FEDERAL CANNABIS ARRESTS DIP 24% IN 2022

IS AI IMPAIRMENT TESTING NEXT FOR CANNABIS? 

Predictmedix Inc. may have the answer to squash concerns about stoned driving.

The lack of a validated mechanism to test someone’s level of impairment from cannabis use on the spot has complicated the national rollout. Regulators and elected officials vent their fears about stoned driving all the time. You can test someone’s saliva, urine, blood or hair, but these detection methodologies are too dated for the modern era. Mostly because they aren’t focused on the moment but whether you’ve used drugs over a more extended time frame that goes long after the impairment has stopped. If you were to base impairment on those tests, you would have a ton of false positives since more of the workforce are enjoying off-the-clock use and have those spent THC metabolites in their system. 

The same people who don’t want to change drug testing laws to protect off-the-clock use are ironically well-versed in the reality of current testing not truly benefiting public safety in real time. But what if you could use artificial intelligence to determine someone’s level of impairment in 20 seconds?

Predictmedix calls itself an emerging provider of rapid health screening, medical devices, and remote patient care solutions globally. Over the last three years, the now publicly traded company has raised $3 million. 

“And all that money has gone into developing the technology. And now we’re commercially deployed,” Toronto venture capitalist Steve Singh told L.A. Weekly. He went on to break down the difference between their tech and the breathalyzer tech that’s been in development for years. “With the breathalyzer and you get a result in 20 minutes that’s biased, with Rahul’s technology, it’s 20 seconds and unbiased.”

The Rahul that Singh mentioned is Dr. Rahul Kushwah who founded Predictmedix after leaving academia to pursue AI-based impairment testing. To date, 50,000 people have now been screened by his Safe Entry Stations at places like The Super Bowl and F1 races. 

The stations are powered by a proprietary AI. It uses multispectral cameras to analyze physiological data patterns with its screening technology to detect many conditions. They include cannabis or alcohol impairment, infectious diseases, mental illness, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, respiratory illnesses, COVID 19, and signs of fatigue. The stations are about 90% accurate. Kushwah told LA Weekly that the tech still had trouble with people under the age of 18 and over 75. If you were to remove those groups from the data pool, he estimates the accuracy would be well over 95%. 

“It’s almost like we have developed this new language. With this language, you can write impairment, you can write fatigue. You can write health care parameters, screening for diseases, whatever you want. So effectively, we have a platform that can be used to screen an unlimited number of things,” Kushwah said. 

We asked Kushwah how helpful it is to have the road out in front of them with no real sign of another mechanism to test a person for their current level of cannabis impairment in the near future.

“So let’s say we talk about cannabis impairment. First of all, this whole concept of using breathalyzers for cannabis just cannot work from a scientific perspective because the only time you can make a freaking correlation is if you can measure the level of THC in the brain,” Kushwah replied. “The THC has to cross the blood-brain barrier to impair you in the first place. So that’s why we’re not even going after measuring THC. What we’re identifying are signs of impairment.”

Kushwah went on to explain, Predictmedix can actually create thresholds in terms of what you want to define as impairment within your organization. If it’s zero tolerance, they can make it that way in the Safe Entry Stations. The red light is going to come on, even if somebody is showing just the slightest signs of impairment. 

Since launching the Safe Entry Station, Predictmedix has worked to scale down the machines to something a bit more manageable. They’ve not reached the point where they’ll release a phone app that pairs with a small multispectral camera you plug into your phone. 

“You put the camera in front of you, you look at the camera, you say a few sentences that are popping up on your phone and that’s it, and that can be used to identify impairment in 10 to 15 seconds,” Kushwah said. 

Kushwah explained the reason for using multispectral imaging is because they don’t really care about how you look on top of your skin. He argues there is no such thing as looking stoned. 

“It’s more about, how are the changes in the underlying blood flow patterns that we are able to identify. And that’s part of the reason that our technology, I mean, is a bit Star Trek in a way. I mean, just think about it. Not only the technology can tell you if you’re impaired if you’re fatigued, but it can also tell you your heart rate, breathing rate, temperature and a lot of your vitals, without even touching you,” Kushwah said. “ And we have completed a few clinical studies in different parts of the world where we have had medical institutions basically signing off on our technology and saying how this is the future and the future is now.”

