October 14, 2015

Medical Cannabis Sees Overwhelming Support in Key Swing States

Support for legalizing medical cannabis in the bellwether states of Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania is at or near 90%, according to a Quinnipiac poll released on October 8.

Support for legalizing medical cannabis in the bellwether states of Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania is at or near 90%, according to a Quinnipiac poll released on October 8. With 87% of Florida voters, and 90% of voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania approving of medical cannabis it is easy to see why most industry experts predict that both Florida and Pennsylvania will have medical cannabis laws on the books by the end of 2016 - indeed the Pennsylvania legislature may pass a bill before the end of this year.

Though support for medical cannabis is incredibly high in Ohio the state is not predicted to pass a medical cannabis law soon because the ballot initiatives projected for 2015 and 2016 are for fully regulated personal use for all adults over 21. The Quinnipiac poll also offered some numbers for each state regarding legalization of personal use.

Florida

Florida voters are narrowly in favor of legalizing personal use of cannabis at a rate of 51% in favor to 45% against. Men were more likely to be in favor (57%) than women (49%). It's unsurprising that the 18-34 age demographic showed the highest support (66%), though it is a bit surprising that the 50-64 age group showed higher support (55%) than the 35-49 range (52%). Voters 65 and over remain the only demographic still opposed to the legalization of the personal use of cannabis for adults at 56% against.

Ohio

Ohio voters support legalization of the personal use of cannabis at a rate of 53% in favor to 44% against. Men are more likely to support full legalization (59%) than women (47%). The age breakdowns, when compared to the 53% approval rate, reveal the greying of the state. 70% of the 18-34 age group in Ohio supports the full legalization of cannabis along with 59% of voters aged 35-49. Only 50% of voters aged 50-64 would vote for personal use, and again voters over the age of 65 are the only age group opposed to legalization with 64% against.

Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania voters are still narrowly opposed to full legalization with 49% of voters against and only 47% in favor. Once again, men are more likely to support legalization (52%) than women (43%). Voters 18-34 are the most in favor (66%) followed by the 35-49 demographic (51%). The 50-64 age bracket in Pennsylvania is largely undecided about the legalization of the personal use of cannabis with 48% in favor and 47% against, and the 64% of voters 65 and over are opposed.

It's important to note in all of these cases that even though the numbers are very close in all three states, 65% of respondents reported that if cannabis were legalized for personal use they would not personally consume it. This means that a significant percentage of voters that are in favor of legal cannabis don't even have an interest in consuming the product. Whether it be because of the social justice aspect, the extra tax revenue legal cannabis brings, the monetary savings from not prosecuting and incarcerating non-violent consumers, or the efficacy of medical cannabis, voters in swing states are beginning to favor legalization even if they have no direct personal stake in the matter.

Political pundits often look to polling in these three states to try and predict the outcome of national elections and to spot national trends. This isn't necessarily because these states are policy leaders, but rather that the opinions and moods of these states represent the median of the country - populations that are equal parts conservative and liberal. With approval ratings like these from the American middle the next few years should be very exciting for legal cannabis.

July 16, 2015

Marijuana Consumers Going From Green to Grey

While the common idea of a marijuana consumer is the stereotypical stoner – young, unattached, irresponsible – the spread of legalization combined with recent medical research has led to a greying of the traditional cannabis demographics. Though younger generations are pushing marijuana into the mainstream, older Americans are beginning to shake off the effects of Reefer Madness and are coming around to the benefits of marijuana.

According to a recent Pew Research poll, support for full marijuana legalization among Baby Boomers has reached 50%, quickly approaching the approval rating held by Generation X.

“My story is the story of so many people who use each day. And so what? What’s the issue? What will it lead to?”

Certainly there are some people that have been consuming consistently through their lives despite legal and social prohibitions, like Catherine Hiller who recently published a book recounting a lifetime of smoking marijuana. A smoker for the better part 50 years – taking breaks for pregnancy – Hiller sought to break the taboo associated with the drug by telling her story of a life lived mostly normally.

“I wanted to show people that smoking marijuana did not make me hit rock bottom,” Hiller, 68, said. “My story is the story of so many people who use each day. And so what? What’s the issue? What will it lead to?”

Yet more of this cannabis resurgence is made up of folks that smoked recreationally in their youth and gave it up as they prioritized career and family. Alec Tyson, senior researcher of the Pew study, puts it this way: “Lifecycle is part of it. They went from young adults to parents and adults with family and the times had something to do with it. There was the famous war on drugs under the Reagan Administration and the 1960s and 1970s were a different time in this country than the 1980s. The political climate of the country and rhetoric coming from leaders has some impact."

“They’re like kids in a candy store. They come in and they’re, like, 55 and they’re blown away by the options.”

