Yep, weed has been known to have a cooling effect on the body. But how does it compare to cool drinks and summertime treats?
With the heat of summer upon us, it’s getting harder to stay cool. You can dress in lightweight, loose clothing and protect yourself from the sun by slathering on sunscreen, but there is only so much that can be done when it’s this hot.
What we drink, eat, and smoke could influence body temperature, too. Drinking water, eating ice cream, and opening an ice cold beer are some of the most popular ways to cope with high temperature, but how much do they actually help?
Drinking Ice Water to Stay Cool
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The facts about drinking ace water to stay cool are complicated because it kind of works, but the effects are short lived. Plus, the amount ingested makes a big difference.
It seems like sipping on small amounts of cold water gives temporary relief, but that is quickly diminished when the organs warm up the cold fluids. That being said, guzzling a bunch of cold water isn’t a good idea, either, as it could slow down your blood flow. The process of thermoregulation relies pretty heavily on blood flow, so drinking a ton of cold water might negatively affect how the blood deals with heat.
So, stay hydrated, of course, because the body needs water to sweat and sweat is one of the body’s primary ways of cooling down. Just take it a little at a time on a hot day.
Ice Cream on a Hot Day
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Ice cream might be an awesome treat during the summer time, but it doesn’t actually do much to cool the body down. In order to digest high-calorie foods, the body’s metabolism kicks into gear and produces heat as it works.
So, while eating ice cream might make your taste buds happy, and possibly even make you think you’re cooling down, that isn’t the case. When it is all said and done, your body temperature will warm up slightly.
What About an Ice Cold Beer?
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Throwing back a beer on a summer evening feels like quintessential summer experience. The effect it has on your body temperature can be a little confusing.
The body responds to alcohol by dilating the blood vessels in the skin. When this happens, you’re probably going to feel warmer because the surface of your skin will feel warm. What is actually happening is that the dilated blood vessels are releasing heat and helping to cool your core body temperature. So, in spite of the warm, flushed feeling that often follows an alcoholic beverage, you’re actually cooling down.
The Surprising Effect of Weed on Body Heat
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Marijuana can cool the body down and this is thought to happen because of the way THC interacts with a receptor called TRPA-1. This receptor controls important functions, including pain relief and body temperature.
Whether or not it has a cooling effect is a little complicated. There are older studies documenting THC-induced hypothermia in mice, but there is also a study that recorded that a lower dose of THC caused hyperthermia. The belief at this time is that smoking a lot, like enough to get high, will cool the body down. Smaller amounts will likely warm the body up instead.
The research corroborates previous reports that EVALI cases were mostly associated with vaping products purchased on the black market.
States with higher cannabis and e-cigarette vaping use were not tied to higher rates of the e-cigarette or vaping-association lung illness (EVALI) outbreak from last year, a new study found. In fact, most states with legal marijuana access were connected with a fewer number of EVALI cases on average compared to places where it remains illegal.
The study was published in the journal Addiction this week and corroborates previous reports that EVALI was most likely connected to vaping products purchased from informal sources, or on the black market.
Researchers examined data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has confirmed more than 2,800 cases and 68 related deaths from the illness. When the CDC ended its investigation in February when no further EVALI outbreaks occurred, they determined vitamin E acetate was the culprit behind the illness. Often vitamin E acetate is a substance used on the black market to thin vaping liquids and sell products for higher profit margins.
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“If e-cigarette or marijuana use per se drove this outbreak, areas with more engagement in those behaviors should show a higher EVALI prevalence,” study author Abigail Friedman said. “This study finds the opposite result.
“Alongside geographic clusters of high EVALI prevalence states, these findings are more consistent with locally available e-liquids or additives driving the EVALI outbreak than a widely used, nationally-available product.”
Lung injuries from the outbreak were among the lowest in the first states to legalize recreational marijuana access, researchers found. Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and California all saw less than one EVALI case per 100,000 resident (ages 12-64). States with the highest rates of EVALI cases — Utah, North Dakota, Minnesota, Delaware and Indiana — do not permit recreational cannabis.
Some high-prevalence states included those with legal medical marijuana access. However, those states had bans in place on smokable cannabis flower.
