Grow Life 420

The numbers are in and it’s official—Green Wednesday 2021 was a big one for the cannabis industry, while Black Friday fizzled in comparison. Green Wednesday saw cannabis sales increase across the U.S. Black Friday did not have the sales growth seen in previous years, though some data (Flowhub) showed larger order values and bigger discounts than Green Wednesday. Data from market analytics and cannabis companies like Headset, LeafLink, Lantern, Glass House Brands, and others show common trends regarding most popular products and year-over-year sales numbers. Using this data, companies extrapolate some possible variables affecting this year’s numbers, including a decreased emphasis on Black Friday door-buster deals targeted towards packing stores with bargain-hungry shoppers, focusing instead on online sales spread out over the holiday season (Springbig).

Headset’s Green Wednesday 2021 data showed a 33% increase in total retail sales compared with the four previous Wednesdays, with a marked trend of customers taking advantage of promotions on offer to receive discounts on holiday shopping, with the average discount up 29 percent. This was in contrast to a slight decrease in sales (-4.6%) on Black Friday relative to the previous four Fridays, despite the fact that average Black Friday discounts increased by 56% from the previous four Fridays.

Flowhub’s data showed an average Green Wednesday discount of $9.57 (up from $8.94 in 2020) and an average Black Friday discount of $11.09. Notable in Flowhub’s findings was the conclusion that while Green Wednesday was a big sales day, Thanksgiving weekend as a whole had lower pre-tax sales than a typical Wednesday through Sunday. Jushi Holdings (OTC: JUSHF) didn’t seem to notice, however, experiencing its best online sales day in the company’s history on Green Wednesday 2021 with an 80% uptick in sales during Thanksgiving week and online ordering up 200% on Green Wednesday. Eaze saw a 135% increase in deliveries compared to a typical Wednesday in 2021, making it their second biggest day this year by both numbers of deliveries and sales after 04/20/21.

Edibles Most Popular For Green Wednesday

Headset’s data on category winners by sales numbers showed edibles leading the pack with 67% growth on Green Wednesday and 11% on Black Friday. Topicals and tinctures took second and third place while beverages saw a whopping 86% growth. Leaflink showed flower holding the top spot for most popular category in the month leading up to Green Wednesday making up 33% of sales with cartridges coming in second up 24.9% from the previous month. Jane Technologies saw its biggest category sales increases in edibles (94%), vapes (84%), and flower (73%) compared to the previous three Wednesdays, with chocolates and disposables leading subcategory sales by increases of 126% and 100% respectively. For Glass House Brands (OTC: GLASF), flower, carts, and edibles were the big winners.

LeafLink’s data measured the growth of sales (10.61%) during the month leading up to Green Wednesday compared to October, with the biggest sales increase (16%) coming during the week of November 14^th over the previous week. The run-up to Green Wednesday broke records for cannabis company Lantern, with a 44% rise in average daily sales leading up to Green Wednesday, though there was no significant change to daily Average Order Value.  As the cannabis economy continues to transform to meet a shifting retail environment and shopping behaviors adaptive to these uncertain times, market analysts and retailers will continue to keep an eye on Green Wednesdays and Black Fridays to come as annual bellwethers for the market.

There is a constant influx of new CBD, CBG, CBN, and synthetic products flooding the market and ever more consumers turning to them for relief from a range of conditions, relaxation, and a festive alternative to hangover-inducing substances. As regulators struggle to keep up with the seismic growth of the market, a new Leafreport survey sought to uncover how much CBD users are actually consuming and how they choose their dosages.

While some dosage schemes for CBD have been proposed, none have been implemented to date and there is still disagreement on the issue among medical professionals. This means that customers are left to labels, their own research and preferences, and the recommendations of others to determine what the optimal dose for their desired outcome might be. Leafreport’s survey captured US-based individuals ages 21 to 80 years of age. There were 1360 people who responded to the survey, 721 of whom are either using CBD or have experimented with it.

