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Author: Johnny Green

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Will The NBA Reform Its Cannabis Policy?

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Business.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is popular all over the globe. What once started as a North American sport has spread across the planet, resulting in the NBA now being comprised of players from countries from all over the world.

Look at any team’s roster and you will see players from a number of different countries, all of which have huge followings in their home countries. Because of that, cannabis policy reform in the NBA would provide a huge boost to cannabis reform efforts in every country that is represented by players in the league.

Currently, the NBA prohibits players from consuming cannabis with THC in it. As calls for cannabis reform in professional sports leagues have ramped up in recent years, along with the explosion in popularity for CBD products, there has been some confusion as to whether CBD is prohibited by major professional sports leagues.

For professional sports leagues that prohibit cannabis, drug testing policies are in place that seek to detect the presence of THC, and not CBD. Some CBD products contain trace amounts of THC, and that could result in a player failing a drug test due to THC build-up, but the failure would be due to the presence of THC, not CBD.

The current drug testing threshold for the NBA is very strict – a mere 15 ng/mL of THC metabolites. To put that number into perspective, Olympic athletes are held to a standard of 150 ng/mL. An NBA player that violates the league’s cannabis policy can be forced into a mandatory drug rehab program, and/or fined, and/or suspended. There are no exemptions for medical cannabis in the NBA.

The NBA commissioner that instituted the cannabis prohibition policy that is currently in place in the league is David Stern. While Stern served as the commissioner of the NBA he suspended players like retired NBA Allstar Clifford Robinson for cannabis use.

In Robinson’s case, he was suspended multiple times by the NBA for his cannabis use and was the recipient of a ridiculous amount of stigma from the league that still lingers to this day. Clifford Robinson was a featured speaker at our event in Portland, Oregon last year.

David Stern has since changed his stance on cannabis and is now calling for the NBA to reform its cannabis policy. Per CNBC:

“I think it’s time to take a whole new look at it,” Stern, 77, said in an interview Wednesday with CNBC at the SeventySix Capital Sports Innovation Conference in Philadelphia.

Stern said his feelings about marijuana have shifted with the recent surge in medical use of THC and CBD — the two main compounds in cannabis — to treat pain, anxiety and other ailments.

“In many cases in sports,” Stern said, “the opioid crisis begins with players being prescribed pills for their pain, and if there is another substance, whether it be CBD or THC that eases pain, then I’m all for it.”

David Stern joins a growing list of people (including regulators and politicians) that have had a change of heart when it comes to cannabis policy but only after they are no longer in a position to directly act on it. To date, David Stern has yet to issue an apology to the players that he punished for their cannabis use, or for any role that he may have played in contributing to the opioid crisis that he mentioned in his recent interview.

The NBA’s anti-cannabis league policy goes beyond just testing for THC. If a player is the subject of a cannabis offense away from the team, such as an arrest for cannabis possession, they can also be punished.

That policy perpetuates institutional racism, which is obviously unacceptable. If a player of color is statistically far more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession in society, and the league punishes players when they are subjected to those situations by law enforcement, then that same player of color is statistically far more likely to be punished for cannabis by the NBA compared to their caucasian peers.

Commissioner Stern may or may not be sincere in his calls for NBA cannabis reform, but regardless, his voice will hopefully provide a boost to reform efforts in the NBA, which will, in turn, provide a boost to reform efforts elsewhere if reform in the league is achieved.

When will the NBA end its harmful cannabis prohibition policy? Hopefully sooner rather than later, however, there is no current timetable for such a policy change. A lot of words have been said by the current NBA commissioner, however, meaningful actions have remained elusive.

Sport cannabis is a new frontier for the emerging cannabis industry, and if leagues like the NBA get on the right side of history, it will open up huge opportunities for players via endorsement deals, for cannabis companies that create products and services that cater to athletes, and ultimately the league itself will no doubt benefit via receiving a sizeable stream of new advertising revenue and revenue from partnership deals from the cannabis industry.

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Would The CBD Revolution Have Occurred Without The Internet?

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Business.

The internet has revolutionized the way people get information, and that is true for cannabis information just as it is for everything else. Positive information about cannabis was purposefully suppressed for many decades around the world for political purposes.

That strategy has become increasingly difficult to carry out because of how easily accessible cannabis information is on the internet. Cannabis advocates can find answers to virtually any cannabis questions and can then disseminate that information all over the web for others to benefit from.

It is likely not a coincidence that cannabis reform victories have paralleled the rise in popularity of the internet. Popularity for CBD has specifically spiked in recent years, and it is likely that the internet has played a huge role in that rise in popularity. Read more about it in our recent article on Cannabis & Tech Today.

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Sir Patrick Stewart Demands Medical Cannabis Legalization

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Medical.