“If this policy led some recreational marijuana smokers to switch to vaping THC, perhaps in order to avoid detection, it would have increased their likelihood of exposure to contaminated e-liquids when those came on the market,” Friedman said. “This may have contributed to the higher EVALI prevalence in those states.”
Despite CBD’s popularity, there’s a lot we still don’t know about the compound. Here are 5 things that experts believe CBD can treat.
CBD is one of the world’s most popular compounds, with the market expected to reach $20 billion by 2024. The product is safe enough that consumer can use it out without worrying about any noticeable changes in their behavior. Unlike THC, CBD doesn’t cause any paranoia or head highs (it’s not psychedelic).
Despite the expected growth and popularity of the compound, there’s a lot of mystery that surrounds CBD. Unless you’re a cannabis consumer, involved in the industry, or were introduced to the compound by a friend who knows, odds are people won’t know the effects of the compound and the purposes in which it could be used.
There’s still many unanswered questions about CBD, but out of the studies that have been conducted and the anecdotal evidence of thousands of people around the world, CBD has several perks that could make it a nice addition to your self-care routine. Here are 5 things CBD is good for:
Unwinding
Watching for the sweet, relaxing brain tingles. | Photo by skyNext/Shutterstock.com
CBD is primarily known for its relaxing effects, which can influence people’s mental and physical health. Studies conducted on rats show that the compound is effective at making subjects relax. When taken with THC, CBD is effective at managing the effects of the former, reducing the risk of paranoia, anxiety and other negative side effects associated with THC.
CBD’s second most popular effect is the treatment of different types of pain, whether occasional or chronic. Studies conducted on animals show that CBD can help manage pain and reduce inflammation. “There are also observational studies that ask why people use CBD and if it’s effective, and results tend to be quite positive,” Kevin Boehnke, Ph.D told Michigan Health. “People report using CBD for anxiety, pain, sleep — all things that go hand-in-hand with chronic pain.”
Coping with stress and anxiety
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A large percentage of people started using CBD products as a way of coping with the pandemic and the stress that it causes. A 2019 Japanese study followed older Japanese teenagers diagnosed with social anxiety disorder and concluded that CBD significantly decreased anxiety.
CBD is also non-intoxicating, making it a good option for just about anyone who’s feeling anxious.
Lots of independent and well-known skincare and beauty brands are choosing to include CBD in their products, mostly due to CBD’s effects on inflammation. This feature makes CBD helpful for treating sore and irritated skin or eliminating the stress and pain caused by acne.
Overall health
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Most of the data available on CBD is circumstantial, meaning that it should be taken with a grain of salt. Some people argue that CBD’s effects could be a placebo, since people assume CBD will help whatever ails them. While there’s no way of knowing until there’s more research on the compound, some CBD products have proved to be helpful when it comes to sleep, and coping with pain and stress.
The Gunslinger shares a personal story that’s all too familiar in the NFL: A football warrior overcoming pain with addictive substances only to face a tougher battle off the field than on it.
Brett Favre knows about pain. More than most rational humans, he knows about physical pain. The injuries he accumulated throughout his football career should astound you: torn bicep, broken thumb, concussions, elbow tendonitis, bone spurs in his ankles, severe sprains in multiple limbs, to name a few. In 1995, Pittsburgh Steeler defenders hit him so hard, Favre rushed to the sideline and coughed up blood. He returned the next play, threw a touchdown, and the Green Bay Packers won the game. In a fresh chapter, here is how Brett Favre went from Vicodin addict to CBD advocate.
Sportswriters and announcers couldn’t resist mythologizing him for all that pain. Gutsy, tough, The Gunslinger, as he was called. But Favre also knows how addiction can feed on that type of pain. He battled addictions to alcohol and painkillers while at the peak of his career as a quarterback. At his worst, he downed 15 Vicodin ES pills per night, asking teammates for their subscription allotments to feed his needs. That landed him in rehab for 75 days before the 1996 football season. “I actually got out like two, three days before the start of training camp and we ended up winning the Super Bowl,” Favre told me. “And I’ve never taken a pain pill since.”