Leafreport’s findings showed that, of those surveyed, 71% of CBD users self-determine their own dosage without consulting a professional while 18% consulted with a doctor and 11% consulted with a CBD/cannabis industry professional. Even industry experts like CEO and Founder of The People’s Dispensary Christine De La Rosa (cited in the report) references the recommended dosage on the label and then adjusts it until she finds what works for her. She does add, however, that advice from a professional can be a helpful source of guidance, as is taking time to gauge your body’s response to a specific dosage. Author Anthony Schroeder (“7 Ways To Manage Pain With CBD”) shared the view that the dosage suggestion on a label should be considered a generic starting point to be increased or decreased based on factors like sensitivity, body weight, and pre-existing conditions.

So self-determining dosage using the label as a baseline may not be such a bad idea, but Leafreport’s survey shows that 26% of those surveyed don’t check for CBD concentration when shopping for a product and 22% don’t check the dose at all before consuming the product. 31% of consumers surveyed using CBD every day and 48% take the same dosage every time they consume CBD.  Again, a full 22% revealed that they don’t know how much they are taking because they never checked the dose. Leafreport’s survey concludes that not paying attention to potency or daily dosage can be problematic and even harmful, as CBD elicits “biphasic effects” at different doses. The survey summary cites the example of how a low dosage might alleviate anxiety while a higher dosage can elevate it. The advent of a standardized dosage scheme may not fully address this issue, as user responses and conditions are incredibly unique, pointing to the importance of obtaining professional advice on dosage, especially for less-experienced consumers. 

Hemp Benchmarks has released its October report, with notable points including a 4% decline in observed prices for delta-8 THC distillate for the fourth consecutive month while sales numbers for this controversial cannabinoid made from hemp remain robust. This mirrors an overall dip in rates for CBD distillate, which is at an all-time low despite larger-volume deals. Newcomer delta-10 THC makes an appearance in the Hemp Benchmarks’ report for the month of October, though it is still unfamiliar to many consumers. 

Delta-10, closely related to delta-9, is one of the THC compounds found in hemp and cannabis that is responsible for making consumers feel high or euphoric. While delta-9 is more likely to have an effect on pleasure and memory and delta-8 is often used as a relaxant and sleep aid, some claim that delta-10 enhances energy, creativity, and productivity. (Little is factually known about how this cannabinoid functions in the body or what its effects are.) Unlike delta-9, delta-10 is only found in trace amounts in plant material and requires large amounts of plant matter and significant processing to extract a potent quantity. It exists in the same legal grey zone as delta-8 when derived from hemp and therefore is typically available in states where recreational use is illegal, though this is starting to change. According to Hemp Benchmarks, delta-10 THC Distillate averaged $3,580 per kilogram in October, which is more than four times the average price for delta-8 THC distillate. 

The FDA issued warnings about Delta-8 THC in September, which remains especially popular in states where recreational marijuana use is illegal. Since then, restrictions or all-out bans on delta-8 are being initiated that will likely affect sales of delta-10 as well. Both South Carolina and Texas have taken steps to articulate state-specific policies, with South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson issuing an opinion that the state’s Hemp Farming Act “does not provide an exception for, and does not legalize, delta-8 THC or any other isomer of THC in itself.” 

The Texas Department of State Health Services released an October update which specified that “all other forms of THC, including Delta-8 in any concentration and Delta-9 exceeding .3% are considered Schedule 1 controlled substances.” This is not settling well with some Texas retailers, who pushed back and petitioned for a temporary restraining order against the ruling. The restraining order was denied by a state district judge, rendering delta-8 illegal in Texas, at least for the time being. Meanwhile, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development issued its own statement that beginning on October 11 “it is illegal for businesses to manufacture, possess, transfer, inventory, sell or give away delta-8 THC or THC-O acetate (a synthetic cannabinoid said to be more potent and have longer-lasting effects than regular THC) without proper licensing from the Marijuana Regulatory Agency.”

Despite this ongoing controversy, growers are dedicating larger portions of their operations to hemp cultivation for extraction and conversion to synthetic cannabinoids as the demand for them continues to rise. The swift rate at which new cannabinoids are being synthesized and new restrictions being issued around their sale and use bodes ill for stability in this corner of the market, though there is no arguing that demand is high, prompting producers to race ahead in search of the next big thing in synthetics.

