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Small producers have long been wary of the cannabis industry coming under domination by multistate operators (MSO’s) with the worst practices of corporate America. But the revelations of Russian oligarch money in the coffers of leading MSO Curaleaf appear to vindicate even the most cynical observers. These follow a slew of controversies concerning product safety and labor rights at the company.

Now based in the Boston suburb of Wakefield, adult-use cannabis colossus Curaleaf seems to exemplify the industry’s trajectory — from its origins as a local operation for medicinal users to its current status as a globe-spanning titan generating unsavory headlines and a string of scandals.

The World’s Largest Cannabis Company

Today Curaleaf ranks as the largest cannabis company in the world. Last year, it claimed $1.2 billion in profits. Until recently it had operations in 23 US states with 147 dispensaries, 22 cultivation sites, and 30 processing facilities.

Like other big MSOs, Curaleaf has achieved a dominant position in the cannabis industry by setting up operations primarily in “limited-license states . . . with natural high barriers to entry and limited market participants,” a strategy that helps “to ensure the company’s market share is protected,” according to the company’s annual investor filing in 2020.

But these “high barriers to entry” are hardly “natural.” They are constructed and promoted by policy-makers, regulators, and some opportunistic legalization advocates who favor restricting access to lucrative cannabis business licenses to a small number of well-heeled applicants.

Anyone who has paid any attention to the cannabis “wellness” industry in recent years — whether through state medical and recreational programs or the free-for-all national CBD market — will be familiar with cannabinoid-infused topicals marketed to treat minor aches and pains. Because they’re easy to use and non-intoxicating, these products may serve as familiar, low-risk entry-points for elderly, wary, or cannabis-naive individuals into the wider world of cannabis products.

Cannabis-infused salves, lotions, and the like work because cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 — as well as secondary targets including TRP (“trip”) channels, PPARs (nucleus receptors), and serotonin receptors — are abundantly expressed in skin cells.1,2 Topically applied cannabinoids can bind directly with these receptors and thus reduce local inflammation and pain.

But properly formulated cannabis topicals may be able to do more than just that. For decades, researchers have studied cannabinoids’ ability to treat clinical skin conditions like acne, ulcers, and dermatitis. In the skin, as elsewhere, the endocannabinoid system works broadly to maintain balance, proper functioning, and immune response, including through the synthesis of the endocannabinoids anandamide and 2-AG.3 It’s even possible that cannabinoids taken internally, and not simply via a localized topical, may be able to help — especially if a condition is more widespread.

While skin disease remains a relatively little-known indication for cannabis use, and certainly demands more specialized attention than your standard soothing balm, numerous recent papers suggest it’s an area well worth exploring.

Cannabinoids for Inflammatory Skin Diseases

To start, consider a recent article in the journal Pharmaceuticals4 that examines previous research into cannabis-based medicines for inflammatory skin diseases such as acne,5 eczema, dermatitis, and psoriasis. The Portugal-based authors review 29 studies published between 2003 and 2021, 13 of which used human subjects and the rest cell and animal models. None of the human studies involved oral intake of cannabinoids per se, though one did find that increased consumption of hemp seed oil, but not olive oil, was associated with reduced symptoms of atopic dermatitis. The authors of the original study attributed this to the high concentration in hemp seed oil of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are endocannabinoid precursors.

On Jan. 26, the FDA issued a CBD policy statement that reaffirmed its longstanding unwillingness or inability to regulate nonpharmaceutical CBD products. The announcement is riddled with disingenuous doublespeak, starting with the wordy title: “FDA Concludes that Existing Regulatory Frameworks for Foods and Supplements are Not Appropriate for Cannabidiol, Will Work with Congress on a New Way Forward.”

After stonewalling for years, the Foot Dragging Administration is basically admitting that its bureaucracy is unable to scale with the scope and magnitude of popular interest in CBD. So it’s passing the buck to Congress.

Perhaps a more incisive title would be: “FDA Concludes that Existing Regulatory Frameworks for Foods and Supplements are Not Appropriate.”

As per usual, the FDA reflexively privileges pharmaceutical CBD, which is so safe it’s not even considered a controlled substance. But as for nonpharmaceutical CBD — the FDA insists it’s too risky for public consumption.

It’s worth noting that cannabidiol (CBD), as a whole plant option or derivative has been available since 2010, and millions of people have used CBD products without apparent harm. A 2018 report by the World Health Organization concluded that CBD “is generally well-tolerated with a good safety profile [and] exhibits no effects indicative of any abuse or dependence potential.” A clinical trial by ValidCare assessing CBD’s impact on human liver function has given the compound a clean bill of health.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death globally. Millions of people treat heart disease by taking statins to regulate their cholesterol. Unfortunately, these drugs can cause muscle weakness and myopathy in some patients. Doctors once thought muscular pain was psychosomatic, but there’s more to it. Statin medications deplete cannabinoid receptor function, according to a recent study by a team of distinguished Italian scientists.

