The Industry is Forging Ahead and Will Come Out Stronger!
BREAKING NEWS: POSSIBLE RESCHEDULING
Green Market Report has reported breaking news:
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did a review, as requested by President Biden, concerning cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug.
The HHS made their recommendation on Tuesday August 29 in a letter to the DEA to reschedule cannabis to a Schedule 3 drug. If this is to happen, the ramifications will be quite meaningful for the cannabis industry.
“The rescheduling move, if completed by DEA, would nullify the impact of the 280E tax provision on marijuana companies, meaning the entire industry could begin claiming standard business tax deductions on their federal returns, saving cannabis companies untold millions in coming years.” Continue reading in Green Market Report.
Re-Scheduling of Cannabis?
Continue reading below…
HEALTH AND CANNABIS SENIOR CARE
Gallup: Americans Perceive Cannabis to Be Less Harmful than Either Alcohol or Cigarettes
A recent Gallup poll inquiring about Americans and their perception of cannabis. Of those polled there was a perception that cannabis has fewer health risks than does alcohol and cigarettes.
Cannabis and Elder Care Treatment
In this Newsletter we highlight medical cannabis and elder care. We had the pleasure of sitting down for an interview with CWCBExpo Advisor, Ken Weinberg, MD.
Ken is a practicing physician with decades of experience in emergency medicine and urgent care. He is a published author of medical articles across many disciplines and is currently working on a book about his experiences in front-line medicine, plus the 1500 or so patients he has seen as a registered Cannabis Practitioner since 2016. He is the Founder of Cannabis Doctors of New York. Among his many medical commitments, he serves as the Attending Cannabis Consultant at Inspir – a private nursing home in New York City. At that facility he provides medical expertise and guidance for elders who are interested in using cannabis as part of their medical care. Ken works with several dispensaries in the New York area as well.
We asked Ken how the elders who opt for cannabis as part of their medical treatment at Inspir fare and what is involved in managing those treatments. Below is brief Q/A with Ken.
(Please note that there is no longer a need for a medical card for a patient to get medical cannabis. The prescribing practitioner sends a certification that includes a barcode on it. With the certification the practitioners, patients and/or caregivers and pharmacist at the dispensary, decide which cannabis products would work best for the patients’ needs.)
Q: CWCBExpo – How did you get to be the attending physician at Inspir?
A: Ken – A few years ago, before they’d actually opened their Manhattan facility (they already had one in Connecticut) we made contact with Brian Geyser, a nurse practitioner who is Vice President of Health & Wellness for Maplewood Senior Living. They are the company that runs Inspir. Brian has said that, based on what he has seen about the benefits of medical cannabis over the years, he felt that he would actually prefer if the residents who were living there could use it, instead of the many opioids, psychotropics and other medicines they were on. Brian and I have met many times since then and, when the facility became operational, he suggested that I do a presentation at Inspir. I gave a talk, along with Sang Choi, head pharmacist at the Etain dispensary and Denis Tarant, the nurse practitioner who is the medical director at Inspir, to the residents and staff about it. Since then we’ve been getting referrals and working with the nurses, social work staff, patients and families, and using it often as a first line therapeutic agent.
Q: Tell us how you determine if a patient would do better with cannabis as part of their medical treatment.
A: Ken – Most of the patients I see, whether at Inspir, other Senior Living Facilities or living at home, are often on one or more medications. They will generally come to me because they are not getting the results they want or are unhappy with the side effects they are having. At this point, having seen patients with such a wide range of medical issues, whether chronic pain, auto immune disorders, anxiety, insomnia, or dementia, to name a few, following them in many cases for several years and, knowing how well most of them do, I am happy to do a consult and get them started to see if cannabis might well give them the help they are looking for.
Q: Do you find more or less skepticism among elders regarding cannabis usage as a medical treatment?
A: Ken – Increasingly I see less skepticism among the elderly. Oftentimes they have been on a panoply of meds over many years, and have reached the end of their rope. So they are willing to try cannabis, despite all the negative things they have heard about it all of their lives.
Q: You did a presentation about Cannabis and Alzheimer’s for CaringKind and they told you that it was the most watched presentation that they had on memory care. What can you say about that presentation and how it opened up the topic of cannabis usage and elder care?
A: Ken – It turns out that there have been studies (though not well publicized ones) going back to the ’90’s where various forms of cannabis have been used successfully for many of the issues that develop when patients have declining cognitive abilities, and exhibit the behavioral problems that go along with them. The current medications approved for, or being studied, to treat dementia have limited efficacy. It turns out that the many, many components found in the cannabis plant seem to be able to address a number of the ongoing degenerative, biochemical processes that cause dementia, without many of the side effects that more traditional pharmaceuticals cause.
Dr. Weinberg presents “Cannabis & Alzheimer’s,” a CaringKind event.
This was one of the most watched presentations that CaringKind offered!
Residents asking about medical cannabis? A senior living community brought in the experts
For more background on the subject is another article that features Ken Weinberg, MD, published in August of 2022 about senior care and cannabis from McKnight’s Long-Term Care News. Sang Choi, RPh, Dispensary Director for Etain Health, is also featured in this informative piece.
CANNABIS INVESTMENT WISDOM
This past June at Javits Center, CWCBExpo featured the CannaVest Financial Summit conference.
Matt Karnes, Founder of GreenWave Advisors led and moderated a session called, “Lessons Learned, Challenges Faced & Value Creation: Leading Investors Share Their War Stories & Pearls of Wisdom.”
The panel featured Michael Gruber, Co-founder, Managing partner, Salveo Capital; Vikas Desai, Partner, Achari Ventures; Sergey Sherman, Managing Director, Tuatara Capital; Sean Stiefel, Founder, CEO, Navy Capital; and Jeffrey Monat, Senior Partner, Merida Capital.
While this session is quite timely, we spoke with Matt Karnes recently and he had additional words of wisdom for the investment community and cannabis business owners:
“Momentum is clearly building to end cannabis prohibition in the U.S. Near term catalysts that will drive revenue growth include ballot initiatives for recreational use in Ohio (2023) and Florida (2024). Additionally re-scheduling of cannabis could come in time for next year’s presidential election which would significantly improve industry cash flows because it removes the added costs of prohibition (most notably 280E tax).” – Matt Karnes
THIS MONTH’S ARCHIVED VIDEO
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CWCBExpo blogs contain relevant, timely information. Recent subjects include cannabis testing laboratories, packaging, facility security, and legalization and regulatory updates.
Continuing to build the industry together!
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CWCBExpo
June 5 – 6, 2024
Javits Convention Center, NYC