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It is not controversial to say that craft beer has transformed the beer industry, taking market share from big players such as Molson as consumers’ tastes have embraced smaller breweries.

Could the same shakeup happen within the cannabis industry with craft cannabis?

Craft cannabis is grown in smaller batches and some argue is higher quality than big license producers’ (LPs) cannabis.

However, for craft cannabis to disrupt the legal market, growers who have thrived in the grey market would have to go legal and accept some restrictions that come along with it.

Cannabis business accelerator Grow Tech Labs recently predicted that if just 15 percent of British Columbia’s 6,000 grey market craft cannabis growers got licenses and entered the legal market, they could generate nearly $3 billion in cannabis sales over two years.

Greencamp went deep on craft cannabis and talked to a few industry professionals to see if craft cannabis really can become the new craft beer.

What is craft cannabis?

Craft cannabis is smaller batch cannabis grown by smaller farms, but in simpler terms it is largely made up of the legacy market before legalization. This includes legendary cannabis strains such as B.C. bud, the colloquial name for cannabis grown in British Columbia that many knew as the good stuff before legalization.

Farmers can now get a micro-cultivation license from Health Canada that allows them to grow up to 2,150 square feet of cannabis, compared to the hundreds of thousands of square feet big LPs often have to grow their crops.

This limit in how much can be grown allows craft growers to give their product more love and care, which some say makes all the difference.

According to Lisa Campbell, who works for Lifford Wine & Spirits and helps craft cannabis producers find fair prices for their products, one of the biggest differences between craft cannabis and industrial cannabis is that it is hand trimmed versus machine trimmed.

Campbell explained that cannabis has trichomes — little crystals that look like tiny mushrooms with bulbous heads under a microscope. They cover the plant and produce its terpenes and cannabinoids, which contribute to cannabis’ flavour and effects.

Campbell says that big LP cannabis is stored in warehouses for a long time and becomes very dry, and when it is machine trimmed, the heads of the trichomes fall off.

“Almost every LP’s product that I look at through a microscope, all the trichome heads are bounced off,” she said. “That is definitely going to reduce the strength of your cannabis, if you knock off the trichome heads.”

Overall, Campbell says that because big LPs are publicly traded companies, they are mostly concerned about meeting volume commitments to provinces and keeping costs low, and that hurts quality in the long run.

“You can’t test every single package to make sure the consumer will be happy and getting quality products,” she said.

On the other hand, craft cannabis is often hand trimmed, which gives it more dense crystals and better aroma, Campbell says.

Patrick Brauckmann, executive chairman of craft cannabis collective Pasha Brands, goes even further than Campbell on craft cannabis’ advantages.

He says that craft cannabis has a different chemical profile than industrial cannabis, even if the genetics are the same. This means the cannabis’ levels of terpenes and cannabinoids are different, which affects its high as the chemicals play off the THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, in what is known as the “entourage effect.”

Brauckmann says that craft cannabis’ different chemical profile is due to how it is cultivated — its food, light, air, and the farmer’s intentions.

“In many cases, [the farmers] are very artistic in the way they approach their business,” he said. “They want to get it right, they’re less concerned with economics than just growing something fabulous and they enjoy smoking.”

Micro-cultivator licenses a ‘challenge’

In order for craft cannabis to legitimately give big LPs a run for their money in Canada, farmers have to be tempted to switch from the grey market to the legal market.

However, this is proving to be a challenge for a number of reasons.

Campbell says a lot of farmers are hesitant to apply for a micro-cultivation license because they’re worried about high taxation, or they won’t get the prices they’d like for their buds.

“It costs a lot of money to apply, so if you’re going to apply you want to make sure your products fetch a good price,” she said.

It costs $2,500 for a micro-cultivation license from Health Canada, which allows producers to grow up to 2,150 square feet of cannabis either indoors or outdoors, and another $2,500 for a micro-processing license, which allows the flower to be packaged and processed. A micro-processing license allows 600 kg of dried flower to be processed a year.