Now that the war on drugs is waning – with general support increasing across demographics and with decriminalization and legalization spreading throughout the country – these smokers are returning and finding a market unbelievably more robust than the one they left. “They’re like kids in a candy store,” said Alison Ledden, marketing director at The Farm, a dispensary in Boulder, Colorado. “They come in and they’re, like, 55 and they’re blown away by the options.”

Still other older consumers are seniors interested in the medicinal possibilities that have been unveiled in the last two decades. As a pain reliever, and as a treatment for a whole host of illnesses medical cannabis is often an alternative that is natural, does not carry the dangers of prescription painkillers, and without the debilitating side effects of pharmaceuticals.

The San Francisco Gate writes of a cannabis club at the Rossmoor senior community in Walnut Creek, California, “… club members quickly bonded over their shared disappointment in pharmaceuticals they had been prescribed. Either the pills weren’t helping them or the side effects were more onerous than their actual ailments.”

For a variety of reasons older consumers are increasingly coming around to the growing legal marijuana industry. Culturally and economically this generation will have an enormous impact on how marijuana is seen and sold, and cannabis companies would be wise to realize this and make an active effort to cater to this booming market.

July 09, 2015

Medical Cannabis vs Opiate Pain Relievers

Legal medical cannabis has come a long way since California first legalized it in 1996. Today, 23 states and the District of Columbia allow cannabis to be used medically in some form with additional states on the brink, and medical cannabis enjoys an 80% approval rating in swing states. The list of conditions alleviated by cannabis is growing as more research is done on the plant and its effects, and one of the most prevalent uses is treatment of pain. For both chronic and acute pain medical cannabis is a safer alternative to current prescription painkillers.

The Center for Disease Control recently reported that heroin use has increased nearly 63%, largely because of misuse of prescription drugs. CDC Director Tom Frieden stated, "They are addicted to prescription opiates because they are essentially the same chemical with the same effect on the brain as heroin,” and that, "Heroin costs roughly 5 times less than prescription opiates on the street." While studies are now coming out disproving the long-held misconception of marijuana as a gateway drug, it’s becoming clear that prescription medications like codeine, Vicodin, Oxycontin, Percocet and others are leading forces in what is becoming an epidemic of heroin abuse in the United States.

While tests show that it is virtually impossible to overdose from cannabis, the CDC report also stated that heroin deaths have nearly quadrupled in the last ten years with deaths from prescription painkillers rising even higher than that. Meanwhile, there have been no recorded cases in which marijuana alone has been the cause of death, and in states with medical cannabis legislation on the books deaths due to overdose of prescription medication has been shown to drop by up to 25%.

Americans consume 80% of the world’s opioid pain relievers, substances that have been shown to be dangerous and addictive, and that lead to even more dangerous substances like heroin. Cannabis, on the other hand, is being shown more and more every day to have real medical applications, and is being recognized by individual citizens and state governments as a safe alternative to prescription opiates. If Americans are going to be the most medicated citizens in the world when in comes to pain then we owe it to ourselves to make responsible choices with our medications. In the realm of pain relief the responsible choice is medical marijuana.

June 26, 2015

With Cannabis, Calls For More Research Are Not Enough

Many politicians have come out in favor of legal, regulated cannabis, but others have expressed reservations calling for more research before any decision is made. It’s understandable that after the decades of legal prohibition some might need to approach change more slowly, and more science is certainly an admirable goal. With cannabis, however, simply calling for more research is not enough because current laws restrict experimentation. In order to truly know what potential cannabis holds our laws must change.

Marijuana legalization has been a big topic in news and politics over the last couple of years. Medical cannabis is legal in twenty-three states and enjoys an over 80% approval rate in swing states. Four states and the District of Columbia have legalized full, regulated adult use of marijuana with several more scheduled for ballot initiatives fully legalizing in the next couple of years, and in 2014 for the first time a majority of Americans approved of full legalization of marijuana. Many politicians have come out in favor of legal, regulated cannabis, but others have expressed reservations calling for more research before any decision is made. It’s understandable that after the decades of legal prohibition some might need to approach change more slowly, and more science is certainly an admirable goal. With cannabis, however, simply calling for more research is not enough because current laws restrict experimentation. In order to truly know what potential cannabis holds our laws must change.

Standing still is not an option. Any voice advocating for more research must also back up that rhetoric with calls for action.

Senators Rand Paul, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Cory Booker backed it up when they introduced the CARERS Act which would not only ease banking regulations, allow VA doctors to discuss cannabis with their patients, open interstate commerce, and reduce cannabis to schedule 2, but it would also enable more research of the plant. CARERS, however, remains in committee in both the House and the Senate.

President Obama backed it up when he recently removed the requirement for the Public Health Service review for cannabis studies. In place since the 90s, the rule made marijuana the only substance in any schedule of the Controlled Substances Act requiring PHS review for study. Removing this requirement is a concrete step toward increased marijuana research.