Delta-8, a psychoactive compound similar in effect to delta-9 (which is what most people are talking about when they refer to THC), has been slipping through legislative loopholes around the country, including in strictly anti-recreational states like South Carolina, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Even in states where recreational use is legal, delta-8 products are not held to the same legal requirements as delta-9. Though delta-8 has a slightly different chemical structure that supposedly makes it less potent than delta-9, an independent study commissioned by CBD Oracle Lab analyzed 51 delta-8 THC products and found that 76% of them contained illegal levels of delta-9 THC. How illegal? In at least one case, a staggering 7700% over the legal delta-9 limit. The average amount of delta-9 THC in all products tested by CBD Oracle Labs was 6.6%, 22 times higher than the federally legal limit.

Dangerous Delta-9 Levels

So how is delta-8 making it so easily into the hands of recreational consumers, including people who may be particularly vulnerable to its dangerously inconsistent THC levels such as the underage and mentally ill?  The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp containing less than .3 percent delta-9, which leaves the field open for delta-8 as long as it comes from hemp and stays under the limit for delta-9. The fact that it is synthetically made have also kept it off of certain regulatory radars, though warnings from the FDA and CDC as well as disturbing testimonials from Delta-8 users are causing some huge blips which may lead to a larger lockdown on what some companies are marketing as “weed light”.

Oracle Labs Tests Delta-8

An investigation from the US Cannabis Council found illegal levels of delta-9 THC in products for sale all over the country, which prompted CBD Oracle Lab to undertake a study to address three primary questions: whether a consumer gets delta-9 when purchasing a delta-8 product; whether a consumer gets as much delta-8 as the company claims, and whether the consumer will get any residues from the manufacturing process alongside cannabinoids. The outcome of the investigation showed a strong presence of delta-9 as well as a serious deficit in the degree and depth of impurities testing that is taking place. Also alarming were labeling inaccuracies and the ease with which minors can obtain these dangerously inconsistent products.

The study breaks delta-9 THC content in delta-8 products by type, revealing that vape pens and concentrates have the highest levels (at 13.11% and 12.51% respectively) and edibles contain the least at .09%. This implies that consumers should assume that vaping products or concentrates, readily available at gas stations and smoke shops alike, will be far above the limit with an average of 9.25% delta-9 content. On average, the products tested were 513 times higher in delta-9 than their reported amounts. In terms of reporting, CBD Oracle Lab also found that some companies fake or manipulate their COA results, and 34 out of the 51 products tested were only tested for potency and not impurities.

As far as delta-8 getting into the wrong hands goes, while there are occasionally age verification systems in place (though only 6 out of the 44 companies whose products were purchased had them), some companies simply use pop-ups asking the user to confirm their age while others use nothing at all. This problem is compounded by product packaging, which is often designed to resemble typical gas station snacks like Cheetos and cereal bars. Young people who use cannabis are particularly vulnerable to the reduced capacity for cognitive and response inhibition caused by THC.

Psychotic Episodes

There is also ample evidence that those with mental illness who consume THC have a higher risk of psychosis or at least psychotic symptoms, with heavy cannabis users experiencing a fourfold increase in the risk of psychosis than non-users.  Consumers shouldn’t rely on the packaging for an accurate sense of delta-8’s effects and how vulnerable they might be to them. Half of the 51 companies studied contained no warning labels at all and some only mention possible “impairment” or “sensitivity”, and as the CBD Oracle Lab study shows, these downplayed side effects can be just the tip of a very large iceberg.

Trick or treat times are looming in all of their ghostly glory and cannabis companies are rolling out their seasonal offerings to tempt those whose door-to-door candy soliciting days are past. Candy Tracker, launched by data and tech company Numerator (which provides weekly insight into consumer buying behavior) shows that their efforts are paying off, with the pre-Halloween candy buying period capturing a record number of consumers in 2021.

