Marijuana use increases, shifts away from illegal market
June 18, 2019
Science Daily/University of Washington
A new article published by researchers from University of Puget Sound and University of Washington reports that, based on analysis of public wastewater samples in at least one Western Washington population center, cannabis use both increased and substantially shifted from the illicit market since retail sales began in 2014.
Led by chemist Dan Burgard, the research team analyzed wastewater samples collected from 2013-2016 from two treatment plants that service a community of two hundred thousand in Western Washington.
"We set out to perform a wastewater-based analysis that explored the impact of newly legalized retail cannabis sales on its use, and to determine if this approach could estimate the size of the legal market place," says Burgard, who chairs the chemistry department at Puget Sound.
The researchers estimate that THC-COOH (the metabolite of psychoactive THC in cannabis created within the human body) found in wastewater has increased by 9% per quarter, on average, from December 2013 to December 2016. During this time, cannabis sales increased at nearly 70% per quarter, on average, for stores operating from August 2014 to December 2016.
"Given that wastewater represents a total population measure, these findings suggest that many established users switched very quickly from the illegal to the legal market," says Burgard. "This is the strongest statement possible regarding displacement of the illegal market."
Caleb Banta-Green, interim director and principal research scientist at University of Washington's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, is a co-author of the article and was a key researcher on the project.
"This project was designed to aid the understanding of how the sales of adult recreational cannabis impact its total consumption within a population," says Banta-Green. "We believe this will be a valuable tool for local, state, national and international policy makers as they assess and consider Washington's recreational cannabis law."
In the past six years nine U.S. states (Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Nevada, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Michigan, and the District of Columbia), as well as the countries of Uruguay and recently Canada, have legalized the adult use of recreational cannabis.
"Existing measures, particularly surveys are subject to important biases and limitations, including potential changes in self-report as social norms change as well as very limited information on the amount of THC actually consumed," Banta-Green notes. "Wastewater based estimates help address these limitations."
The researchers note that their findings suggest that legalization is, in part, achieving one of its primary objectives which was to eliminate black market sales.
Funded in part by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the research process included testing samples from 387 days spread over three years. The team utilized a new method that enables a complementary and potentially more timely and objective assessment of illicit drug consumption compared to existing measures.
Raw wastewater samples representing a full day are collected at a treatment plant and analyzed for drugs and their metabolites at extremely low concentrations (part per billion or part per trillion levels). These data can be used to track drug consumption trends, both legal and illegal, but not individual users. In some instances, the concentration of the metabolites can be used to "back calculate" to the actual number of doses of drug used in a particular area.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190618174349.htm
All politics -- and cannabis marketing -- are local
Washington, Colorado provide insight for California
December 14, 2017
Science Daily/University of California - Davis
California's legal cannabis market, opening for business on Jan. 1, is expected to quickly grow to be the largest in the nation and worth more than $5 billion a year.
County voting on Proposition 64 that led the state here -- to legalizing sales for recreational use -- can offer insight into how medical marijuana dispensaries will now market themselves, according to research from the University of California, Davis.
"The way that communities vote and the values they have are going to have an impact on how this industry's going to evolve over time," said Greta Hsu, a professor at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management and lead author on the paper, soon to be published in the journal Organizational Science.
Hsu draws her conclusions from the experiences of Washington and Colorado. She and her co-authors from Yale and Emory universities examined county voting patterns in the 2012 referendums that legalized marijuana sales in the two states and how medical marijuana dispensaries responded.
In communities where the majority voted against such initiatives, medical marijuana dispensaries maintained a more traditional approach, accentuating the therapeutic benefits of marijuana as an alternative medicine.
However, where the majority voted in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana sales, medical marijuana dispensaries adopted marketing strategies that de-emphasized the medical orientation and sought to attract recreational customers.
Analysis of dispensary reviews, descriptions
The researchers analyzed information, reviews and descriptions of more than 1,000 medical cannabis businesses, using WeedMaps.com, a crowdsourcing website that is considered the "Yelp of cannabis" for dispensaries and other retailers. The researchers developed a coding system for the language in order to track trends across the two states.
"Some of these dispensaries, when you look at them, they emphasize medicine a lot, and they emphasize their ties to the local community," said Hsu. "Others just emphasize convenience and price."
Marketing recreational vs. medical marijuana
Some clusters of dispensaries were more conservative in their marketing, with statements like: "We aim to educate our patients about cannabis treatments and other alternative health approaches to supplement their medicine."
Despite legalization's substantial disruption to their industry, these businesses continued with their original identity focused on therapy and the patients, said Hsu. They tended to be in counties where the majority voted against legalizing recreational marijuana.
Dispensaries that embraced the new recreational market took more risk by advertising to a broader, emerging consumer class, which has been bolstered by a growing tourism industry.
Supporters for these cannabis businesses emphasized the benefits to the local economy, public health and social justice, casting marijuana as less harmful than alcohol. Dispensaries with this more recreational-oriented marketing tended to be in counties that voted in favor of legalizing recreational use.
Legalization and regulation in California
Communities hold a great deal of power in affecting how dispensaries decide to market themselves, according to Hsu.
In 2009, California was the first state to legalize medicinal marijuana, and Proposition 64 legalized recreational marijuana in the state beginning on Jan. 1, 2018. The state has unveiled a new licensing process for the cultivation, manufacturing and sale of marijuana, which is divided into both medicinal and recreational (or adult use) branches.
However, the law gives local municipalities flexibility in deciding how easily dispensaries can operate within their boundaries. Some counties have chosen to ban all dispensaries. Others are carefully regulating sales and businesses through zoning and taxes.
While 57 percent statewide voted in favor of Proposition 64 in 2016, a majority of voters in 18 counties did not. This included Kern County, which recently announced a ban on all marijuana businesses, including existing medicinal dispensaries.
Other applications for research
Hsu said the research contributes to understanding about how local conditions or cultural changes drive dynamics in a broad range of markets including rise of organic agriculture and the growth of energy and wind power.
"Organizations in these changing markets have to think very carefully about how they want to position themselves and about the strategic choices they make," said Hsu.
The paper is titled "Co-opt or Co-exist? A Study of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries' Identity-based Responses to Recreation-use Legalization in Colorado and Washington." The co-authors are Balázs Kovács, assistant professor of organizational behavior at Yale, and Özgecan Koçak, associate professor of organization and management at Emory.
Hsu, who is an expert in organizational behavior and theory, is continuing related research. She is also studying how cannabis dispensaries in several states are adjusting to changing markets.
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdg6js_BwT8&feature=youtu.be
Link to paper: https://gsm.ucdavis.edu/sites/main/files/file-attachments/cannabis_os_final.pdf
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171214153334.htm