“The evolving landscape of the non-U.S. cannabis industry mirrors the early growth stages seen in the United States, which we outlined in our preceding article in this series. As recreational cannabis markets emerge, the consumer base expands from daily enthusiasts, who might even cultivate their own cannabis, to a wider demographic…
This overview provides policymakers and investors insights into the cannabis industry’s potential expansion. For investors, assessing the nuanced interplay between regulatory developments and market growth across different global regions is crucial.
With the United States accounting for 95% of the world’s cannabis sales, it understandably attracts most investor attention. However, we advise those entering the world of cannabis investment to broaden their perspectives. International markets may be small, but their growth potential creates significant opportunities. While the U.S. moves slowly through a maze of incoherent rules and self-imposed market fragmentation, other countries are adopting more coherent and comprehensive approaches, presenting lucrative international opportunities.”
Cannabichromene (CBC) is yet another cannabinoid showing encouraging therapeutic potentials. In this short post, we want to emphasize its multifaceted benefits, supported by groundbreaking research.
CBC is the third most prominent cannabinoid found in the cannabis plant, behind CBD and THC. This cannabinoid emerges as a beacon of hope in the medical community, offering novel treatments for conditions ranging from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) to Alzheimer’s Disease, combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and providing pain relief for various conditions. The research showcases CBC’s role in reversing hypoxia, reducing inflammation, and its neuroprotective capabilities, presenting a promising future for cannabis-based therapies.
In short, CBC is yet another door allowing people to live healthy lives that the cannabis plant provides. In the future, cannabinoids may well be a vital part in advancing medical science and patient care.
Published with the CFA Institute on the business of cannabis.
The institutional world of finance is coming around to the potential of cannabis! An excerpt:
“…notwithstanding the twin risks of unfavorable tax treatment and overly optimistic expectations of federal legalization, the cannabis sector is what nostalgic investors who recall the 1980s bond markets pine for: an inefficient market where deep analysis of fair values can pay off.
The industry can produce so much more than giggles and munchies. Research into the plant’s non-psychoactive components remains in its infancy but is progressing rapidly. Indeed, cannabis products could have potential applications in promoting gut health and treating cancer, chronic pain, and mental illness, among other uses, and the pharmaceutical industry has taken note.
Moreover, the investment opportunities extend well beyond the United States. Many overseas governments are either encouraging their cannabis industries or at least not impeding them. While the US market may have the highest upside, its international counterparts, for both medical and recreational use, are growing, and many developing countries have lower production costs and more favorable growing climates.”
A new study in the Southern Economic Journal, “Marijuana legalization and traffic fatalities revisited“ by Weiwei Chen and Michael T. French, examines the impact of marijuana legalization on traffic fatalities in the United States. The study’s relevance is underscored by the dramatic changes in the legal landscape of marijuana over the past three decades, with increasing societal acceptance for both medical and recreational purposes.
The research employs data on state-level traffic fatalities from 1990 to 2019, covering all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. For the skeptics, they do control for various state-specific traffic laws, including speed limits, graduated driver-licensing laws, seat belt laws, handheld wireless device and texting bans, and driving-under-influence laws, as well as traffic volume, state demographic and economic characteristics.
The results indicate that medical marijuana legalization has a statistically significant effect on traffic fatalities, in that total fatality rates decreased by about 7.5% after legalization becomes effective. Controlling for other effects suggest an almost 4% drop in fatalities due to medical cannabis legalization. Recreational cannabis laws seem not to have any such pos effect, however. The reason for this is unclear but may relate either to the different demographic groups using more cannabis as a result of medical versus recreational cannabis laws passing. Previous studies have found similar results, with medical marijuana legalization decreasing traffic fatalities. This study shows a robust relationship based on updated data.
It thus seems increasingly established that beyond the direct effects of cannabis in helping people with all kinds of physical and mental illnesses, it also is keeping more people safe from traffic accidents. Why is this? As the authors note, “Compared to alcohol, the impairment effect of marijuana on driving is relatively mild. Individuals who are under the influence of marijuana tend to drive slower, avoid overtaking other vehicles, and increase following distances. The opposite is true for drivers who are under the influence of alcohol.” Couple this observation with the fact that previous studies have detected that cannabis and alcohol are substitutes. With better access to cannabis, people drink less alcohol. So as long as high drivers are safer than drunk drivers, we are all better off when more people have the option to get high instead of going for the bottle.
ViviFi Ventures is pleased to announce “CannaChat”, our AI-enabled research tool. CannaChat finds and summarizes research that is determined to be valuable information for the cannabis community. ViviFi will post CannaChat’s results on the first of every month and occasionally in between if some research seems particularly newsworthy. Currently, we search about 15 academic journals for articles that meet certain criteria, such as the most cited articles. The list of journals is augmented by other sources of research that gain in popularity or probe specific subsets of industry information.