Halloweed

Significantly, Numerator’s analysis shows that consumers are buying more candy despite decreased advertising, reflected in the fact that candy-related ad spending is down 29% from what it was in 2020 and 34% from 2019. This bodes well for cannabis companies rolling out the orange and black carpet for Halloween as they are likely to see a hefty return with a smaller investment of advertising dollars. 

This isn’t to say that companies aren’t getting creative during candy’s spookiest season. Michigan cannabis cultivator Fluresh is giving its Fast-Acting Drink Enhancer (THC-infused) a promotional boost with some seasonally-inspired recipes like “Zombie Brain Cannabis-Infused Jell-O Shots” and Insa has launched its limited edition Pumpkin Pie Caramel Crumble THC-infused chocolate bar. With specials on favorite weed varieties and bongs crafted to look like skulls or classic horror villains, there is not shortage of ways to mark October 31st, but the as Numerator’s data suggests, candy is king when it comes to Halloween. 

Increased Candy Sales

This Halloween uptick is a continuation of an overall positive trend in candy consumption, which is up from both 2019 and 2020. Sales of seasonal candy are up 29% in the second half of 2021 compared to a year ago and 43% from figures posted two years ago. Non-seasonal candy as an everyday purchase is up 19% against 2020 numbers and 24% from sales in 2019. Numerator’s data shows that consumer trips to purchase their daily fix of the sweet stuff is up 12% from a year ago. According to Phil Stanley, Global Chief Sales Officer for The Hershey Company (which has experienced sales increases commensurate with this trend) higher sales figures include early and mid-season activities like decorating, baking and movie nights, with a likely increase in activities like parades, parties and trick or treating now that vaccines are easing some Covid anxiety. 

From college football to the NFL, nothing says Game Day like a lively tailgate scene complete with BBQ and beers or wine and cheese and a lot of sloshing Solo cups paraded around stadium parking lots. But with the rise in popularity, not to mention the legality, of cannabis, tailgaters and entrepreneurs alike are looking to swap Solo cups for smokes, edibles, and the like. With football season finally back in full-ish swing, cannabis companies in Michigan (the nation’s third-largest recreational cannabis market) are getting in on the action with exclusive tailgating products and activations. 

The college market is a particular focus of these new tailgate-tailored products. College students’ cannabis consumption in 2020 reached an all-time, historic high unseen since 1983 according to the National Institute on Drug abuse’s annual “Monitoring the Future” study. The study also showed that more than four in every ten college students reported using marijuana in 2020, and the increase occurred in similar proportions among college-aged respondents who aren’t in school. Alcohol usage, meanwhile, was less common in 2020 than in previous years, including binge drinking, getting drunk, and overall alcohol use. The decline has been ongoing over the last few decades and the low is also “historic” according to the principal investigator of the study, John Schulenburg. Alcohol usage was “significantly lower” in 2020 than just a year prior in 2019, with increasing legalization and the pandemic highlighted as likely factors.

This is all to say that the college tailgating crowd isn’t only primed for some grit and glory on the gridiron, but for a creative range of products and events that offer alternatives to boozy barbecues. Lansing-based Pure Options sent out an invite to Michigan State fans to an all-season tailgate in front of Spartan Stadium. Michigan cannabis company SKYMINT recently launched their Tailgate Collection, which includes cannabis-infused gummies “Varsity Blue” and “Green Machine” as well as the terpene-heavy “Tailgate Vape”.   To celebrate the annual Michigan vs. Michigan State game, SKYMINT will host a tailgate party at their East Lansing location on October 30th.  The event will feature food, games and podcast hosts sports columnist Graham Couch of the Lansing State Journal and sports podcast host Jason Knick.

The impact of Covid-19 on shopping behaviors is a matter of great concern not only to retailers but economists, city planners, public health officials and a whole slew of other interested parties. A 2020 survey of online consumers in 9 different countries produced by The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and titled “Covid-19 and E-Commerce”, found that the pandemic has accelerated a shift towards online shopping.

The survey also suggests that the shift towards a digital retail world may be permanent. This news has sparked some intriguing innovations in the cannabis retail space, including the rise of “immersion retailing”, which seeks to create all-inclusive, multi-sensory shopping experiences that lure customers off of their couches and back into stores.