Like former athletes before him, Favre has turned to cannabidiol, or CBD, to alleviate lingering pain from pro-sports. He still experiences tendonitis in his throwing elbow and is more active than a typical 50-year-old, biking 120-140 miles a week and training for half-marathons. Initially apprehensive to try CBD, he’s since become the brand ambassador for Green Eagle, which crafts a number of hemp-infused relief creams, roll-on sticks, salves, and other products. When Green Eagle CEO and founder Joseph Smadja met Favre about joining the company, the former quarterback agreed on some conditions — he first wanted to educate people what CBD was and he wanted to share his story.
The first time Brett Favre took Vicodin was in 1992. Green Bay was playing the Philadelphia Eagles in Milwaukee County Stadium, back when the Packers played a couple home games there each year. It was Favre’s seventh start as a quarterback. In the first quarter, he faked a handoff and threw a simple wheel route to teammate Harry Sidney as the pocket collapsed around him. The consequence of that pass was the worst a quarterback could suffer in the 1990s — corporal punishment from Eagles defensive end Reggie White.
White, nicknamed The Minister of Defense and considered the all-time best defensive end by some, walloped Favre’s left shoulder into the ground with all his weight and all of Favre’s weight. White, for context, weighed over 300 pounds. After the play, the announcers thought Favre had injured his ribs the way he held his arm against his stomach. They were wrong. Favre had suffered a third-degree shoulder separation. “Third-degree separation, just to give people an idea, is the worst,” said Favre. “It only goes up to three.”
Favre received a Toradol injection with a numbing agent at halftime. Perhaps the strongest non-steroidal anti-inflammatory available on the market, Toradol was specifically designed to relieve post-operative pain. Studies have compared its effects to morphine and the drug feels like a wave of armor crashing over you, former offensive lineman and cannabis advocate Eben Britton once told me. But NFL teams have abused the drug for decades to keep players on the field, with players often forming a “T Train” before games to receive their Toradol shots, according to former tackle Eugene Monroe.
Photo courtesy of Green Eagle
Toradol kept Favre on the field that day. He led the Packers to a dramatic 27-24 victory with CBS announcer James Brown saying “hats off, great courage” about the first of those heroic performances for which Favre would become known. But the Toradol wore off when Favre and the Packers rode the bus back home. Without the numbing agent, all the pain returned. Favre, despite his gauntlet of withstanding injuries, rates it among the worst pain he felt in his career. “So of course they gave me pain pills,” he said.
Taking those pills felt euphoric. That’s the word he uses — “euphoric.” Favre loved the sensation coursing through his body, even with his shoulder wrapped up and limp by his side. “[My shoulder] felt like when you squeeze a bag of popcorn,” he said. “You could feel stuff crackling and swishing around — but it didn’t hurt. That was the beginning of the end of my addiction process.”
Most pain pills knock people out cold. Vicodin produced the opposite effect for Favre. He fell asleep naturally before 10 p.m. usually but now he transformed into a night owl. He could simply get more stuff done and loved it. Study opposing defenses more, work around the house, you name it.
He would pop one Vicodin per night, then he developed a tolerance, so he swallowed two pills per night. Then four. Then 10. Then eventually 15 Vicodin. Favre thought he had it under control. His secret was safe and hidden. But everyone around him knew what was going on. “You know, at 21, 22, 23, 25 you’re mischievous,” he said. “You almost think you’re getting away with something rather than what is this doing to me and where am I going? Where is it leading?”
“I was in a way over my head taking 15 a night,” he adds. “If I took that right now, I’d probably die. And you as well.”
Favre ultimately entered rehab three times — once for binge drinking and twice primarily for pills. He started 297 consecutive NFL games, a streak never to be broken, and the closest he came to taking pain medication was Motrin or aspirin. It’s the gutsiest act of his storied career.
He doesn’t pitch CBD as a cure-all godsend, as you sometimes hear it marketed. Limitations exist to its therapeutic value, he said, like when someone has a torn ACL or third-degree shoulder separation. He would know. But for the aches and pains every NFL players endures, it works. Rob Gronkowski, Ricky Williams, Monroe, Britton and other former athletes have all endorsed the benefits of CBD.