Campbell says the size restriction of micro-cultivation licenses makes meeting consumers’ demands a challenge — even big LPs are having trouble satiating entire provinces.

Health Canada’s strict and lengthy licensing process also is a hurdle for craft cannabis producers, according to Brauckmann.

Applications can be up to 225 pages, and Brauckmann says getting a security clearance alone can take up to a year.

Some farmers not adept at bureaucracy might need to hire consultants, which can add to their costs, and now applicants have to prove they have a facility built before they can apply due to a change of policy from Health Canada, which means making a huge investment with no guarantee of a license.

Campbell says there are currently around 200 micro-cultivator applicants in the queue, but only two or three actual licenses have been given so far.

Could craft cannabis be the new craft beer?

It is still early in the game to really tell what impact craft cannabis will have on the market, but Campbell thinks it could definitely pose a serious threat to big LPs’ market share.

She likens craft cannabis to a group of small fish that take down the bigger fish piecemeal, and says big LPs are already reacting to the coming “craft revolution” by getting in on it themselves.

“Of course LPs are scared of the coming craft revolution and are trying to work with the smaller companies to capture market share by working with them,” Campbell said. “They know if they don’t work with it, it will consume their market share.”

Craft brands such as Broken Coast and Whistler have already been bought by bigger LPs Aphria and Aurora, respectively.

Big LPs also might start developing their own craft lines in-house, according to cannabis LP Aleafia’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Michael Verbora.

Verbora says Aleafia is already developing smaller growing spaces that could give it the ability to enter the craft market.

Although craft cannabis has a lot going for it, it does face some hurdles to gaining market share.

Verbora says that many consumers are price sensitive and tend towards higher THC products, not taking into consideration other cannabis components, such as terpenes.

At up to $22 a gram for some craft strains, such as ones from Whistler in the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS), craft cannabis could be a tough sell to some consumers.

That higher price point could also limit craft cannabis in other product categories, such as concentrates and edibles that will be legal in Canada by the end of the year.

They are expected to be huge business, but Verbora questions whether consumers would pay extra for “craft oil” that might be made from higher quality cannabis and be more balanced than THC-heavy standard concentrates and edibles, such as by having higher terpene levels.

“The vast majority of patients are still going to use oils that are cost effective,” he said. “If patients are paying out of pocket, they will gravitate to the lower cost one typically because the issues they are dealing with.”

However, Bauckmann thinks consumers will want to go for a more balanced high compared to the knockout punch some edibles can provide.

“I fully expect oil products will be phenomenal going forward in the craft world,” he said.

In the end, Verbora thinks craft cannabis’ success really depends on marketing, similar to how craft beer got its footing with eye catching labels and brewery tours and tastings, but right now marketing restrictions are extremely tight in Canada.

Campbell, though, envisions craft cannabis could one day follow craft beer’s footsteps and offer its own “farm gate sales,” where people could tour from farm-to-farm and taste what’s on offer.

“If you had a micro-processing license and had a property, to allow people to buy on site and have farm gate sales would actually create a whole new tourism industry in Canada,” she said.

While such tours are currently illegal in Canada, Campbell says that it is “written in the legislation” in Ontario that producers will have the ability to have farm gate sales.

The Wrap

It is still very early in the game to tell whether craft cannabis will really hit it off with consumers, but with more opportunities to experience it themselves in legal dispensaries — and potentially one day consumption lounges — their tastes could change and mature. Given “craft cannabis” is what many consumed pre-legalization, the demand could be high for products to return to those glory days — the question is whether craft producers can deliver in the legal market.

The word on the street is that Congress is set to finally take action on legislation in the coming weeks that will allow banks to do business with the cannabis industry. It is known as the SAFE Banking Act, a measure that has attracted bipartisan support, and is quite possibly, depending on which naïve news force is reporting, the most likely step to ending federal marijuana prohibition in the United States.