Planet 13

Planet 13’s (OTC: PLNHF) flagship store in Las Vegas recently added a new 80-feet wide LED wall in the expanded dispensary showcasing immersive entertainment (like lions breaking through the wall, vines growing up to the ceiling, and much more creating an incredible visual experience for customers). The dispensary also has a Willie Wonka style production window where customers watch edibles and beverages being produced and interact with products on flat screens. There is a choreographed Orb drone show over the dispensary floor, an interactive floor in the grand hallway, and a giant laser graffiti wall.

Planet 13’s Santa Ana, California store is the largest cannabis store in the world at 112,000 square feet, is not actually a store in the conventional sense but more of an “entertainment concept”. This concept includes Budtender greeter/concierges, beautifully merchandised products, and a sensory bar that invites customers to indulge in a cannabis experience reminiscent of a tour of wine country. Future plans for the as-yet-unmaximized space include a coffee shop, pizzeria, event space, and a customer-facing production facility that provides a real-time look at the manufacturing process behind Planet 13’s products.

Alchemy

Toronto-based Alchemy is an independent retailer offering an immersive and experiential shopping alternative. It is the brainchild of former triathlete Richard Browne, who envisioned Alchemy as “a museum where you can touch, feel, and interact with the elements.” This is accomplished, in part, through a playful approach to interior design which eschews the conventions of dispensary aesthetics and focuses instead on what Alchemy’s multidisciplinary designer Paolo Ferrari refers to as “a cerebral experience infused with artistry, nature, and technology.” From the kaleidoscopic visuals on display for waiting guests to flower showcased in custom “smelling-globes”, Alchemy’s creators leave no stone unturned when it comes to enticing the senses and giving the in-person shopping experience an edge over the convenience of click-and-pay.

Cannafornia

Cannafornia, one of the newest immersion retail experiences to make the scene, offers two of California’s largest consumption lounges at 5,000 square feet each, situated on a 100-acre campus in southern California’s Imperial Valley. The location is strategic in its attempt to capture travelers transiting through Arizona, California, and Mexico. Cannafornia boasts two large retails stores, Queen of Dragons and The Other Guys, which stock top brands and invite consumers to sample the goods in one of their spacious lounges before committing to a purchase.

Global management firm McKinsey & Company attributes the shift towards digital retail in the Covid Era to three change forces—economic downturn, preference shifts, and digital acceleration. With consumers sticking to trusted brands, spending less, shopping less often and sticking closer to home, the cannabis industry’s gamble on immersion retailing faces some significant obstacles. Some industry innovators are turning those obstacles into opportunities to change the retail landscape. 

You may have heard of “functional fitness” (which trains the body for activities performed in daily life) and  “functional nutrition” (a philosophy that promotes the use of food as medicine to prevent and alleviate diet and lifestyle-related diseases), but have you heard of “functional mushrooms”? If you’ve been down the aisle of a Whole Foods in the last few years, you undoubtedly have, but in case you haven’t, functional mushrooms include strains like Lion’s Mane, Cordyceps, and Chaga that aren’t only a food source but have beneficial properties that can positively impact health. These multitasking mushrooms have been showing up everywhere from coffee to candy bars, and while initially, they were giving cannabis a run for its money as the latest wellness trend, many companies are now blending THC or CBD and medicinal mushrooms to create “super” supplements, edibles, and other products to tempt the health-conscious consumer.

Cookies, an international cannabis brand, just launched Caps by Cookies THC, which is a three-in-one capsule formulation that blends non-psilocybin organic medicinal mushrooms and potent cannabis compounds. The mushrooms for Cookies’ formulation, which are high in beta-glucans, ergosterol, full-spectrum and grown to maturity, are provided by mushroom extract manufacturer Nammex and encapsulated by Blue River. 