The latest Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between owners and players didn’t permit current players using cannabinoids to relieve pain and inflammation. “CBD is a promising compound, but the extent of its use in the United States outpaces the level of evidence,” stated a white paper from a pain management committee formed between the NFL and its Players Union. But the latest CBA saw the league drastically loosen its cannabis policies. Players can no longer be suspended for positive marijuana tests, and will only receive tests for the drug during the first two weeks in training camp. Previously, random testing occurred between April and August.
Favre can’t give you an exact answer about the NFL’s resistance to CBD, but compares it to “kind of like convincing your parents that something nowadays is cool,” he said. “No one wears socks up to their knees anymore, Dad. We wear footies…you know what I’m saying?”
To be fair, Favre resisted CBD because he confused it with regular cannabis, fearing it would get him high. He’s since educated himself and believes there’s “a lot of upside with this plant, certainly from a healing standpoint.” Now he wants to educate those who aren’t sure what benefits CBD holds or those who won’t take anything they fear will cause them addiction. Because he understands their fears and wishes someone had given him alternatives like CBD, which he calls “safe,” as an NFL quarterback. He would go back now and tell himself that if he could.
“What I would’ve told my younger and more confident self is to be very, very cautious with anything that has the potential to cause addiction,” said Favre. “Try the alternative methods first. There are alternatives, obviously CBD being one of them, that are not going to give you an addiction or increase your addiction. And I think it really works.”
A stressed out elephant in Poland has been given the compound to help her deal with the death of a loved one.
Anxiety and stress have reached news highs for many amid the global coronavirus pandemic, and that includes a young female African elephant at the Warsaw Zoo in Poland named Fredzia. The turmoil she has faced this year presented an opportunity for scientists to experiment what effect CBD products could have on zoo animals.
Four elephants resided at the Warsaw Zoo until March when the largest female and elder of the herd, Erna, passed away. This caused a period of grief in Fredzie, not unlike what you might experience following the death of someone you love.
“When Erna passed away, everything changed,” Dr Agnieszka Czujkowska, the Warsaw Zoo’s head of Animal Rehabilitation, told the BBC. “I don’t think Fredzia was ready for such a big change.”
When the structure of their group changes, elephants undergo behavior changes that can lead to acting out and disharmonious moments. Months and years can pass before an elephant bonds with a new elder. This transformation shift can cause spikes in stress and anxiety, like it has for Fredzia.
Photo by sasint via Pixabay
Cortisol levels spike when animals experience stress, so scientists took samples of Fredzia’s blood, saliva, and feces to attain baseline measurements in cortisol. They will then administer CBD to Fredzia and monitor whether those cortisol subsequently drop in response to the cannaiboids. The oil given to Fredzia won’t contain any THC, the psychoactive element in cannabis.
“It’s not very potent. The only side effect will be some behavioural changes,” Dr Czujkowska said. “We will have to manage these to achieve the results we want.”
The experiment won’t be completed for two years, but zookeepers expect to expand the experiment to include rhinos and bears. This isn’t the only experiment focused on how CBD impacts animal behavior. Earlier this year Texas A&M University researchers announced they were testing the effect CBD had on horses dealing with anxiety and arthritis.
When there’s a Zoom outage, people turn to Pornhub. Who’s surprised?
Zoom, perhaps the most utilized app throughout this pandemic, experienced a six hour outage on Monday morning. Although the bug wasn’t widely reported and is nothing noteworthy, it did affect people all over the globe, particularly throughout the U.K. and eastern coast of the United States.
According to Pornhub statistics, instead of using other apps to communicate with coworkers, friends and family, Zoom users utilized this time to watch porn.
During the outage, Pornhub traffic across the U.K. increased by 5.6% and U.S. traffic increased by 6.2%. While these numbers don’t sound like that big of a deal, in total, these two countries constitute almost half of Pornhub’s daily traffic, which adds up to a significant amount of clicks for the site.
Photo by Ethan Miller/Staff/Getty Images
“To calculate traffic increases, our statisticians compare the average level of traffic from the same hours of the day, and day of week over the preceding 3 weeks,” reports Pornhub.