But while the SAFE Banking Act has enough support to become the first concrete marijuana-related measure to make it out of the U.S. House of Representatives in all of history, there isn’t much hope that it will find the kind of endorsement needed to make it all the way. So if you’re feeling optimistic about the future of pot reform in America, don’t. Because Congress is still entirely too flawed to come together on this issue in 2019.

Cannabis advocates rejoiced earlier this year when the House Financial Committee approved the SAFE Banking Act, setting it up to go before the full House for a vote in the near future. Well, the time has come for lawmakers in the lower chamber to party. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer recently told CNN that he intends to bring the banking bill to the House floor for a vote before the end of September.

“We’re discussing it with members, but it hasn’t been scheduled just yet,” Mariel Saez, a spokesperson for Hoyer’s office confirmed with the new source on Monday.

In all seriousness, as long as there aren’t any pesky amendments introduced in the 11th hour, the SAFE Banking Act has found the approval necessary to move out of the House, as is. The bill has attracted a massive outpouring of support from Democrats (180 co-sponsors) and it has more Republican backers (26 co-sponsors) than one might expect. In fact, the banking bill is almost keyed up exactly how marijuana legislation needs to be in order to stand a fighting chance at going the distance in the halls of Congress.

Only the support for this potentially groundbreaking legislation is, while bipartisan in some regards, still pretty much one-sided. The Senate, a crucial component in getting this thing stamped and sent to the desk of President Trump for a signature, is not at all enthused about pot banking, and there is no sign that the upper chamber is going to so much as entertain the bill, much less push it through.

Everyone keeps forgetting that no matter how much the House wants to pass pot reform in 2019, the Senate still isn’t there. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the man who championed industrial hemp legalization 2.0, last year, still isn’t very keen on marijuana. He has said before that he has absolutely no interest in getting behind legislation aimed at legalizing marijuana in the United States. But more than he hates weed, at least the one that gets people stoned, the Kentucky Reaper despises the Democratic agenda. And while he didn’t expressly point to pot when he stood before his constituents earlier this year pledging to put a stop to any Democratic proposal that crosses his path, McConnell likely has a total ban on putting anything led by Democrats on the Senate docket.

“I would be shocked if Sen. McConnell wanted to spend a single second of floor time on weed,” one veteran lobbyist told Politico.

Even if McConnell is growing soft when it comes to marijuana, and that’s a big if, chances are the big cheese of the Senate still isn’t going to entertain the SAFE Banking bill if it makes it out of the House. Not with an election year on the horizon. He’s not going to want to show the American voters that the Democrats have any real power on Capitol Hill. And as of now, they don’t. No, the only way pot reform is going to make it out of Congress this year, regardless of whether it is a modest banking bill or one geared toward ending prohibition nationwide, is if it is a plan concocted by President Trump and Mitch McConnell behind closed doors. That’s the only way this plays out in 2019, and the potential of that happening doesn’t seem likely at this juncture.

House Democrats could also totally fumble on the banking bill prior to the vote, jamming it up with unnecessary amendments that not everyone agrees upon, putting it in a position where it doesn’t even make it to the Senate. One thing is sure, we are perhaps just weeks away from finding out who the real friends of the cannabis industry are in Congress. You’re going to want to take notes. 

Still, House lawmakers are optimistic that the SAFE Banking bill will find a way to succeed. U.S. Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, who chairs the all-powerful House Rules Committee, said earlier this week that “It’s a political liability not to take action,” on the banking bill. Members of Congress and Senate will have to answer to their constituents if they don’t act on this,” he told the Boston Herald.

But do they really care?

A federal judge in Indiana ruled last week that the state’s law banning smokable forms of hemp is unconstitutional and has issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting enforcement of the statute. In a ruling issued on September 13, Judge Sarah Evans Barker of the Southern District of Indiana said that Indiana’s law prohibiting the manufacturing, financing, delivery, and possession of smokable hemp is preempted by federal law.