But Cookies isn’t the only company marrying mushrooms with cannabis. TerraVita now offers two formulations, Relax CBD capsules and Shroom capsules, which blend mushrooms with CBD. TerraVita’s Shrooms bled contains Reishi, Cordyceps, and Lion’s Mane in a formula geared towards fortifying the immune system, relieving stress, and boosting cognitive function, while the Relax formula combines Reishi with the ayurvedic herb Ashwagandha, GABA, and L-Theanine to calm and restore.

Pantry’s Good Day Bites are getting attention for their line of superfood bites which contain 5 milligrams 1:1 THC:CBD as well as adaptogens and functional mushrooms. Pantry solicited the culinary expertise of nutritionists, doctors, and Michelin star chef Michael Magliano to come up with their line of medicinal treats. The line also includes Nite Bites and Cacao Keto Bites, which contain mushrooms, adaptogens, and cannabinoids like THC, CBD, and CBN. Pantry’s website has a dosage calculator to help customers figure out how much of these dime-sized chocolates to consume in order to achieve the desired quantity of “good vibes”.

 Buddha Teas, HempWorks, and 7 Wonders Mushrooms are also recruiting functional mushrooms to the cause of optimal health, with more companies rallying to the trend. Consumers can expect to see more products that celebrate the synergy of cannabis and functional mushrooms, as scientists hustle to provide the research to keep up with (and substantiate) the combination’s growing popularity. 

The power of the social media influencer has evolved from a curiosity of internet culture to a fixture of the modern-day marketplace, and one that brands across sectors ignore at their peril. Brands that are having their social media pages deleted for content violations are now relying on influencers to help market their products, and cannabis brands are no exception. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), in particular, has a low tolerance for the marijuana industry, freely deactivating or restricting accounts dedicated to cannabis content where there has been a perceived breach of terms of service or user complaints. But on Instagram perhaps more than anywhere else online, the influencer reigns supreme—a reality that is helping to keep marijuana companies in the social media spotlight.

Over the past year, brands like Canndescent, Papa & Barkley, Hervé, and cannabis subscription box service Nugg Club have utilized influencers to promote their products, to great success. Nugg Club in particular has worked with over 1200 influencers since July 2020, and 700 influencers so far in 2021. Cannabis companies are tapping influencers from a range of demographics, including mommy bloggers, eccentric performers like Kimmy Tan, and food bloggers who are a good match for their brands in order to flog their products. Consumers are watching, and spending, accordingly. Influencers have a ready-made platform and attentive audience, with recent studies showing that social media influencers have 16 times higher engagement rates than paid media and media-owned alternatives. Social media sites tend to be more lenient with individual content, which makes influencers an ideal adaptation to online regulations around promoting cannabis.

With a billion monthly users, Instagram holds a lot of marketing potential for companies, as well as the power to deflate a campaign before it truly begins. Instagram is a major pipeline of information and communication for consumers, and when it closes that pipeline down due to brands attempting to sell or promote the sale of drugs on their pages, the disruption can be devastating. Cannabis companies are permitted to have a presence on the platform in order to raise awareness or talk about cannabis-related issues like legalization, but this can be a slippery slope towards inducing the sale of cannabis, linking to e-commerce sites that sell it, or baldly marketing products. These, at least on Instagram, are major no-no’s. 

Once an account is deleted it can be reinstated under certain circumstances, but the lapse in outreach capability can be the difference between a successful brand and a fail costing millions of dollars. Many companies have launched protests over inconsistencies in Instagram’s implementation of their terms of service, claiming a lack of clarity and specifics regarding what content is and is not allowed. Whether it is the rules themselves or the enforcement thereof that is inconsistent, the impact of social media silence on businesses and the trend towards tapping social media influencers to pick up the marketing slack is indisputable.

Cannabis data and analytics specialist Headset just released its latest report comparing US medical and recreational cannabis market development, bearing results that reveal sales patterns and unifying trends across the industry.  The report’s findings are grounded in the context of the predominant pattern of a three-step process in cannabis market development, including prohibition, medical access, and adult-use legalization. 