These stats aren’t a rarity. In fact, outages on other social media apps tend to also trigger a spike in Pornhub traffic. In 2019, when Facebook and Instagram were down, Pornhub experienced a 19% traffic increase.
Giuliani sparked the match that lit a bonfire while Harris has used her power to put out whatever flames she caused. You decide who was a bigger opponent to cannabis.
Since Joe Biden announced Kamala Harris as his presidential running mate, opposition that includes notable Trump advisors have attacked her complicated cannabis history. Few have denounced her marijuana record more repeatedly or more vociferously than former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
This is curious. Describing Giuliani as cannabis friendly is like calling great white sharks cute and cuddly. Still Giuliani has eagerly accepted the attack dog role on cannabis against Harris. He is determined to make this a thing.
I finally succeeded in getting the number of words in my convention speech below the number of small time Marijuana smokers Comrade Kamala put in prison.
But who was a harsher Drug War advocate and who caused more damage pursuing cannabis arrests: Rudy Giuliani or Kamala Harris? We ran a number crunch to find out.
Rudy Giuliani
According to Giuliani, he and his “get-tough” policies saved New York City from itself. He “brought down crime more than anyone in this country — maybe in the history of this country — while I was mayor of NYC,” the former mayor proclaimed at the 2007 GOP presidential debates in Orlando.
City crime rates did decline substantially during the 1990s when Giuliani was mayor. Violent crimes dropped by more than 56% in New York and property crime fell by 65% as well, the National Bureau for Economic Research reports. Nationally, violent crime only lowered 28% and property crime by 26% in the same timeframe.
Giuliani ascribes his success to “broken windows” policing, which believes that by aggressively pursuing low-level disorder and misdemeanors, it will limit the number of larger infraction and crimes possible. “Obviously murder and graffiti are two vastly different crimes. But they are part of the same continuum, and a climate that tolerates one is more likely to tolerate the other,” Giuliani said at 1998 press conference.
Later research has drastically questioned what role “broken windows” policing played in lowering crime in New York, if at all. Instead, what we know is that Giuliani’s policies led to dramatic increases for marijuana arrests, which disproportionally affected Black residents. A 2007 paper co-authored by Bernard E. Harcourt, a political scientist, and Jens Ludwig, an economist, reported that misdemeanor arrests for publicly smoking cannabis per precinct jumped from 10 per year to 644 annually between 1993 to 2000. In 2000 alone, NYPD arrested more than 51,000 people for cannabis-related offenses.
Black Americans were more than 50% of those cannabis arrests, though they only represented around 25% of the population. If arrested for cannabis, convictions were twice as likely for Black suspects than white ones.
The paper’s authors argue there is “no good evidence” any of this was “associated with reductions in serious violent or property crimes in the city. As a result, New York City’s marijuana policing strategy seems likely to simply divert scarce police resources away from more effective approaches that research suggests are capable of reducing real crime…. If anything, it has had the reverse effect.”
Photo by Scott Eisen/Stringer/Getty Images
Kamala Harris
Here’s how Giuliani responded the day Harris became the Democratic vice presidential candidate:
“She went after 1,500 marijuana smokers — marijuana smokers, not people selling it — smokers. And then when she was asked if she smoked marijuana, she went ‘ha ha ha ha yea.’ Tell me this isn’t a horrible person,” Giuliani said while mocking someone puffing a joint.
“All the politicians in San Francisco, all of [former Mayor] Willie Brown’s friends, they went free, but she went after marijuana smokers,” Giuliani added. “Tell me this isn’t a horrible person.”
Until Harris entered the U.S. Senate, she opposed cannabis reform. In 2010, she co-authored a voter guide arguing against a recreational marijuana legalization initiative, calling it “flawed public policy.” Four years later, Harris laughed in a reporter’s face when asked about legalizing recreational cannabis in California. A 2019 Washington Free Beacon investigation reported that as California Attorney General, Harris sent 1,560 people to state prisons for cannabis offenses between 2011-16.
As a Senator, she has frequently called for decriminalizing cannabis nationwide and sponsored important reform bills like the MORE Act and Marijuana Justice Act. She labeled the “whole war on drugs […] a complete failure” and called for federally legalizing cannabis during her 2020 presidential candidacy.
