Men\'s Health UK - 10.2019

MEN’S HEALTH 85

news for people like Al Capone and it
made for some fun evenings down at
Fat Sam’s Grand Slam. However, it was
terrible news for alcohol companies –
and the thousands of people poisoned
by low-grade bootleg booze. After
the amendment was repealed, most
Americans breathed a sigh of relief, and
then had a drink. Or six. In the 1934 film
The Thin Man, crime-fighting husband
and wife Nick and Nora Charles spend the
whole movie drinking Martinis, showing
no ill effects whatsoever, as if to say, “Well,
that was a big fuss over nothing.”
Something similar is happening with
cannabis. A 2016 study found that 17.2% of
songs in the Billboard Top 40 contained
a reference to cannabis, compared to 0.6%
in 1986. According to the Pew Research
group, 84% of American adolescents
identified the drug to be harmful to one’s
health in 1994, compared to 53.8% in 2014.
The full force of the Californian culture
industry is behind cannabis. Gwyneth
Paltrow’s Goop has teamed up with
MedMen, which sells high-end cannabis
products. Country legend Willie Nelson
has his own line of artisanal bud, Willie’s
Reserve, and recently appeared on the
cover of Rolling Stone’s “Weed Issue”.
Snoop Dogg sells strains like Cali Kush,
Northern Lights and Lemon Pie under
his “Leafs by Snoop” brand. Mike Tyson
is building a 400-acre cannabis resort.
Like yoga, kombucha, buttock
implants, sushi and Instagram sunsets,
cannabis has become a totem of the good
life. “Cannabis has always been culturally
accepted in California. Now, we’re just
seeing the export of Californian cannabis
culture worldwide,” says Sathianathan.
“We’ve always focused on the harm, but

in California, they focus on the positives.

In the US, they tend to consider things

legal until they’re made illegal, whereas in

Europe, we have the opposite attitude.”

Better Medicine

As for what legal cannabis might look

like in the UK and Europe, Sathianathan

reckons Canada offers the best example.

France, Italy and Germany are liberalising

cannabis laws, while the latest polls

suggest twice as many Brits now support

the legalisation of cannabis as oppose it.

Canada has neither the weird grey

market nor the aggressive marketing

you find in the US, but still, there have

been numerous supply chain issues.

Legal sales of cannabis actually dropped

vape pens, cannabis-infused tampons

for period pain, cannabis-infused

Sauvignon Blanc, cannabis toothpaste,

cannabis sex aids and Whoopi Goldberg’s

cannabis lavender bath soak. “One of the

big trends we’re seeing is microdosing –

5-10mg of THC taken in lieu of a glass of

wine,” says Sathianathan. “That’s quite

appealing to the soccer mom market. It

doesn’t damage your liver like alcohol,

it’s non-calorific, and you can wake up

in the morning and go to the gym. When

it was illegal, it was all about bang-for-

your-buck. But as you offer more choice

in terms of potency and form, I suspect

high-strength skunk will bleed away.”

Many believe our legislators need

to wise up if we’re to do this properly.

THE HIGHS

AND LOWS

Totally clear-cut

conclusions are

hard to come by

when the research

is hazy. Here’s the

latest thinking on

cannabis’s effects

High Point

Low Point

PPPainn rrelllieef

A university study

found CBD can cut

pain, but different

research found no

evidence it can wean

those in chronic

pain off opioids.

AAnnxxiietttyy

A 50mg dose of CBD

oil per day can curb

anxiety, report

scientists in

Colorado. Two puffs

of a joint can do

the same job.

MMeeemmoorry loosss

Chronic cannabis

use in teenagers has

been linked to

impairment in the

part of the brain

linked to memory,

Plos One reports.

IInnffllammmmmaaatiiooonn

A University of

Massachusetts

study suggests

cannabinoids could

soothe symptoms

of IBS, but more

research is needed.

PPParaanoooiaa

An Oxford

University study

found that 1.5mg of

THC (ie, a strong

joint) triggered

short-term paranoia

in a fifth of users.

DDDiaabbetttess

CBD and THCV may

lower blood sugar,

says University

of Nottingham

research. But weed

smokers carry more

fat at their waist†.

in the first quarter

of 2019. “It’s partly

because the average

Canadian understood

legalisation to mean

that the black market

had been legalised,”

says Sathianathan.

“They reckoned their

local dealer was now legit. Cannabis

remains higher quality, cheaper and more

available through the black market. It’s

a challenging dynamic, but you’d hope

that these are teething problems.”

One argument often made for legalising

cannabis concerns improving quality. In

the UK, much of what’s available is ultra-

high-THC skunk, the most dangerous

strain. Most users smoke it, too, which

obviously exposes them to other risks

such as lung cancer. In the US, however,

joints are increasingly seen as “legacy”

products. “There’s a big move away

from smoking towards manufactured

products,” says Sathianathan. In US

boutiques, you will now find cannabis

“I’d draw a lot of

parallels between

the developments of

cannabis and tech,”

says Sathianathan. The

UK and Europe didn’t

see how the modern

technology and social

media boom “would

change our lives and shape discourse”. As

a result, the web has been underpinned

by Silicon Valley values, which are not

necessarily European values.

“If Instagram, say, was a European

company,” he says, “there’s no way it

would have ever let anorexic girls appear

in newsfeeds. What I’m now saying to

regulators in Europe is: let’s not miss this

chance. I’d hate to be sitting here in 10

years, expecting to see some American

cannabis giant get fined, in the way we

now expect to see Facebook fined. It would

be much better if we could form our own

cannabis industry with our own values.”

HHHighh Tiiimmes