The study, released as a preprint on Research Square before peer review, suggests that simvastatin, a widely used medication, affects enzymes in the endocannabinoidome, the expanded endocannabinoid system encompassing several endogenous fatty acid compounds in addition to anandamide and 2-AG (the two most prominent endocannabinoids). More troublesome, though, is that simvastatin alters genes involved in regulating cannabinoid receptors.

Mapping cannabimimetic pathways manipulated by statins and redesigning existing medications to respect the endocannabinoidome could lead to therapeutic adjuvants that may limit adverse reactions to statins. This is critical, considering that statins are the most prescribed lipid-lowering agents worldwide — not only to lower cholesterol but also to inhibit inflammation and stabilize atherosclerotic plaques.

Statins & Lipid-Lowering Drugs

Statins reduce cholesterol by inhibiting an enzyme in the liver called HMG-CoA reductase. Overall, they lower low-density lipoprotein (bad cholesterol) and triglycerides, while increasing good cholesterol levels.

Lipid regulation helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. The lipidome, however, consists of endocannabinoids and endocannabinoid-like neurotransmitters. And this could be why statin medications, such as simvastatin, while generally well tolerated, can cause serious side effects, including pain and toxic myopathies, in some people.

Could two rights make a wrong? Cannabis and immunotherapy have both gained traction in the oncology field in recent years — one to help treat symptoms and the other as a gentler alternative to chemotherapy — but there’s been some concern that for cancer patients using both, the former could interfere with the latter.1,2  A newly published study in the European Journal of Cancer,3  however, suggests there may be nothing to fear.

Drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors are a form of immunotherapy that have transformed — with better targeting and less severe side effects — the treatment of many cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Immune checkpoint inhibitors are routinely administered as first-line treatments for NSCLC, either alone or in combination with chemotherapy.

Cannabis, too, has become more widely used among cancer patients over the past decade, paralleling its growing societal acceptance and expanding medical use. In addition to preclinical research and anecdotal accounts indicating that cannabinoids may have anti-cancer effects, cannabis is also well known to mitigate many symptoms and side effects of cancer and cancer treatment, including nausea, pain, and suppressed appetite.

Red Flags from Earlier Studies

Worries about the potential incompatibility of these two treatments stem from the fact that the cannabinoid receptor CB2 is predominately expressed by immune cells, and its activation may suppress immune function. Immunotheraperies like immune checkpoint inhibitors depend upon a robust response to do their work. It’s at least plausible, then, that cannabis might interfere with immunotherapy: instead of helping, it may actually hurt.

In fact, that’s exactly what two previous studies from an Israeli research team in 20194  and 20205  have suggested — though, as the authors of the new paper, also based in Israel, argue right off the bat, those earlier findings come with some pretty large caveats. “These studies included patients with various cancers, treatment regimens, and lines of therapy and were given [immune checkpoint inhibitors] at advanced line shortly before death,” the authors write. “Under these circumstances, the use of cannabis is often a mere surrogate for high-burden symptomatic disease.”

Today’s review comes by the way of an American company named Sweet Sensi. Sweet Sensi CBD products are something you really should consider learning more about, and even purchasing – should you need to re up on your hemp-based items. As with all other reviews, you can expect an honest opinion about all aspects of this business and the products they have for sale.

Most of you know that cannabidiol (CBD) products are a dime a dozen, and for this reason you simply must do some research about what it is you’re looking at. Today’s research revolves around Sweet Sensi CBD.

Sweet Sensi

Sweet Sensi is a CBD brand based out of Austin, Texas. They claim to have the best CBD in Austin, Texas, but I’d argue their lineup is better throughout a much broader region.

Greg Autry is the founder of Sweet Sensi. He’s been dealing with growing hemp, and selling CBD in Austin. You can trace his cultivation of the hemp plant back 25 years. Impressive.

Cannabis contains compounds that directly target cannabinoid receptors. Psychedelics like Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) target serotonin receptors. By acting through serotonin pathways, LSD affects endocannabinoid synthesis and function, according to a recent study published in the British Journal of Pharmacology.1

The October 2022 BJP study, featuring contributions from Dr. Vincenzo Di Marzo, Gabriella Gobbi, and several other scientists, sought to quantify serotonin and endocannabinoid-like molecules in the brains of mice that were sacrificed after a seven-day LSD regimen. Repeated 30 microgram doses of LSD per kilogram of body weight elicited anxiolytic and prosocial behavior. The researchers from Canada, Italy and Australia also examined how LSD affected the microbiome of the mice after the seven-day, 30-microgram dose routine.