Making marijuana legal at the federal level is the smart thing to do and it’s the right thing to do. Today, I’m announcing my support for @CoryBooker’s Marijuana Justice Act. pic.twitter.com/cOh3SjMaOW
— Vice President Kamala Harris Archived (@VP46Archive) May 10, 2018
Since joining the Biden campaign, she told ABC News that under their Administration there will be a “policy that is going to be about decriminalizing marijuana.” On the other hand, a federal grand jury indicted Giuliani associates last year for allegedly bribing state politicians in reward for retail cannabis licenses.
Who was worse?
Giuliani’s policing approach eventually led to what the New York Civil Liberties Union described as “The Marijuana Arrest Crusade in New York City.” Between 1997 to 2006, there were 353,000 cannabis possession arrests in New York. In the two decades prior, there was a combined 60,000 such arrests.
While Giuliani isn’t entirely to blame for those total figures, he sparked the match that lit the bonfire. In 2010, NYPD made 50,300 arrests for marijuana possession. New York spent $75 million pursuing marijuana arrests and jailing mostly young people in 2010, according to Drug Policy Alliance figures. Between 1997 and 2010, New York’s cannabis policing cost taxpayers $500 million to over $1 billion, the organization calculates, as NYPD made over 530,000 marijuana possession arrests in those years.
All that is part of Giuliani’s “broken windows” policing legacy.
Harris, while wrong as a California prosecutor, has since used her power to put out whatever flames she caused and many others. You decide which politician is hypocritical and which is not.
A news study shows that COVID-19 prompted many to turn to Google for some self-diagnosis during lockdown.
Mental health has been one of this year’s most popular topics, for an abundance of reasons. The pandemic, the fact that it’s an election year, global warming and the overall state of the world are topics that affect even the most laidback of folks. These events have triggered a lot of mental health fluctuations, from anxiety and depression to thousands of people Googling the symptoms of panic attacks.
A new study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, says that there was a record high number of Google searches for panic and anxiety attacks during the peak of the pandemic. These conditions are known for the ways in which they trigger instant “fight or flight” responses in our bodies, making people feel like they’re having a stare off with a wild bear instead of simply reading emails in their house, which is what they’re most likely doing. These panic and anxiety spikes produce physical responses, triggering uncomfortable symptoms like rapid breathing, increased heart rate, sweating and more.
The study reports that some of the most popular queries entered in Google were “am I having a panic attack,” “signs of having a panic attack,” and “anxiety attack symptoms.”
Photo by Tonik via Unsplash
Searches peaked when national guidelines were rolled out in the U.S. between March 16 and April 14. There was a similar trend globally, with people searching for panic and anxiety attacks during the months when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic.
The Huffington Post spoke with psychotherapist Joshua Fletcher, who also claims he saw a spike in COVID-19 related questions from clients. He says that more questions came when lockdown measures were lifted compared to when they were enforced. People became more anxious as people “didn’t have the rigid guidelines to fall back on,” he said, telling HuffPo he’d get as many as 40 queries a week in April and May compared to the 5-10 he’d get pre-lockdown.
Panic attacks are not all that common, usually affecting people once or twice in their lives, making it unlikely that everyone who’s Googling symptoms is experiencing actual panic or anxiety attacks. Still, the rise of mental health issues during the pandemic is one that should be kept under close surveillance. Perhaps for many years to come.
The DEA’s rule could have a major chilling effect on the Hemp CBD industry or the fast-growing delta-8 THC market.
On August 20, 2020, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued an interim rule on hemp, hemp-derived CBD (Hemp CBD) and other hemp-derived cannabinoids. Frankly, the DEA’s interim rule on hemp-derived cannabinoids is bad for the industry.
According to the DEA, “[t]he interim final rule merely conforms DEA’s regulations to the statutory amendments to the [Controlled Substances Act (CSA)] that have already taken effect, and it does not add additional requirements to the regulations.”
If you’re in the hemp derivative business, trust the DEA at your own peril. While it is true that the 2018 Farm Bill did legalize hemp, hemp derivatives, hemp extracts, and cannabinoids in hemp, it did not explicitly cover hemp processing. I recently wrote about this regulatory gap and you can see it on an infographic here.