Barker wrote in her ruling that enforcing the law would cause “irreparable harm in the form of a credible threat of criminal sanctions” without a preliminary injunction.

The federal government legalized hemp and removed the crop and all hemp products from the nation’s list of controlled substances with the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill in December. But when Indiana passed Senate Bill 516 earlier this year to regulate hemp agriculture in the state, it included the ban on smokable forms of hemp flower.

Smokable Hemp Confusing Cops

The legalization of hemp has led to a proliferation of smokable products that are generally rich in CBD, including dried hemp flower and pre-rolled joints. But the immense popularity of the products has led some states to ban smokable forms of hemp, arguing that law enforcement cannot readily determine if a substance is hemp or marijuana.

Barker ruled that the confusion was not a legal justification for treating some forms of hemp as a controlled substance, writing that “the fact that local law enforcement may need to adjust tactics and training in response to changes in federal law is not a sufficient basis for enacting unconstitutional legislation”

The judge also issued an immediate injunction to block enforcement of the smokable hemp provisions in Senate Bill 516, saying that the plaintiffs, all but one of whom are Indiana businesses that sell hemp products, should not have to wait to determine how much business was lost to the smokable hemp ban and file a lawsuit later.

“The likely unconstitutional portions of the statute cannot be easily measured or reliably calculated, given the novelty of the hemp industry in Indiana and the dearth of historical sales data to use as a baseline for calculating lost revenues,” Barker wrote.

Jim Decamp, the owner of Owlslee CBD in downtown Indianapolis, told local media that while he understands the concerns of law enforcement, he supports Judge Barker’s ruling.

“I don’t know the answer to that problem, but I feel like the benefits that clients get from THC-free hemp flower is something that they really want and need,” Decamp said.

Two other states, Louisiana and Texas, have also banned smokable forms of hemp and North Carolina is considering a similar measure. Tennessee has banned the sale of smokable hemp to minors.

Taking a relaxing bath at the end of a long day is one of the most luxurious ways to treat yourself. An evening soak can relax sore muscles, replenish the skin, and offer a temporary escape from daily stressors. If you already enjoy the tranquility of soothing bath treatments, you’re going to absolutely love the all-around rejuvenating experience of a CBD bath.

As more is learned about the botanical benefits of cannabidiol (CBD), one of the most abundant natural cannabinoids found in cannabis, consumers are exploring different ways of using cannabinoids for wellness. Today, you can bring CBD hemp oil and its detoxifying and rejuvenating benefits with you into the bathroom with a CBD bath.

Hemp oil bath products have grown in popularity in recent years, with the natural mind and body balancing effects of cannabidiol (CBD) making its way into CBD soaking salts, CBD bath bombs, and CBD bath soaks. 

While human skin in general has low permeability and blocks most substances from being absorbed, soaking in infused CBD bath soaks allow the nourishing cannabinoid to overcome this barrier and penetrate the skin’s surface where it can soothe, fortify, and moisturize.

How Are CBD Bath Products Absorbed Through the Skin?

While you relax with a CBD bath soak, the CBD and other skin promoting nutrients infused into your favorite CBD bath product pass through the epidermis, glands, and hair follicles on the skin’s surface. 

Skin Benefits of CBD Salt Baths

Exposure to the world around us can damage our skin, leaving it painfully dry and cracked. One of the most important steps to maintaining healthy skin, hair, and nails is to provide them the right vitamins and minerals to function at their best.

Beside the botanical benefits of CBD, hemp oil bath products offer other essential nutrients that protect and rejuvenate the skin. Full spectrum hemp oil contains a list of vitamins, minerals, proteins, and fatty acids. 

Hemp contains the optimal ratio of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, which serve as great emollients to soften and smooth the hair and skin. Key elements in a natural skin care diet, these fatty acids are the building blocks of healthy cell membranes and produce the skin’s natural oil barrier that is critical in keeping the skin hydrated and supple.

