no legal marijuana, THC is still legal if it’s derived from hemp. It’s been that way ever since the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. As long as the THC comes from the hemp plant with no more than 0.3% THC and is made into products that also do not exceed 0.3% THC, then that THC is legal.
And while 0.3% doesn’t sound like much THC, it’s enough to show up on a drug test, and that threatens the job security of any worker subject to THC drug testing. That’s not right because hemp-derived THC is legal under federal law — even for the players of the Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Hawks, which are based in states with no legal marijuana.
No worker in America should face consequences for testing positive for a legal substance used outside of the workplace. And it’s not just professional athletes living under this hypocritical cloud. Millions of Americans, from nurses to truck drivers, are afraid of losing their jobs if they test positive for THC after using legal hemp products.
At Cornbread Hemp, our mission is to improve our customers’ quality of life. And these outdated drug test policies against THC are obstacles to that mission. Consequently, we are doing everything in our power to educate and advocate for ending THC testing in the workplace, beginning with professional sports.
We can no longer lie to ourselves about THC. It’s as commonly used as ibuprofen, maybe more so. Maintaining the fiction that professional sports are THC-free is just an act of denial that we can no longer afford.
It’s long past time for sports leagues to acknowledge that their players use THC in ways that do not affect their workplace performance instead of demanding that their players remain silent so that the league can continue its drug testing charade. It’s time to end THC drug testing in professional sports.
Jim Higdon is co-founder ofCornbread Hemp. He is a native of Kentucky, and holds degrees from Centre College, Brown University, and Columbia University. Jim published Cornbread Mafia in 2012, which led to a journalism career covering Kentucky for the Washington Post and cannabis policy for POLITICO.
Marijuana breathalyzers have long been in development, producing no fruitful results. A new study shows a different path.
Researchers have found a non-invasive way of determining whether or not a person has been impaired by THC. This discovery, achieved thanks to a study conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital and published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, could provide an answer for DUIs related to cannabis consumption, providing a pathway in treating these types of situations.
According to The Harvard Gazette, the technique used in the study is called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which measures brain patterns, which researchers then correlated to THC impairment. The device in question would be designed to be portable and noninvasive, allowing people to use it on the go, measuring THC impairment in subjects.
The study had 169 cannabis users consume THC or a placebo and then submit themselves to fNIRS scans. Those who’d consumed cannabis showed higher levels of neural activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain when compared to those who’d consumed a placebo.
“Our research represents a novel direction for impairment testing in the field,” said lead author Jodi Gilman, associate professor at Harvard and investigator in the Center for Addiction Medicine. “Our goal was to determine if cannabis impairment could be detected from activity of the brain on an individual level. This is a critical issue because a ‘breathalyzer’ type of approach will not work for detecting cannabis impairment, which makes it very difficult to objectively assess impairment from THC during a traffic stop.”
Photo by why kei via Unsplash
A cannabis breathalyzer has long been the gold standard that researchers have been working towards. A recent study showed how unhelpful these devices were in measuring THC impairment, particularly because they measure the presence of the compound in saliva, a connection that is inconsistent and not indicative of impairment while driving or operating some kind of machinery.
“Someone who’s experienced with cannabis might show the same levels of THC in their blood as someone who’s inexperienced with it. These two people will likely have completely different responses to the drug and how impaired they are by it,” the Fresh Toast reported in a previous article.
While further study is necessary for devising a product that’s capable of producing these scans on the go, this finding is a necessary first step for preventing roadside accidents and ensuring workplace safety.
Registered patients would be subject to purchase limits that would restrict them to no more than 3.5 grams of cannabis flower, 1 gram of concentrate, or up to 100 milligrams of THC in infused products.
A new bill to legalize medical marijuana was introduced in Mississippi on Tuesday and on Wednesday afternoon, the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee approved the measure by a voice vote. The bill is expected to be taken up on the floor as soon as Thursday, reported Marijuana Moment. A medical cannabis program could start in 2022.
SB 2095, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Blackwell (R), would allow patients with about two dozen specific medical conditions (such as cancer, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, muscular dystrophy, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, hepatitis, Alzheimer’s, as well as chronic medical conditions) to qualify for medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation.