The regulatory gap that skips over hemp processing is relevant to understand the danger of the DEA’s interim rule and how it is inconsistent with the 2018 Farm Bill.
The 2018 Farm Bill defines hemp as the plant Cannabis Sativa L. with a delta-9 THC concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis. The 2018 Farm Bill also defines hemp to include all derivatives, extracts, and cannabinoids of hemp. It is undeniable that the hemp plant and hemp derivatives, extracts, and cannabinoids are no longer controlled substances. It would then logically follow that it is legal to process the hemp plant into legal derivatives, extracts, and cannabinoids. The DEA’s interim rule however, does not take that into account.
Here is the dangerous language from the DEA’s interim rule:
[The 2018 Farm Bill limits] the definition of marihuana to only include cannabis or cannabis-derived material that contain more than 0.3% delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (also known as Δ9-THC) on a dry weight basis. Thus, to fall within the current CSA definition of marihuana, cannabis and cannabis-derived material must both fall within the pre-[2018 Farm Bill] CSA definition of marihuana and contain more than 0.3 percent Δ9-THC on a dry weight basis. Pursuant to the [2018 Farm Bill], unless specifically controlled elsewhere under the CSA, any material previously controlled under Controlled Substance Code Number 7360 (marihuana) or under Controlled Substance Code Number 7350 (marihuana extract), that contains 0.3% or less of Δ9-THC on a dry weight basis—i.e., “hemp” as that term defined under the [2018 Farm Bill]—is not controlled. Conversely, any such material that contains greater than 0.3% of Δ9-THC on a dry weight basis remains controlled in schedule I.
In order to extract cannabinoids from hemp, hemp plant material must go through an extraction process. This extraction process almost certainly results in a temporary increase in Delta-9 THC. As cannabinoids are isolated it is nearly impossible to control the levels of delta-9 THC from increasing through that process. This means that under the DEA’s interim rule, the processor would be in possession of a schedule I substance, even if the processor dilutes the end product down to the requisite level of 0.3% delta-9 THC or destroys any delta-9 THC by product.
Photo by Nastasic/Getty Images
To be clear, the DEA is not just saying that an end product cannot contain more than 0.3% delta-9 THC. It takes a bad-faith reading of the 2018 Farm Bill to assert that delta-9 THC-rich products derived from hemp are no longer controlled substances. For example, if a processor extracted delta-9 THC from hemp and sold it as a delta-9 THC isolate, it would be hard to argue that the 2018 Farm Bill exempted that product from the CSA. And if the DEA were only saying that end-use products could not contain more than 0.3% delta-9 THC, that would be fairly uncontroversial. The 2018 Farm Bill clearly indicates that it is not removing intoxicating delta-9 THC from the CSA after all.
But here is the issue: the 2018 Farm Bill does account for hemp derivatives, extracts, and cannabinoids. It follows that the legislative intent was not to make processing hemp into extracts, derivatives, and cannabinoids a violation of the CSA. The DEA has either unintentionally or deliberately failed to account for this nuance and it could have a major chilling effect on the Hemp CBD industry or the fast-growing delta-8 THC market. I’ll let you decide whether the DEA is ignorant or nefarious, but I believe that this is an intentional move by the DEA to maintain its authority over cannabis. To be fair I also think the DEA should be disbanded so maybe I am biased.
Regardless of the intent behind the rule, it does create real criminal risk for anyone who processes hemp. If you are concerned about this you can submit comments to the DEA until October 20, 2020 at http://www.regulations.gov/. The interim rule is effective as of August 21, so it is currently the law of the land despite still being open for comment.
We will continue to monitor for any enforcement actions taken by the DEA and will continue to write about the DEA’s rule and its impact on the hemp industry, including Hemp CBD and hemp-derived delta-8 THC.
In cannabis, unionization is frequently seen as a way for a business to demonstrate legitimacy, however, not all companies are supportive of unionizing efforts.
With unionization becoming ever more common in the cannabis industry, Labor Day 2020 provides an opportunity to take a closer look at the state of cannabis labor unions in the U.S.. Across industries, labor unions organize members and offer access to group health insurance, provide legal compliance and other assistance, help negotiate annual raises and higher wages, and often provide discounts through partner businesses.