The collection of vitamins found in CBD bath products, including CBD infused salts and bombs leave the skin looking radiantly healthy and feeling silky soft. Responsible for skin growth and metabolism, vitamins A and D play an essential role in skin repair. Vitamins C and E serve as antioxidants by rejuvenating the skin’s protective outer layer, and protecting it against damage from the sun and free radicals.

How CBD Bath Products Differ From Other CBD Products

Thanks to the growing demand for CBD and great advances in CBD hemp oil product development over the past few years, there are now a wide variety of CBD hemp oil products available. Beside CBD bath and beauty products, consumers can select from CBD dietary supplements in the form of CBD oil concentrates, capsules, and CBD tinctures or liquids.

With soothing CBD bath products, rather than ingesting or inhaling CBD oil products orally, which requires metabolism by the liver and will distribute the oil’s natural compounds throughout the whole body, the hemp oil’s cannabinoids and other nutrients are absorbed directly into the skin for more localized and focused attention. 

Because the nutrients of CBD bath products are absorbed through the skin, the hemp oil’s cannabinoids, vitamins, and minerals never reach the bloodstream. Instead, the CBD interacts with cannabinoid receptors located throughout the skin to provide botanical benefits where they’re needed most.

Because the cannabinoids never reach the bloodstream, even cannabis bath products that contain the psychoactive cannabinoid tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) will never cause an intoxicating high. Still, cannabinoid infused bath products derived from marijuana are only available in states that have legalized recreational or medical marijuana. Hemp CBD bath products, on the other hand, are available in most major markets.

Bathing with CBD

While the idea of a CBD bath soak is relatively new, a variety of cannabis bath products have already hit the market.

Soothing CBD salts, CBD bath soaks, and CBD bombs blend full spectrum cannabis oil extracts with other high quality carrier oils and aromatherapeutic essential oils, natural fragrances, and additional skin nourishing bathing salts, like magnesium rich Epsom salts and nutrient dense sea salts.

Drizzle your CBD bath product into a warm bath for a fizzy, invigorating explosion of color, scent, and moisturizing oils. The salts and oils dissolve when placed under running warm water to produce a botanical CBD extract infused soak.

CBD Bath Products from Medical Marijuana, Inc. 

Our online store offers a number of CBD bath products that allow you to capture the benefits of CBD oil for your skin and hair. 

HempMeds® Personal Care

The HempMeds® Personal Care line of CBD bath products was designed to maximize the effects of CBD and the nourishing properties of hemp. There are hemp oil infused bath products for every part of your bathing routine, helping you get the most out of the benefits of CBD. 

These products are crafted using natural botanicals like jojoba oil, almond oil, green tea extract, licorice oil, goji berry extract, peppermint oil, ginger oil, and argan oil. There are no sulfates, parabens, or artificial dyes, so you can feel good about using these products each day for a CBD bath or shower. 

The HempMeds® Personal Care line features the following products:

• Hydrating & Soothing Body Lotion
• Purifying Shampoo
• Revitalizing Body Wash
• Nourishing Conditioner
• Essential Body Oil

You can find our entire CBD bath and body care line products in our store, including CBD bath products, CBD sunscreen, CBD salve, and more. 

Next time you’re set to jump in the shower, consider swapping out your traditional body washes, shampoos, and conditioners for CBD bath products instead. 

Shop the Medical Marijuana, Inc. online store or visit our education page to discover more benefits to using CBD hemp oil products.

Marijuana and violence have been getting connected in odd ways over the past month or so. A new book argues that there is a connection, and a famous TV host has also raised the issue. Experts, on the other hand, have lined up to argue that they are both wrong.

The latest controversy over marijuana and violence got kickstarted by FOX News host Tucker Carlson when he recently interviewed  former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson.

Speaking about the mass shooter in Dayton, Ohio, Carlson said the young man was “known to be a long-time user of marijuana. It turns out, in fact, that many violent individuals have been avid marijuana users. Is there a connection?"