Though there are exceptions to this evolution where markets leapfrog medical use and go straight from cannabis prohibition to adult-use legalization, flagship states like California, which approved medical use in 1996 but took another twenty years to allow adult-use cannabis, follow a more predictable pattern. The report compares California’s slower rollout to Illinois accelerated process, evident in its shorter six-year span between medical and recreational legalization. 

The Medical To Rec Jump

Due to the time-tested predictability of this market pattern, industry analysts are using it to make sense of the past, paint a clearer picture of the present, and forecast future sales patterns in states such as New York, New Jersey, and Montana, which will all be transitioning to recreational use this year. Headset’s report also looks at cannabis markets in Illinois and Michigan, which made the medical-to-recreational transition fairly recently, and Colorado and Oregon, which jumped on that bandwagon much sooner. Overall, analytics show significant growth when markets first transition to adult-use, as illustrated by Illinois’ 226% gain in the period between the January 2020 launch of their recreational market to July 2021. Michigan’s recreational use program may have had a more sluggish start, but its total adult-use sales still saw a whopping increase of 1077% over the same period.

The impact of adult-use legalization on the medical market is less predictable and more state-specific. While Illinois medical use sales initially held steady once adult-use legalization passed, Michigan saw 75% growth in medical sales between January 2020 and July 2021. Still, the proportion of total cannabis sales to medical patients in Michigan has steadily declined since the introduction of the recreational market, and Illinois saw a steady decline over the first quarter resulting in an all-time low of 20.9% in July 2021. However, Colorado and Oregon, two of the most mature recreational markets in the country, offer some evidence that adult-use legalization is not necessarily a death knell for medical use. Oregon’s medical sales have held steady at 8-12% since the beginning of 2020 with Colorado topping that over the previous twelve months at between 18-20%.

Medical Patients Spend More

Buying behavior differences between recreational and medical use consumers can impact the market as well. Headset data shows that medical consumers tend to purchase more product at one time (a metric they refer to as “basket size”) than recreational consumers, giving Oregon as a prime example, where pre-tax average basket size for medical patients over a 90 day period was a staggering 99% larger than that of recreational use customers. Consumer differences carried over into preferred consumables as well, with medical patients trending higher in concentrate consumption versus the recreational user predilection for edibles and pre-rolls. 

In the end, lower taxes, higher potency THC products and more knowledgeable staff and sales experience give the medical use market enough of an edge that it shows some promise of holding its own, even with the advent of adult-use legalization. Given the astronomical growth spurt of new adult-use markets, however, Headset’s latest findings suggest that medical cannabis will be lucky to maintain its ten to twenty percent of total market share.

Job growth for the United States in April 2021 might not have quite matched expectations with a disappointing increase of 266,000 jobs and an unemployment rate rise for the first time since 2020, but executive search and staffing firm Cannabiz Team’s latest Cannabis Industry Salary Guide for Q2 2021 tells a different story for the cannabis market. With 320,000 full-time cannabis jobs in the U.S., the cannabis industry ranks as the fastest-growing industry in America. As cannabis legalization spreads, projections have cannabis hitting $35 billion dollars in sales and providing 500,000 full-time jobs by 2024. Cannabiz’s report covers the rising demand for skilled staff, how this is driving compensation, and how big-name MSO’s are starting to scout outside of the industry for top-dollar talent.

At present, adult-use cannabis is legal in 17 states and D.C. and medical marijuana is legal in 36, with Connecticut, Minnesota, and Hawaii poised to follow suit. This not only means heightened demand for products, more growing operations, and production facilities coming online, and more business owners applying for licenses, but more jobs all around. Cannabiz’s Q2 jobs guide highlights where the “hot jobs” are in this expanding market, including those within supply chain management, large-scale cultivation, product and brand development, finance and accounting, administrative infrastructure, and retail. Cannabis salaries are up across the board in these sectors and others, with double-digit increases for experienced managers and C-suite executives. The report attributes these increases to competition and a shortage of employees with specialized cannabis experience or transferable skills. 

New recruits from outside the industry are coming from all corners of the U.S. economy, most significantly from the food and beverage, pharmaceutical, agricultural, medical supply, CPG, technology, and retail industries. John Deere, Proctor and Gamble (NYSE: PG), and Tesla are among the country’s largest companies from which multi-state cannabis operations are sourcing recruits. 