Our first blog post summarizes an article about the variability in chemical composition within and across cannabis strains. The authors find that some strains showing more chemical variability than others and some indica/hybrid/sativa strains are highly intermingled, with no obvious segregation of strains based on lab testing labels.
If you are aware of journals or research source that you think we should consider, please send an email to 420@vivifiventures.com.
by Christiana J. Smith, Daniela Vergara, Brian Keegan, and Nick Jikomes
PLoS One
May 19, 2022
Why this article matters:
Commercial “strain names” are associated with variable levels of chemical consistency. The authors found limited differences between “Indica” and “Sativa,” with some strains showing more chemical variability than others and having unknown entourage effects. Moreover, commercial labels do not accurately represent the chemical makeup of the products.
Summary:
The study titled “The phytochemical diversity of commercial Cannabis in the United States” by Christiana J. Smith, Daniela Vergara, Brian Keegan, and Nick Jikomes, published in PLoS ONE, delves into the chemical diversity of commercial Cannabis products in the United States. The researchers analyzed the cannabinoid and terpene content of commercial Cannabis samples from six US states. They found distinct chemical phenotypes which are consistently present across the samples.
Cannabis contains dozens of chemical compounds with potential psychoactive or medicinal effects. The legal Cannabis industry often markets products to consumers based on labeling systems that are supposed to predict the effects of different “strains.” However, the study found that these commercial composition labels do not consistently align with the observed chemical diversity. In other words, the labels attached to Cannabis-derived product samples do not always accurately represent the chemical makeup of the products.
Despite this, the researchers found that certain testing lab labels show a biased association with specific chemotypes. This means that some labels are more likely to be associated with certain chemical profiles than others. These findings have significant implications for several areas. They affect the classification of commercial Cannabis, the design of animal and human research studies, and the regulation of consumer marketing. These areas are often disconnected from the actual chemical reality of the Cannabis-derived material they aim to represent.
To quantify the phytochemical similarity of products sharing a common strain name, the authors plotted the distribution of product similarity scores sorted left to right from highest to lowest mean similarity for the 41 strains used in this analysis. The violin plot depicts the degree and range of similarity by strain. White Tahoe Cookies is similar across regions whereas Durban Poison is highly variable. **P < 0.001, ***P < 0.0001, Welch’s test.
The researchers also found that the majority of the variance in the cannabinoid profiles of the samples was explained by variation among the three most abundant cannabinoids: THC, CBD, and CBG. They also found that most samples contained low levels of cannabinoids beyond THC, but a small percentage of samples had total CBD or total CBG of 1% by weight or higher.
In addition to cannabinoids, Cannabis also contains a diverse class of related compounds known as terpenes. The researchers found that on average, the terpenes myrcene, β-caryophyllene, and limonene were present at the highest and most varied levels in the samples. They also found that total terpene content averaged 2% by weight and displayed a modest but robust positive correlation with total cannabinoid content.
The study is the largest chemotaxonomic analysis of commercial Cannabis-derived flower to date, with a sample size of 89,923. The samples were submitted by cultivators for testing in order to comply with state laws, representing Cannabis-derived products destined for sale in retail locations within each state.
The researchers concluded that their results provide new possibilities for systematically categorizing commercial Cannabis based on chemistry. This could inform the design of preclinical and clinical research experiments and the regulation of commercial Cannabis marketing.
* Smith CJ, Vergara D, Keegan B, Jikomes N. “The phytochemical diversity of commercial Cannabis in the United States”. PLoS One. 2022 May 19;17(5):e0267498. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267498. PMID: 35588111; PMCID: PMC9119530.
Here are some of our findings from our most recent trip to South Africa and Lesotho.
Why Lesotho
In our search for the best place in the world to grow cannabis, we researched satellite data on Daily Light Integral (DLI) based on photosynthetically active radiation based on Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD) from satellite data across all continents, elevations, temperature averages and ranges, precipitation averages and humidity.
This information is carried over to the world map below where, all else held equal, the areas marked by the black lines are superior from the PPFD data. Within those areas, the other factor – elevations, temperature averages and ranges, precipitation averages and humidity – narrow the regions that are optimal. The lavender shaded geographic regions are the seven best locations to grow cannabis when all data is jointly considered and have the potential to compete with Lesotho based on these natural and climate factors.
Among these regions, Lesotho stands out for its advantages in labor skill and cost, energy reliability and cost, supply chain stability, and public policy that supports cannabis businesses.
We are proud to be board members and part of management of Lesotho-based Bophelo Biomed and Wellness, with its great leadership, proud social mission, and vision of being the engine of the growing Lesotho ecosystem of natural medicine. We are also invested in Prosperity Farms, also a Lesotho-based cannabis grow run by an excellent team. More updates on our Lesotho progress will follow. We are happy to be part of establishing Lesotho as the future of cannabis growing for a global supply chain.