Studies Don't Support A Connection

The fact that Carlson brought this up is no surprise. Berenson has a book — called “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence” — that (if the title isn’t obvious enough) makes the connection between marijuana and violence.

His book essentially argues that marijuana use leads to psychosis, and that psychosis is connected with violent behavior. Carlson offered no pushback on Berenson’s book, according to PolitiFact. Rather, he praised the former reporter as a “voice in the wilderness.” 

Is he? Science suggestions the answer is “no.”

Katherine Newman, University of Massachusetts interim chancellor and author of a book on school shootings, told PolitiFact that the idea of marijuana use leading to violence is “absolute nonsense. There is no link whatsoever between marijuana and extreme violence.”

She’s far from alone. Scientists and clinicians wrote a public letter earlier this year that blasted Berenson’s book. Among their assertions is that the author attributed cause to mere association, cherry picked data and suffered from selection bias.

“In addition to his flawed use of science, Berenson’s argument outright ignores most of the harms of prohibition, focusing narrowly on the harms of marijuana use,” the letter stated. While acknowledging that “none would argue that marijuana is risk-free” they wrote that prohibition led to the “criminalization of millions of people, overwhelmingly black and brown.” 

They wrote: “Legalization is the less harmful approach.”

A British And Dutch Study IS Often Used As Source Material

British and Dutch researchers published a study that found marijuana increased violent behavior, but that involved people who already suffered from psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.

Even given that context, the researchers wrote this: “It is unclear to what extent different categories of illicit substances, as defined by their psychopharmacological effects, are related to violent behavior.”

Even one of the authors of the study used by Berenson in the book, Ziva Copper, the head of UCLA’s Cannabis Research Initiative, Tweeted that the study was not as conclusive as Berenson’s book suggested.

She wrote that the study found an association between marijuana and psychosis, but not that marijuana causes psychosis.

Patients in Pennsylvania were denied access to medical marijuana on Tuesday, the result of a crash in the system used to track sales. 

All such transactions in the state are processed through a tracking software system called MJ Freeway, which is required by the Pennsylvania Department of Health under the medical cannabis law there. 

But the system suffered intermittent glitches for about 90 minutes on Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for MJ Freeway, which stymied both producers and consumers. As a result, dispensaries throughout the state were unable to complete transactions to patients, and growers could not complete shipments to dispensaries because there was no way to log them in the system.

“It may have felt longer because it was intermittent,” MJ Freeway spokesperson Jeannette Horton told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “We’re very apologetic for the issues they experienced. Today, we’re hearing it’s all been resolved.”

The state of Pennsylvania has an exclusive $11 million contract with MJ Freeway, which is based in Colorado, to track medical marijuana, but the Inquirer described the company’s software as being “prone to chronic glitches.”

Christina Visco, president of TerraVida Holistic Centers, a company that operates three dispensaries in the Philadelphia suburbs, told the Inquirer that Tuesday’s glitches were frustrating for many patients.

“We turned away literally hundreds of patients yesterday,” Visco said. “The system was down all morning, came back up for a couple of hours, then crashed again.”

“I had product I couldn’t sell to anyone yesterday,” she added. “It never left my vault.”

It’s not the first setback for MJ Freeway’s tracking software in Pennsylvania. Last year, a number of cannabis retailers in the state were forced to suspend sales due to glitches and slowdowns with the company’s system. MJ Freeway has also dealt with glitches in Washington, where it also has a contract to track medical marijuana. 

The company’s software platform was also the subject of an apparent hack in 2017, which triggered outages at 1,000 marijuana retailers across more than 20 states. 

In an interview last year, MJ Freeway co-founder Amy Poinsett defended the company’s products, and said that improvements were being made following the 2017 hack.

