WeedLife News Network

Consider for a moment the three most widely used drugs on earth: caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol. Collectively, they represent a nearly $2.7 trillion global market —$420 billion in the United States alone. Each has been socialized into our collective consciences and even enjoy a sanctioned time for daily use: the coffee break, the smoke break, and happy hour. Two of the three are beverages.

Cannabis has quickly emerged as the fourth leg of this legal-use psychoactive stool. This has tremendous implications for investors and operators alike, as consumer preferences are migrating from artificial and invigorating products to natural and calming. Twenty-five of the top food and beverage companies in the US had an $18 billion loss in market share in just the last five years. Consumers want functional benefits, craft appeal, natural ingredients, experimental flavors, and low caloric counts. These trends, when combined with the health benefits of cannabis, are likely to drive outsized growth in infused beverages in the decade ahead.

1. Cannabis beverages have been around for centuries.

While it may appear that cannabis drinkables are a relatively new idea, cannabis has been used in medicinal beverage preparations throughout history. The Chinese have enjoyed Mafeisan for thousands of years, while Indians have long referred to bhang as the ancient Nectar Of the Gods. Bhang is sold today at government-licensed stores in India, having never been made illegal due to its religious ties as the official drink marking the arrival of spring. As public opinion and the stigma associated with recreational cannabis throughout the world continues to soften, consumers search for social and innovative ways to consume their favorite cannabinoids.

2. Cannabis-beverage science is getting better.

Infused drinkables currently hold a market share of under 1 percent in the US, a figure that is far too low when compared with industry estimates for a $2.8 billion global cannabis beverage market by 2025. Advances in cannabis science is a factor behind this anticipated growth.

Up until recently, crafting cannabis beverages has been challenging. Cannabinoids are oily, fat-soluble substances that do not mix easily in water-based beverages. Oral consumption has thus traditionally been facilitated with oil and butter infusion. That's why gummies, brownies, and confectionaries comprise the majority of infused edibles today. The opposing nature of cannabinoids and water has challenged product developers with taste masking, dosing uniformity, and shelf-life stability. Formulation technologies honed in the pharmaceutical (60 percent of newly marketed pharmaceutical drugs demonstrate poor water solubility) and food industries can help circumvent some of these challenges while bringing infused beverage ‘onset’ closer to the 7 to 10 minutes that alcohol enjoys, instead of the 75 to 120-minute traditional edible average.

Oklahoma law enforcement officers patrolling the state’s roads and highways may soon have a new tool for testing drivers who they believe may be under the influence of marijuana.

Signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt on May 2, HB 4161 directs the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety to spend $300,000 to create a pilot program to explore the use of breathalyzers to detect tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the primary psychoactive component of marijuana.

Rep. Scott Fetgatter (R-Okmulgee) is among the most engaged state legislators on the topic of Oklahoma’s medical marijuana industry. He said he had first raised the idea of a breathalyzer program at “a meeting in February with representatives from city police, county sheriffs and the Department of Public Safety.”

“We took them through the science behind the breathalyzer, and I took a vote among those in the room if they were interested, and it was unanimous,” he said. “They were all in favor of the idea of a pilot program.”

The development of a device to detect THC from a user’s breath has puzzled scientists for years. Having a dependable breathalyzer would solve a sticky problem for officers in the field, who lack the ability to accurately and quickly test impaired drivers rather than using drug recognition experts and blood tests.

The discovery of the endocannabinoid system in the mid-1980s was a major breakthrough in modern medicine. Yet, if you looked at the curriculum for most medical schools, you might not know it. The finding would not have been possible without the help of the cannabis plant, which remains illicit in most countries around the world. After wide-spread legalization of medical cannabis and over three decades of research, knowledge about the endocannabinoid system and its associated pathologies, like clinical endocannabinoid deficiency, remain sorely overlooked.

The Endocannabinoid System: The Find of the Century?

Two decades before the discovery of the endocannabinoid system, a team of scientists led by Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, a professor of medical chemistry a the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, had finally isolated the primary psychoactive constituent of the cannabis plant—tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). After the discovery, researchers around the globe began the quest to figure out exactly how the compound worked.  A group led by Dr. Allyn Howlett, a neuroscientist then with St. Louis University, finally cracked the mystery: THC produced its psychoactive effects through engagement with specialized cell receptors.

A cell receptor can be thought of as a lock that is embedded on the surface of a cell membrane. These locks only respond to specific chemical keys. In this case, THC was the key that engaged a cannabinoid receptor. As research would soon reveal, cannabinoid receptors are part of a larger endocannabinoid system (ECS), a neurotransmitter and cell signaling network like none other.  Made up of receptor sites, their respective chemical activators, and the enzymes that deactivate these compounds, scientists quickly unveiled that the ECS was ubiquitous throughout the human body. Cannabinoid receptors are nearly everywhere — connective tissue, the brain, the spinal cord, internal organs, the digestive tract, the skin, and immune cells.

After what surely was many long hours in the lab, Howlett and her team landed on something big. Why on earth would these receptors be found in so many places? Nearly three decades down the line, scientists are still exploring the wide-reaching ramifications of the endocannabinoid system, Howlett included. In the time since its first discovery, the ECS has been found to be a potent regulator of brain activity, hormonal function, and immune response, linking the three main regulatory systems together. It’s this pervasive modulatory network that responds to THC and other cannabis constituents. When a person consumes intoxicating forms of cannabis, THC hijacks the cannabinoid receptor sites that are normally inhabited by compounds that the body produces naturally.

These compounds are called endocannabinoids. The prefix endo- refers to endogenous or internal cannabinoids. In contrast, the cannabinoids found on the cannabis plant are phytocannabinoids with the prefix phyto referring to plants. As it turns out, endocannabinoids are molecules that help maintain a state of equilibrium, or homeostasis, throughout the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. Endocannabinoids play the part of harmonizers or middlemen, managing how each of these systems responds to stressful stimuli and communicates with the others.

Cannabis is gaining momentum as a wellness trend. Preclinical studies have shown it can help treat epilepsy, depression, anxiety, inflammation, and can make living with cancer much more bearable.

One of the hemp plant’s substances – CBD or cannabidiol – is causing the most hype. Today we can find it almost anywhere – from food and drinks, through decorative cosmetics, to oils and topicals that can be purchased legally in physical or online stores. 

The situation is a bit different with THC, the second of the two predominant cannabis compounds. That’s why there’s often a comparison between these two cannabinoids – the CBD vs. THC argument.

But let’s back up a bit. 

Cannabinoids 101

Cannabinoids are active organic chemical compounds that affect cannabinoid receptors in the human body.