The International United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW- working not just in the representation of businesses, but advocacy, coalition-building, and policy change), is regarded as the most powerful cannabis union in the country, initiating a Cannabis Workers Rising Campaign in 2010. As of March 2020, UFCW represented more than 10,000 workers in 14 states.
United Cannabis Workers, which “unionized as an independent workers union made up of small business owners, self-employed workers, and employees of small cannabis businesses”, eschews “old school union tactics” while holding a significant place in the cannabis union landscape. This landscape is differentiated from that of other industries in that it normalizes companies disclosing the fact that their employees are organizing. In cannabis, unionization is frequently seen as a way for a business to demonstrate legitimacy, however, not all companies are supportive of unionizing efforts.
Michigan
In January of this year, controversy broke out over proposed labor union laws for cannabis businesses in Michigan, put forward by the state’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency. The proposal included a requirement that cannabis companies enter into “labor peace agreements” with unions before being licensed to grow, sell, or distribute cannabis. This suggested rule was met with significant opposition by industry groups and businesses, many going so far as to claim the measure thinly disguised political favor and a protection racket. This June, Michigan’s pro-union “labor peace agreement” requirement was stripped out of the proposal after a deluge of negative feedback.
Many who oppose labor union laws such as these claim a violation of The National Labor Relations Act, which guarantees private-sector employees the right to form labor unions and gives unionized employees the right to strike and bargain jointly for working conditions. Opponents see labor peace agreements as “a pretense to use industry licensing to impose forced union dues on workers in violation of federal labor law.”
Photo by Artem Beliaikin via Unsplash
Supporters argue that labor peace agreement requirements result in a more stable workforce for the cannabis industry. In New York and California (where cannabis labor unions are required) cannabis industry workers are commonly acknowledged as ripe for exploitation by unethical businesses and therefore in need of union protection, while companies in states such as Michigan and Massachusetts have pushed back against unionization efforts. New England Treatment Access, one of Massachusetts’ largest cannabis companies, has been on the receiving end of numerous complaints filed by UCFW alleging anti-union efforts and retaliation against workers.
In July, about 60 New England Treatment Access, (NETA) workers in Franklin, Mass., voted to join UFCW Local 1445. With so much at stake and so much still unresolved in the cannabis regulatory sphere, cannabis labor unions and industry companies will no doubt continue this dance of compromise and conflict for many Labor Days to come.
Also in July, the Cannabis Workers Union said that 40 workers from Mayflower Medicinals joined UFCW Local 1445 because they were concerned about insufficient wages, as well as an unclear and slow response to workplace safety issues by the company in relation to the current COVID-19 health crisis, and a lack of respect by management for the work that they do at the company’s grow facility. Mayflower Medicinals is owned by iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. (OTC:ITUHF).
“As the cannabis industry continues to grow in Massachusetts, UFCW Local 1445 is proud to support these good jobs and the responsible employers that empower their workers in this new part of our economy,” said UFCW Local 1445 President Fernando Lemus. “These workers at Mayflower/IAnthus are an important role in the company’s success and they deserve the protections and security of a union contract.”
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Vireo Health Supports Unions
In January this year, Vireo Health International, Inc. (CNSX: VREO)(OTCQX: VREOF) announced that its workers at its wholly-owned subsidiary, MaryMed, LLC voted overwhelmingly to ratify a Collective Bargaining Agreement and officially joined the ranks of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 27 (UFCW27).
The company said that the three-year agreement would be the first medical cannabis union contract ratified in the State of Maryland. The contract would cover employees working in Vireo’s 20,000 square-foot Hurlock, Maryland-based manufacturing facility, which supplies precisely formulated medical cannabis products to third-party dispensaries throughout the state.
“As a ‘people-first’ business, Vireo is deeply committed to our employees and we are proud to be a union employer in Maryland and beyond,” said Kyle Kingsley, M.D., CEO of Vireo Health. “Our workforce is key to our company’s success and we look forward to partnering with UFCW to support legislation, such as legalizing adult-use cannabis, that will help create thousands of new middle-class jobs across Maryland.”