The study noted anti-depressant and anti-anxiety effects triggered by LSD, which altered endocannabinoid tone and affected the serotonin metabolite, kynurenic acid, without impacting the levels of serotonin or its precursor tryptophan. Increased interaction among mice and anxiolytic behavior occurred, in part, through endocannabinoid signaling and corresponded to changes in a few key families of gut bacteria. These results were seen after repeated doses of LSD, not after a single session.

LSD Impacts Endocannabinoid Tone by Binding to Serotonin Receptors

Psilocybin, ayahuasca, mescaline, and LSD cause a psychedelic “trip” by binding to 5HT-2A, a serotonin receptor. This is one of 14 serotonin receptors, which induce a family of enzymes known as phospholipases (PLs). Various serotonin receptors induce different PLs. And two compounds (agonists) that activate the same receptor can promote different enzymes.

Serotonin receptors drive a symphony of endocannabinoid-producing PLs. Previous research has shown that serotonin facilitates the release of 2-AG, a major endocannabinoid, through a phospholipase c (PLC)- dependent mechanism.2 LSD and psilocin (the psychedelic metabolite of psilocybin) induce different PL enzymes by binding to the 5-HT2A receptor.

In recent years, psilocybin and MDMA have been explored as potential treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, but somewhat more quietly so has cannabis. In fact, according to a few quick searches of PubMed, cannabis has a longer and richer association with PTSD in the scientific literature than any psychedelic. Though you wouldn’t know that by reading the headlines.

Setting aside for a minute how effective psychedelics may or may not be as breakthrough treatments for PTSD, there’s no doubt that cannabis is still much easier for most patients to access.

Recent research – including three new studies (from three different countries) – suggests that growing numbers of PTSD sufferers are medicating with cannabis, and truly finding it helpful.

Depression Drives Cannabis Use

First, a paper in the journal BMC Psychiatry1 from researchers based in Ontario, Canada, provides some insight into cannabis use among PTSD patients during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Between April 3 and June 24 of 2020, 462 individuals with self-reported PTSD completed an online questionnaire that assessed mental health symptoms and cannabis intake both before the pandemic and in the seven days prior to filling out the survey.

Stress, anxiety, and depression worsened across the board, but by categorizing participants according to cannabis use patterns – not using, using less, using the same, or using more – the researchers discovered something interesting. PTSD sufferers who increased their cannabis use during the pandemic were more likely to also experience “meaningful perceived worsening of depression symptoms,” the authors write.

Project CBD is an independent media platform with 100,000-plus subscribers. Our educational website is visited regularly by people from more than 150 countries. We’re proud to say that we’re not backed by billion-dollar multistate operators, whose bottom line depends on stiffing labor unions and engaging in phony equity scams. We don’t make money by advertising products infused with sketchy “hemp-derived” intoxicants like delta-8, delta-10, HHC, THC-O, and other unregulated synthetic compounds. We don’t promote pay-to-play lists of “the best CBD products for (name-your disease)” that have little to do with efficacy and everything to do with which company has the deepest pockets.

At Project CBD, we favor regenerative farmers over pesticide polluters, artisanal craft mom-and-pops over bland potency cookie-cutters. We like our CBD fresh from the garden rather than synthesized in a lab – and that’s not just an aesthetic preference, as we recently warned in a special report about the dangers of non-natural “chiral” versions of lab-created CBD isolate.

We fight against the stigmatization of cannabis, as well as the snake-oil promoters that mislead consumers.

At Project CBD, we fight against the stigmatization of cannabis, as well as the snake-oil promoters that mislead consumers. When Fox News dredges up boogeyman claims that marijuana smoking causes gun violence, we counter with peer-reviewed evidence demonstrating the link between cannabis use and prosocial behavior. And when we see CBD and cannabis brands touting their products as “sleep aids” because they include CBN (cannabinol), we feel it’s our responsibility to let our readers know there’s actually no scientific basis for marketing claims that CBN has soporific properties.

At Project CBD, we understand not everyone is in a position to pay to access our content. That’s why we make our web content and weekly newsletter available free of charge. But if you are able, we really need your help.

CBD has exploded in popularity over the past decade.

Ethan Nadelmann talks about the power and promise of this cannabinoid with one of the world’s leading experts on the subject: Martin A. Lee, author of two highly acclaimed books, Acid Dreams and Smoke Signals, and cofounder and director of ProjectCBD.org. The two cover various topics including what is CBD and how does it work, what is its relationship to THC and what’s the evidence for its medical and health benefits, what role is the FDA playing in regulating hemp and what’s going on outside the United States?

Listen on Spotify

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