The United Kingdom has one of the most restrictive medical cannabis programs in Europe. Legal medical cannabis access is restricted to only the most extreme medical cases and conditions, and even then, the forms of medical cannabis that are available to patients are very limited.

Famed Star Trek actor Sir Patrick Stewart has become increasingly vocal in his demand for medical cannabis legalization in the UK, as demonstrated in a recent interview. Stewart suffers from arthritis. Per Express:

“”I have arthritis in both my hands and thumb joints and have been prescribed various drugs, including a cream which didn’t do much. The moment I started using cannabis-based cream it worked and I could feel an immediate reduction in discomfort.”

Sir Patrick Stewart is just one of many patients that experience relief after using cannabis to treat arthritis. It is estimated that as many as 350 million people suffer from arthritis across the globe. A vast majority of them are only provided the option of using harmful (and often addictive) painkillers, or going without medicine, or breaking the law by using medical cannabis.

Cannabis has proven to be an effective pain management tool and is far safer than most pharmaceutical drugs. Opioid-based painkillers have wreaked havoc on society over the years, including in the UK, and the fact that opioids are legal in the UK while medical cannabis remains largely illegal makes no sense, as Patrick Stewart pointed out in his interview:

“It seems perverse that opioid prescriptions are still at such high levels when medical cannabis could be a much safer and more cost-effective alternative. I have been given steroid injections for the pain in the UK. Last year I had eight injections into my fingers and knuckles which is about as painful as anything one can imagine.” Stewart said according to the interview.

Stewart is one of the most recognizable celebrities in the world and has a massive fanbase. Hopefully, his advocacy will help tip the scales in support of comprehensive medical cannabis legalization in the UK.

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Israeli Researchers Link Cannabis Use To Weight Gain In Cancer Patients

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Science.

Significant and rapid weight loss is a serious issue for cancer patients and is often one of the first signs that a person is suffering from cancer. Common cancer treatments usually make the problem worse because they often contribute to further weight loss by the patient.

It is estimated that as many as 100 million people worldwide were suffering from the disease as of 2017, which is more than double the number of people diagnosed with cancer in 1990.

The results of a recent study suggest that the use of cannabis oil may be able to help cancer patients gain weight. You can read about it in our recent article at Cannabis & Tech Today.

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Cannabis Legalization Effort Delayed In Mexico

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Politics.

Last year the Supreme Court of Mexico ruled that cannabis prohibition is unconstitutional.

In effect, it somewhat made Mexico the third country to legalize cannabis for adult use. The first country to do so was Uruguay, followed by Canada.

Unlike Uruguay and Canada, Mexico has yet to pass legislation that codifies adult-use cannabis legalization into law.

After its ruling in favor of legalization last year, Mexico’s Supreme Court issued a deadline for lawmakers to pass a comprehensive legalization measure.

Unfortunately, Mexican lawmakers were unable to meet the deadline. Fortunately, they were granted an extension, as reported by Marijuana Moment:

“Just days before the one-year anniversary of a Mexican Supreme Court ruling that deemed the country’s prohibition of personal use or cultivation of marijuana unconstitutional, the judicial body granted an extension of a deadline it imposed on lawmakers to change the policy.

The legislature now has until April 30, 2020 to pass reform legislation, whereas the previous mandate required action by Thursday.”

Mexico will be a massive domino in the effort to end cannabis prohibition worldwide. It is not so much due to Mexico’s population size as much as it’s due to Mexico’s history.

It is no secret that cartels have had a major presence in Mexico for many years. Legalization would shift some cannabis revenues away from cartels and towards legal entrepreneurs and public programs.

The unregulated cannabis market will always exist in Mexico, just as it will likely exist everywhere else to some extent. 

However, every dollar that can be shifted away from cartels to a regulated market that benefits Mexico’s citizenry is a big deal and why legalization is so important in Mexico.

A recent estimate by a ruling party Senator in Mexico projected that legal cannabis would generate up to 18 billion pesos ($945 million USD) for public programs in its first year.

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Canada: Seniors Are The Age Group Showing The Most Growth In Cannabis Usage

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Business.

For decades people were inundated with anti-cannabis propaganda all over the planet. That unfortunate phenomena still exists in many parts of the world, however, an increasing number of countries are choosing to reform their cannabis laws.

Canada is one of those countries, having been home to a large medical cannabis community for a while now and having become the first G-7 nation to legalize cannabis for adult-use last year. Uruguay legalized cannabis for adult use prior to Canada doing so, however, it does not have as robust of a regulated cannabis industry as Canada does.

The stigma is fading in Canada now that people are seeing that the sky hasn’t fallen post-legalization.