Registered patients would be subject to purchase limits that would restrict them to no more than 3.5 grams of cannabis flower, 1 gram of concentrate, or up to 100 milligrams of THC in infused products. In this regard, Gov. Tate Reeves (R) has said the program should allow only half those amounts. The governor explained his hesitancy in signing the bill on social media:
“The bill allows any individual to get 3.5 grams of marijuana per day. A simple Google search shows that the average joint has 0.32 grams of marijuana. Therefore, any one individual can get enough weed to smoke 11 joints a day. Every day…. That would be 1.2 billion legal joints sold in Mississippi per year. Call me crazy, but I just think that’s too broad of a starting point,” Gov. Reeves wrote on Facebook.
Patients or caretakers would be forbidden from growing their own cannabis. Products from state-licensed companies, meanwhile, would be limited to 30% THC for cannabis flower and 60 percent for concentrates.
Deltacron is the combination of two prominent COVID-19 variants. Here’s what that means and why you shouldn’t stress too much.
Our COVID-19 panic is reaching new heights, to a degree where new diseases and terms are no longer surprising. “Deltacron” is this week’s offering, a COVID-19 variant that is the combination of two pandemic hits: Delta and Omicron. Here’s why you shouldn’t stress out just yet.
Deltacron is the catchy name of a new variant, supposedly discovered in Cyprus, which analyzed a COVID-19 sample that had elements of both Omicron and Delta, resulting in a recombination of variants that might be more dangerous than a regular mutation. While mutation occurs naturally, recombination occurs in a host, when someone catches both variants and the virus replicates itself within the hosts’ cells.
While this description sounds very spooky, according to I News, some scientists have questioned the validity of Deltacron, believing that the researchers’ sample might have been contaminated.
“On ‘deltacron’, there are concerns about the validity of this variant – whether it is real or an artifact of the sequencing technology. We need more data to confirm the existence of this variant and whether it is spreading in the population,” explained virologist Lawrence Young.
While there’s still some evidence that suggests Deltacron might be real, this variant would only become a concern if it’s more transmissible than previous ones, which there’s no way of knowing.
At this point in the pandemic, it’s important to know when to panic and when not to. While new variants likely imply that a new COVID-19 wave is coming, it’s important to have the right sources and the right data, particularly now that so many people are invested in covering every possible permutation of COVID-19.
If claims are made about a CBGA or CBDA product’s ability to block COVID-19, even in light of this OSU report, the FDA will consider that product to be an unapproved drug.
Researchers at Oregon State University have found that cannabigerolic acid (CBGA) and cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) “bind to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, blocking a critical step in the process the virus uses to infect people.”
Yesterday, the researchers published their findings in a research paper, entitled “Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV-2 and the Emerging Variants” available here. According to Richard van Breemen, the leader of the study: “Any part of the infection and replication cycle is a potential target for antiviral intervention, and the connection of the spike protein’s receptor binding domain to the human cell surface receptor ACE2 is a critical step in that cycle,” he said.
“That means cell entry inhibitors, like the acids from hemp, could be used to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and also to shorten infections by preventing virus particles from infecting human cells. They bind to the spike proteins so those proteins can’t bind to the ACE2 enzyme, which is abundant on the outer membrane of endothelial cells in the lungs and other organs.”
While this is certainly exciting news for the hemp industry, remember that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sent dozens of warning letters to manufacturers of CBD products for making medical claims about their products. If claims are made about a CBGA or CBDA product’s ability to block COVID-19, even in light of this OSU report, the FDA will consider that product to be an unapproved drug. This is because the FDA determines what a drug is based on its intended use.
Marketing claims, even those that simply mention a medical study without tying it to a specific product, can result in a product being classified as a drug. In the context of CBD, claims about CBD treating, preventing, curing, or mitigating COVID-19 have been a high priority for the FDA. It is very likely that the FDA will take the same approach to claims made about CBGA and CBDA, even in light of this incredible report from OSU.
Andrew founded the Oregon Cannabis Law Group in 2014 and merged with Green Light Law Group in 2019. He has long been on the forefront of the novel legal issues concerning the emerging cannabis industry. You can contact him at andrew@gl-lg.com or 503-488-5424.
