hi welcome back to senior savy cannabis this is Katherine Goldberg this week we’re joined with lead researcher Alexandra Arnett from nug MD thank you so much for being with us Alexandra I’m I’m so excited to dive into uh some of the facts around cannabis when there’s so many misconceptions about this plant yes I’m happy to be here thank you for having me of course so there is a um a poll that’s being widely circulated right now about how people are using a lot less alcohol and it seems as if they’re shifting more to cannabis um can you tell can you tell me can you talk about this trend um yes so our poll um basically it just demonstrated that cannabis um is on use is on the rise especially among you know seniors and older adults um and just the general population um who uses cannabis uh and alcohol is you know de alcohol use is declining so we’re seeing that shift from people using you know that herbal medicine to not you know drinking as much with their friends um you know may they’re smoking as much they you know smoking with their friends instead um so it’s just kind of um a nice uh shift to see because alcohol we’re learning more and more every day about how dangerous it is how harmful it is to the body um and your brain and just it you know and also your social life as well like can um cannabis use it’s you know can be calming relaxing alcohol use is often associated with more aggression and just kind of like a little bit different attitudes um when it comes to cannabis and alcohol use so um yeah and I can um I’ve mentioned on the podcast before that I um I also run a company that brings the weed bar to weddings and birthday parties and the there is a fundamental difference between the people who are drinking and getting rowdy and the people who are consuming cannabis and giggling and talking about love and how much they love each other it’s a very different energy so um something that we know but I’m glad that it’s being expressed on the global scale so can you tell me um so nug MD conducted the poll is that correct yes so how and can you tell me what nug MD is and exactly kind of like how you went about conducting this poll so nuggmd is a tele medicine company that focuses on um giving medical recommendations for cannabis to patients in different states um so that’s our main focus we also have a Blog where we post education things um All About cannabis you know THD CBD tpes all of that good stuff just educating the consumer and the patient um to help better inform them in their choices um and our poll I believe it was a um uh an email poll I am honestly not 100% on that that’s okay okay but um yeah um it was do you have any idea how many people um participated in the poll I am not 100% on that um I can double check with our PR guy okay for sure yeah we’ll find out the numbers so okay so just taking a kind of a top Contour View and talking about the trends in the poll what was asked in the poll and how did people answer bring it up here amazing and I guess we should mention for the sake of transparency is that you know this you guys are a a platform that helps people get cannabis and the poll was sent out to people whose lives have probably been improved by cannabis I imagine if the same poll was sent out by a vodka company the results may be different so like let’s just be 100% transparent and say that that this wasn’t like a random sampling of you know 100,000 adults across the country this went out to um a demographic of people who use cannabis and we’re going to learn about um how their alcohol use changed as they became cannabis users so sorry I I’m I’m autistic so I’m like looking for the data love it love it okay trying to also sure do you want to do one thing at a time um yeah give me one second um I’m so sorry I didn’t have this data for you before that’s okay I also want to do an episode you can just work you don’t have to listen to this but about how um cannabis does help people on the Spectrum be in a very fundamental way um I think I would say by kind of um toning down some of our responses that might be dialed up just a bit too high where things are a bit of a sensory overload in a lot of ways and daily cannabis use can kind of help regul at that in a lot of ways and make a lot of other things easier like eating and things that are required to be like a functional human being so we’ll have you back for that one yeah um and it’s it’s actually funny mention that because I um I am in a master’s program and my meta analysis uh my research that I’m doing is on um cannabinoids and cannabis for autism spectrum disorder and the uh the efficacy of them uh for the symptoms so that’s that my that’s the bread and butter okay okay so like yeah alcohol like no one’s really drinking anymore it’s gross but Havey one for that yeah cannabis is uh I mean the research for cannabis and autism It’s amazing And it like uh I I know you focus on seniors and it’s funny because my grandma before like she was very like iffy on the Cannabis she never smoked or anything but she always used topicals and she never usually she never drank but she loved her topicals like like lotions yep yeah there was a bomb that um my um my friend makes and so like we all make it and we all make it for the grandparents yep yeah that’s how so many companies get started too like I know a lot of cannabis companies were let they’re like yeah I started making it for my mom I started making it for my you know friend or my my elderly you they were making it for an elderly consumer um you know and that’s how I mean yeah that’s how cannabis cannabis helped a lot um and especially in places like um nursing homes where you know you might really not be able to smoke a joint um because of the smell uh I know that the topicals are like a really um great solution there okay I found all the information amazing I’m like I got it okay um so yeah so it was a cannabis consumer poll um that we did in January and they the question that that this specifically related to was does your cannabis consumption tend to affect your alcoh alcohol consumption um there were a total of 381 respondents and um 206 of them said yes I tend to drink less or not at all when I’m consuming cannabis so that’s 54% of respondents that’s significant yeah yeah interesting um since you’re the fact Checker at uh nug MD have you um noticed any other like trends that you feel like Society is kind of really really kind of shifting into cannabis where it really is being accepted way more than it was even five years ago 10 years ago when I I like we got into the industry that’s when I got into the industry um yeah I would say it is uh like so we do a conditions report every year and uh I’m working on the 2024 one right now I’m doing all of the data analysis one of my favorite things to do and um so we you know since we started the doing the conditions report in 2022 um like we have seen an increase not only in like the states that we’re um pulling consumers from so like you know