“Could the hack have been prevented? Yes and no,” Poinsett told Marijuana Business Daily. “Now we know the specific points of vulnerability, they’ve been fortified, and we’ve added many additional layers of security. However, as systems age and hackers get more sophisticated, the vulnerabilities are ever-changing. So, in theory, every hack is preventable, and yet hacks are never 100% preventable. No company can claim they will never have one. Any company that says so is either lying or unsophisticated. We suffered outages in 2017 that were not related to cyberattacks. We owned that and resolved that by launching MJ Platform, a much more stable, modern, elegant architecture.”

Pennsylvania legalized medical marijuana in 2016 after Gov. Tom Wolf signed legislation allowing the treatment for more than a dozen qualifying conditions. MJ Freeway was awarded its contract with the state the following year.

Millions of Americans live with high cholesterol, which can increase the risk of developing heart disease, developing peripheral artery disease, or having a stroke — all of which are potentially life-threatening. Research is being conducted to determine whether patients with high cholesterol could see health benefits from using marijuana.

So far, scientists haven’t reached a conclusive verdict about whether cannabis can lower cholesterol, but while more research is needed, existing studies have raised some interesting points about marijuana’s potential role in the fight against high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease.

Marijuana Can Lower, Raise Good Cholesterol (HDL)

Cholesterol is an organic compound that naturally exists in all of your body’s cells.  Cholesterol is critical to various bodily functions, such as synthesizing vitamin D, making hormones, and producing substances your body needs to digest food properly. But while some cholesterol is essential to life, too much can wreak havoc on your health. According to the CDC, about 73.5 million American adults — roughly a third of the population — have high cholesterol, which can double the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

A 2013 study published in Diabetes Care examined the relationship between cannabis use, cholesterol levels, glucose (blood sugar), and insulin (a hormone that helps moderate glucose levels). It makes sense for researchers to study these variables together, because high cholesterol is associated with an increased risk of diabetes, which occurs when the body produces no insulin or insufficient insulin.

However, before digging into the study, it’s important to know that cholesterol can be described as “good” or “bad.” “Bad cholesterol” refers to LDL (low-density lipoprotein), while “good cholesterol” indicates HDL (high-density lipoprotein), which helps remove LDL deposits.

LDL (bad) cholesterol can accumulate inside your blood vessels, causing your arteries to become harder and narrower. Eventually, an artery can become so clogged that it gets completely blocked.  When this happens, blood can no longer reach the tissue or organs on the other side of the obstruction, leading to a stroke or heart attack (myocardial infarction).

This can occur whether you have diabetes or not, but diabetes patients are at an elevated risk for a number of reasons, including that diabetes has a tendency to decrease HDL levels while simultaneously raising LDL levels. The more LDL builds up in your arteries, the more likely you are to develop a blockage.

In the Diabetes Care study, researchers examined 30 “chronic cannabis smokers” whose median self-reported use was six joints per day over a period of nine and a half years.  (Participants’ use ranged anywhere from three to 30 joints per day, over a period of two to 38 years.) Slightly more than half of the participants — 18 out of 30 — were male.

According to the study, “Cannabis smokers had lower plasma HDL cholesterol,” but unchanged levels of LDL. That means heavy daily cannabis users had a decrease in good cholesterol, but no increase or decrease in bad cholesterol.  However, a study published the year before in BMJ Open found a different result: that “marijuana users had a higher prevalence of serum HDL cholesterol [and] total cholesterol.” In other words, an elevated level of good cholesterol.

The difference in findings is due partially to the fact that each study evaluated different bodily substances. The Diabetes study, which said that cannabis lowered good cholesterol while having no effect on bad cholesterol, examined participants’ blood plasma: yellow fluid that doesn’t contain any cells. The BMJ study, which came to the opposite conclusion, looked at participants’ blood serum: the part of your blood that remains after clotting occurs. Additionally, the cannabis use described in the Diabetes study was far heavier than the use described the BMJ study, which classified “heavy” use as more than five uses per month (as opposed to six joints per day).

Another study, published in 2007 in Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, also examined marijuana’s effects on LDL and HDL. The Neuroscience study, while critical of cannabis as a potential (though rare) trigger for schizophrenia or psychosis, also noted an increase in good cholesterol in patients who used a drug called Rimonabant.