Unsurprisingly, California comes in first in the number of total cannabis jobs at 58,000, with Colorado and Florida nearly tied for second with 35K and 31K total cannabis jobs respectively. Oklahoma and Pennsylvania hover at the bottom of the “Top Cannabis Jobs” list by state with 17K and 16K respectively. 

With a cannabis company’s Chief Financial Officer’s earning potential placed at a high of over $400,00 a year according to Cannabiz data, it’s easy to see where those double digit increases fall, especially since jobs at the public-facing retail end, say for a budtender, top out at a high of around $40,000 a year. Lower-paying jobs did see a salary increase as well, though only in the single digits- a gap that stands to narrow as legalization, investment, and expansion maintains momentum for the cannabis industry.

The Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has worked for the last 35 years to shift the perception around psychedelics as a treatment tool for mental health issues. Now, with the release of data from its Phase III trial with the FDA for the use of MDMA (ecstasy) to treat PTSD, MAPS’ work has coalesced into findings that could change the mental health treatment landscape as we know it. 

MDMA is on the cusp of FDA approval to treat PTSD, not just for military veterans, but for an array of people who have suffered from abuse and other trauma-inducing events. In 2017, the FDA granted MDMA “breakthrough therapy status” in anticipation of approving it as a medication for mental health, and the release of MAPS’ latest statistically significant findings constitutes a huge leap towards legalization. 

The conversation around the legalization of psychedelic drugs is not new to the mental health community. Trials testing the efficacy of psychedelics such as LSD for mental illness began as early as the 1950s. By the 1960s more than 1,000 papers had been published about LSD as a treatment for depression, alcoholism, schizophrenia, and as an adjunct to psychotherapy. These trials lacked the scientific rigor necessary for legitimacy in the eyes of the FDA, but due in no small part to the work of MAPS, legitimacy is no longer the stumbling block it once was.

 MDMA showed efficacy for treating PTSD in six MAPS Phase II trials, providing a cost-saving and clinically beneficial treatment for those with severe or extreme chronic PTSD resulting from any cause. The Phase III trial is the first of any psychedelic-assisted therapy. It was a randomized, blinded study designed under an FDA-approved Special Protocol Assessment. 90 patients with severe, chronic PTSD were enrolled in the trial and randomized to receive either MDMA or a placebo. The results, according to the lead author of the paper, Jennifer Mitchell, Ph.D., were significant. “People with the most difficult-to-treat diagnosis, often considered intractable, respond just as well to this novel treatment as other participants. In fact, participants diagnosed with the dissociative type of PTSD experienced a greater reduction in symptoms than those without the dissociative subtype.”

The Phase III trial data revealed that 67% of the group who received MDMA no longer qualified for a PTSD diagnosis after three treatment sessions (compared to 32% of the placebo group). 88% of participants in the MDMA sessions experienced a clinically significant reduction in symptoms, as opposed to 60% of the placebo group who received therapy alone. Mitchell attributes MDMA’s effectiveness to its role as a catalyst in therapy, which often involves recalling, and frequently reactivating, previous trauma. “The unique ability of MDMA to raise compassion and understanding while tamping down fear is likely what enables it to be so effective.”

Researchers are currently enrolling participants in a second Phase III trial and MAPS is formulating plans for additional studies to evaluate MDMA’s efficacy for mental health conditions not yet explored, as well as other protocols beyond one-on-one sessions, including group therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy focused on couples. The fact that MDMA is currently classified as a Schedule I drug and defined as having “no medical benefit” means that the only way to receive MDMA-assisted therapy right now is through clinical trials. However, the FDA has given its blessing to an expanded access program so that 50 patients can access MDMA-assisted therapy before it is approved and MAPS has committed to confronting accessibility and equity issues from its own side of the table. While not a sure thing, with MAPS’ latest data and continued efforts in alignment with FDA requirements the hoped-for 2023 FDA approval of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD is closer to becoming a reality than ever before.