The next biggest hurdle facing American cannabis science is the monopoly the National Institute on Drug Abuse holds over actual marijuana plants for research. Federally approved studies can only use cannabis harvested at the NIDA farm at the University of Mississippi, and the farm is limited in how much it can grow per year. Waiting on NIDA to grow the particular strains researchers are interested in can cause huge and unnecessary delays. States like Washington and Colorado have stores containing a wide variety of lab-tested marijuana and yet research labs in those states can’t use any of it. Lifting the NIDA monopoly would open up research options, especially if scientific institutions were allowed to grow their own and truly experiment with the plant.

Simple calls for more research are hollow without calling for changes to the law that allow that research to move forward. Those advocating for science to lead legalization efforts carry a responsibility to remove the decades-old obstacles standing in science’s way.

June 02, 2015

Alex Thiersch Speaking at Illinois Medical Cannabis Patient Summit

Salveo Capital Managing Principal Alex Thiersch will speak as part of the Know Your Rights panel at the Illinois Medical Cannabis Patient Summit on June 6 at the University Center in Chicago. He will spotlight the civil protections afforded to patients and caregivers enrolled in the Illinois Medical Cannabis Pilot Program.

Thiersch has been involved in the Illinois cannabis space since the bill for the Pilot Program was being debated in the state legislature, and is now part of the ownership group of Salveo Health & Wellness, a medical cannabis dispensary opening later this summer in Canton, IL. These facts, along with his experience as a lawyer representing medical professionals in matters relating to legal compliance makes him well-suited to weigh in on matters of cannabis law in Illinois.

The Illinois Medical Cannabis Patient Summit is sponsored by the Illinois chapter of Americans for Safe Access and the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago. The mission of the day-long event is to provide education about the use of medical cannabis, and the specifics of becoming a registered patient or caregiver in Illinois. There will be an additional presentation in the evening geared towards helping veterans navigate the VHA system to treat illnesses using medical cannabis.

Keynote speakers include Dr. Srishti Nangia and Dr. Suzanne Sisley. Dr. Nangia is a Pediatric Epileptologist at Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Sisley is a specialist in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry and the Principal Investigator in a current FDA clinical study looking at the use of whole-plant cannabis in combat veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD.

April 22, 2015

Medical Marijuana Can Ease the Pain of NFL Retirement

At 8pm EST next Thursday the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will make the first selection in the 2015 NFL Draft. As we prepare to tune in to the beginnings of what will be, for some, the realization of lifelong dreams let’s also consider those men for whom those dreams are a memory. Let’s think of the retired players, years removed from the gridiron, whose bodies are beginning to feel the pull of age, and the physical punishment that was the cost of entry to football’s biggest stage. For these athletes pain is often a constant fact of life, and while the current stable of legal painkillers provides some relief the safest medication is still federally prohibited: medical marijuana.

The vast majority of players that have ever suited up in an NFL uniform did not go on to be household names. In fact, the average NFL career is only three to six years. Even these relatively short pro stints, however, are filled with repeated contact reported to be similar to a car crash. Oftentimes youth, adrenaline, and cortisone shots enable these men to function normally during their playing days, but as time wears on these crushing hits that earn our ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaahs’ eventually add up to debilitating joint and muscle pain.

When players are away from NFL trainers and team doctors – providing top dollar medical care – what options remain? Not all players walk away from the game with the sort of contracts to maintain top quality healthcare throughout retirement. We’ve spoken with retired players like Israel Idonije who relayed stories of friends in so much pain they couldn't get out of bed without medication. When over the counter pain painkillers are not enough, players must turn to current prescription narcotics that carry heavy risk of accidental overdose or addiction.

Though medical marijuana has lately been making headlines for the CBD-heavy seizure medications and as an appetite-stimulant and nausea-suppressant for cancer patients, it’s also a highly safe and effective analgesic. Medical marijuana is a superior medication for pain, and any hesitation over its general availability is an issue for proper regulation, not prohibition. Medical marijuana is also highly safe, especially when compared to opioids like Vicodin, Codeine, Oxycotin, and Percocet. Cannabis is not chemically addictive like these substances, and there has never been a recorded case of death due to marijuana overdose. In fact, accidental overdoses in states with medical marijuana laws on the books drop by 25% .

When we watch the draft we think of the futures of these young players in terms of how they can help our favorite team win in the next few years. Will he solidify our front seven? Is he the answer to the problems in our secondary? Will we finally have a running game? Is this the quarterback that will transform our franchise? It’s harder to take the long view and ask if, in twenty or thirty years, he’ll be one of the lucky ones that only needs a cane to get around, or if he’ll instead need to rely on powerful medication. The NFL itself is only just beginning to think in these terms because former stars are forcing it to. Once these players step out of the limelight we can continue to support them. As fans, consumers, and voters, we can push to allow athletes across the country – in addition to countless other people living daily with crippling pain – access to medical marijuana: the safest pain reliever on record.