Typically the older a person is, the less likely they are to support cannabis reform and/or personally consume cannabis, and while that’s still the case in Canada, seniors are now the fastest-growing cannabis consumer age group according to data recently released by Statistics Canada:

Cannabis use is less common among seniors than it is in other age groups (7%, compared with 10% at ages 45 to 64, 25% at ages 25 to 44, and 26% at ages 15 to 24). However, cannabis consumption among seniors has been accelerating at a much faster pace than it has among other age groups. For example, in 2012, less than 1% of seniors (about 40,000) reported using, contrasting sharply with estimates from 2019 indicating that more than 400,000 seniors have used cannabis in the past three months.

The increasing popularity of cannabis among older adults has also contributed to an increase in the average age of cannabis users, which has risen from 29.4 years in 2004 to 38.1 in 2019.

The data released by Statistics Canada demonstrated that 27% of the consumers in the senior age group were brand new cannabis consumers. The data also demonstrated that seniors were less frequent users compared to younger age groups, that they were more likely to use cannabis for medical reasons compared to other age groups, and that they were much more likely to exclusively make their purchases from legal sources.

Cannabis stigma has been much more prevalent in decades past, which is reflected in this data. Younger consumers were not subjected to as much reefer madness as older generations, and so it’s not a coincidence that younger people are more likely to have consumed cannabis than older citizens.

But as the stigma continues to fade and seniors share their positive cannabis experiences with other seniors, the consumption rates for the senior age group will continue to rise, which is not a bad thing at all.

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Which Conditions Are Receiving The Most Medical Cannabis Reimbursements In Germany?

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Medical.

The cannabis plant is one of the most versatile plants on earth. It has the power to feed, the power to clothe, and the power to heal. A growing number of suffering patients are turning to the cannabis plant to help treat their condition, including in Germany.

Since 2017, doctors in Germany have had to report medical cannabis information to the German government. It’s a requirement whenever German doctors prescribe medical cannabis that’s covered by statutory health insurance and thus is eligible for reimbursement.

The requirement to provide data makes it very easy for the German government to publish statistical data since the data is readily available. Germany recently disclosed the health conditions that have received the most reimbursements as of September, a summary of which can be found below along with what percentage the condition represents from the data set:

  • Pain (70.9%)
  • Spasticity (10.8%)
  • Anorexia (6.9%)
  • Epilepsy (1.6%)
  • ADHD (1.5%)
  • Tourette Syndrome (1.0%)

The remaining 7.3% is comprised of ‘other’ non-specified conditions. As you can see from the data, pain is the most likely condition to receive medical cannabis reimbursements in Germany by far, although that doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily the only condition that those patients suffer from.

It could be that using cannabis for pain management is really popular in Germany, but it could also be that pain is an easier condition to qualify for and that pain is a symptom of a number of other health conditions.

Many patients in Germany could very well suffer from multiple health conditions yet chose to only qualify for medical cannabis for pain management reasons. Rather than go into great detail with their doctors and be subjected to a number of tests, they can simply establish that they are suffering from pain and that cannabis helps.

This survey data that was released by BfArM involved 6,538 patients, although that’s not to say that there are only that many medical cannabis patients in Germany. German doctors are required to report the data only after the patient has received reimbursements for a full year or ‘as soon as treatment is interrupted.’

The number of patients involved in the study will increase over time. The requirement to participate in the data survey will continue until March 2022.

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The German Cannabis Market Is Projected To Reach $16B By 2028

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Business.

Germany is home to the largest legal cannabis market in Europe, which is not surprising given the fact that Germany has the fourth-largest economy on the planet. Germany’s population is more than twice that of the state of California.

In addition to Germany’s medical cannabis industry expanding, lawmakers in Germany are reportedly exploring the idea of legalizing cannabis for adult-use. Obviously, if that happens Germany’s legal cannabis industry will increase in size dramatically.

How big will Germany’s legal cannabis industry get? A new projection has been released by Prohibition Partners in regards to Germany’s cannabis industry, and it involves an eye-popping figure. Read more about it in our recent article on Cannabis & Tech Today.

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The Cannabis Industry Is Giving Old Security Technology New Life

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Business.

Technology is an evolving thing in virtually every industry on the planet, and security technology is no exception. Facilities have become high-tech and have incorporated surveillance and biometric technology that is like something straight out of a James Bond film.

The technology revolution in the security industry, combined with changes in public policy and an increased reliance on the internet, has resulted in many correctional institutions and financial facilities going vacant.

In years past those types of facilities would have been bulldozed and replaced with more modern structures. However, thanks to the cannabis industry those facilities and the basic security features that they possess are being given new life.

Read about how former prisons, banks, and other secure facilities are being put to use by the emerging cannabis industry in our recent article on Cannabis & Tech Today.