Rimonabant actually blocks some of the effects of THC, but, like cannabis, acts on the brain’s CB1 receptors.  Intended as an anti-obesity drug, Rimonabant was never approved for use in the United States because subjects reported feelings of depression and suicidal ideation. However, the fact that Rimonabant is a CB1 antagonist, like Cannabidiol (CBD), further suggests that medical marijuana could potentially have applications in helping to improve your cholesterol.

Marijuana stocks have explosive potential. The global cannabis industry could generate annual sales as high as $200 billion within the next decade, according to investment bank Stifel. This would represent growth of more than 1,500% from the approximately $12 billion in sales the industry produced in 2018. 

The following three cannabis companies are particularly well-positioned to profit from the cannabis boom -- and investors who buy their stocks today should be well rewarded in the years ahead.

The cannabis superstore

Nevada is one of the most lucrative legal marijuana markets in the U.S. -- and Planet 13 Holdings (OTC:PLNHF) is the best way to play it. The dispensary company operates its massive SuperStore on the Las Vegas Strip. When it's fully built out, the high-end cannabis retail complex and entertainment center will span 112,000 square feet, which will make it the largest such destination in the world. 

Thanks in part to its huge selection of marijuana, cannabis extracts, and infused products, Planet 13's Vegas SuperStore already serves more than 2,000 customers per day. In turn, Planet 13 -- which saw its revenue surge 275% year over year to $16.5 million in the second quarter -- now accounts for nearly 10% of Nevada's cannabis dispensary sales. The pot purveyor is also becoming more profitable as it expands; its gross profit before biological adjustments soared 333% to $9.7 million, as gross margin improved to 58.7% from 50.8% in the year-ago quarter. 

Investors can expect Planet 13 Holdings' revenue and profits to head even higher in the year ahead. The company is gearing up to launch another cannabis superstore in California. The 40,000 square foot facility will be located about 10 minutes from Disneyland and only three miles from the South Coast Plaza mall, which hosts 24 million visitors a year.  

The CBD leader

Charlotte's Web Holdings (OTC:CWBHF) is the global market share leader in hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) products. Unlike marijuana, CBD doesn't get people high. But due to its perceived health benefits, CBD sales in the U.S. alone could approach $24 billion by 2023, according to analysts at Brightfield Group.

Charlotte's Web's CBD products can be found in more than 8,000 retail locations across the U.S., including some major chains such as CVS Health and Kroger. The company also has a rapidly growing e-commerce business, which accounts for nearly half its sales. 

Charlotte's Web's revenue climbed 45% year over year to $25 million in the second quarter. The company is ramping up its hemp production to meet the surging demand for CBD. In turn, analysts expect Charlotte's Web's revenue growth to accelerate to 90% in the third quarter, 108% in the fourth quarter, and 140% in 2020. Better still, Charlotte's Web's profits are projected to grow even faster, to the tune of 150% in Q3, 400% in Q4, and more than 260% in 2020. 

The real estate play

Innovative Industrial Properties (NYSE:IIPR) offers investors another intriguing and relatively low-risk way to profit from the cannabis boom. The real estate investment trust (REIT) acquires facilities that can be used to produce medical marijuana and leases them to state-licensed growers.

IIP's owns 30 properties in 12 U.S. states spanning 2.2 million rentable square feet. They're highly profitable, with an average return on capital of 14.5%. They generate steady, recurring cash flow, with an average lease term of nearly 16 years. And they have built-in inflation protection, with annual rent increases of 3%-4%. 

IIP passes its profits on to investors via a fast-growing dividend. The company recently boosted its quarterly cash payout to $0.78 per share. That's up 30% from the second quarter and 123% from the prior-year period. Investors can expect many more dividend increases from Innovative Industrial Properties in the coming years, as the REIT acquires more facilities and steadily increases its cash-generating abilities.