new states are legalizing every year um more states are adding conditions that like may not have been there before so more um like uh autism for example um you know more states are adding that they’re adding um I think uh Ohio was it I uh there was a state that just um added female orgasmic disorder um to their uh no way yes H so I thought that was super interesting um um we’re going to do a blog post about for Valentine’s Day um is you know we might have to link to that yeah it was it was pretty interesting I think it I think it was Ohio or Illinois I have to double check but um do you have any data on um the types of people who come to nug MD for support uh you know to kind of start that process of getting their medical part um so part of our conditions report is um kind of from collecting that data um so like there’s a significant amount of consumers that are like you know under the age of 34 they’re seeking to use cannabis um but there’s also a lot of patients that are like over 61 that are using that are wanting to use cannabis um we see a lot of patients like our conditions report um in 2022 we had about 40% of um older patients so people 61 and older that were um wanting to use cannabis for arthritis um and then um and then a good a good amount also seeking to use it for cancer um so we do see that in the older populations versus the younger populations the younger populations are using it for like stress and nausea um and insomnia interesting that’s super interesting data yes um very cool what are in your opinion um the biggest obstacles to can’t to people not realizing that this plant can help so many different ailments and it it can be tailored to how you want to feel and how you want to move throughout your day um why like why do we know but 95% of the world doesn’t um well I think a lot of it has to do with like a lack of access to education um you know we don’t often have a lot of Bud tender trainings um like there’s not a lot of states where they um require like a formal like uh training course on um THC and CBD and all of the little intricacies that you might need to know when you’re talking to patients um so you know you see a lot more dispensar is kind of like having to take on that responsibility and unfortunately that costs money um and there’s also a lot of times where dispensaries don’t want to spend that extra money you know they’re already hurting with the taxes that they have to pay and the fact that they can’t write off stuff like that you know they can’t write off the fact that they paid for a training course for their Bud tenders so you know they are less likely to do it um unless you know they have a lot of like investment backing but even then a lot of those dispensaries don’t really care about the medical patient they’re after recreational consumers recreational consumers tend to just go for the highest THC you know uh unfortunately that’s a lot of consumers still um but you know I my time as a as a bud tender and as a manager of retail dispensaries I always tried to educate the bud tenders educate the consumers and the patients so recreational or not just you know all over trying to you know get the message across like hey like let’s look at the tpin like highest THC is not the best like you know what about these products you know you can use Edibles you can take tinctures you know um so there’s so many different options and varieties for for patients and and recreational consumers as well so What state were you a bud tender in by the way uh I was a bud tender in Oregon and then uh I was also a retail manager up there in Oregon as well and then when I moved back to California I was a retail manager here okay um because the one state that I’ve heard has very rigorous but tender training is also not a state in Nevada Las Vegas um they um I was talking to a bender there and she said there’s a there’s a written exam there’s an essay and they really have to know um not only all the vocabulary but really the science um which is fantastic I I feel like they’re leading the way on that and but there’s a reason that when people come to senior Savvy I call the dispensary and tell them they’re coming in first because I don’t want some Stone Bud tender to be trying to sell the Grandma’s you know a 40% THC product it’s not what we need so these are really good answers um cool so I think this is what we should do because you’re fabulous and I feel like we should be friends um we can do a blog post about uh the results of the poll um I would love to have you back on if you’re interested to talk about your research with autism and you can go wild and you can talk about anything you want and then um I will just listen because I think it’s fascinating um and regardless of the thing is like people of all ages have autism or exist on the autism spectrum in yeah as humans do so it really even if we say that um the diagnosis is going up among a certain age group it it doesn’t mean it it’s not affecting another age group so I feel like it we can have a very human conversation about that and um and something just that you maybe we can marinate on until the next time is that um I read and I don’t have the statistic to back this up but that unfortunately people with Autism have like a much higher suicide rate than the normal not normal pop the UN un not autistic population um this is very problematic for a lot of reasons um we have seen that medical cannabis decreases the suicide rate for men with PTSD obviously very different things going on but perhaps this could be the intervention that is needed to kind of get a handle on that so um I don’t know if you’re like the numbers really like dive into that obviously but um let’s um let’s set up our next conversation and like we’ll just go wild and nerd out on that yeah definitely I mean it’s it’s actually interesting that you mentioned the PTSD though because um a lot like you know you see it in older autistics that like they’re you know the suicide rate’s higher um but a lot of them may have also gone undiagnosed and they may have struggled for a really long time um and being undiagnosed uh autistic that can actually lead to PTSD wow that doesn’t surprise surpris me and let’s just let that sink in that it’s not you don’t have to be caught up in Warfare yeah for one’s brain to change in response to something very confusing and unpleasant yep um so fabulous happy no um okay cool well it was a pleasure speaking with you um and let’s follow up via email and we can set up a time to dive into your research on autism and cannabis and um like I told you before we even started recording like you’re making such a difference so thank you for your work and thank you for your enthusiasm and um I’m thrilled that we’re spreading the message together definitely yes I’m very excited a okay cool we’ll have a fabulous day and I’ll talk to you soon awesome you as well you too okay bye
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Video Duration: 00:19:03