The app could certainly be a game changer. Imagine police officers being able to give people impairment tests without even getting out of their cars. If they fail, they can do a full sobriety test that would confirm the test or catch a false positive

We’ll continue to keep an eye on how this plays out.  

THE FIDEL’S X CARROTS DROP WINS EARLY 2024

Fidel’s x Carrots is proving to be the hottest cannabis industry clothing drop of Q1.

As we’ve covered many times here at L.A. Weekly, Shant “Fidel” Damirdjian is one of the local faces shining during these dark times in the cannabis industry. He had a wild 2022 with his victory over some of the best cultivators in the world at Transbay Challenge IV — the Hash Hole exploded to the most famed ‘preroll” in California if you’re even comfortable calling it that, and he opened up his own cultivation spot in the desert without the help of the corporate oppressor. A great year for anyone in cannabis.

Topping 2022

So how does he top it? He comes out of the gates early in 2023 with a fantastic collaboration with Anwar Carrots. Carrots got into the fashion game in 2007; in 2015, he’d launch the Carrots by Anwar line. Vibrant oranges among other colors with stylized carrots and rabbits are par for the course with the popular menswear line.

The collaboration with Fidel’s started just over a year and a half ago. 

“Anwar blessed us with complete creative control the entire project,” Damirdjian told L.A. Weekly. “Dabber Dan and I, my right-hand man, designed every bit of the box. Even the bags the clothing was in. Even the cut and sew on the hoodies.”

They would eventually settle on a 50/50 cotton and bamboo blend made in Los Angeles and find that bright orange they were looking for, after some trial and error over the last 18 months.

The Box

Each box in the limited edition of 500 includes the hoodies and sweatpants set made, screen printed and packaged in LA. There also is a Fidel’s x Carrots T-shirt, headwear, four Croc Jibbets, a commemorative 3D printed carrot with a hash hole, and a half ounce of Fidel’s popular weed.

It’s very fair to argue the cannabis aspects of the box are easily worth more than half its $600 price tag. 

Where Fashion Meets Weed

After the entertainment industry, many would argue cannabis and fashion is where Los Angeles has some of its biggest global influence. We asked Damirdjian his take on that sentiment.

“100% it’s something you don’t see done often; if it has, it didn’t catch my attention and I apologize,” Damirdjian replied. “But I feel like fashion and cannabis have so much to do with one another. They are different audiences within the same audience. It’s a great thing to work with another cannabis company and within our community, but to branch out of it to get the attention of people in the clothing industry, it’s amazing.

Damirdjian argues it triggers so much more love crossing his audience and Anwar’s audience he’s built over the years. He appreciates how wowed people from both sides of the fence have been after months of effort trying to get it right to their vision.

Damirdjian is excited about what’s next; don’t expect to see these boxes again. 

“This is like one and done. I’m trying to touch as many people that follow my following, Anwar’s following with this,” Damirdjian said. “This cost $600 for the box; it’s not something that everyone can afford. But the true collector is getting so much in the box. I’m not just taking money from the consumer, I’m giving so much more.”

Again, a lot of it comes back to being a unique spirit in a crowded space for Damirdjian. 

He knows everyone’s trying to do something different. He considers the Carrots collaboration a sought-after project for anyone, and when he got the chance, he was not letting it slip through his fingers. 

“It took so much time, finances and we did it with so much cadence, but it opened up a lot of doors for me now. I can already see it this early on. I can’t wait till more people consume it,” Damirdjian said, 

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM LIVES UP TO THE MASSIVE HYPE

Link’s latest adventures in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom (TOTK) are everything we were waiting for. 

The game has proven a roaring international hit. One common phrase often seen across social media in the past two weeks since the launch is the idea that Breath of The Wild, Zelda’s previous foray on Nintendo’s Switch when the system launched, almost feels like a beta version of what we ended up with in TOTK. How wild is it to call a game that went on to sell 30 million copies since and win a ton of awards a beta test? But it honestly feels kind of accurate with how much TOTK built on the last version of Hyrule we visited six years ago. 

The Legacy of Zelda Enthusiasm 

There are few dates on the video game calendar that get circled with more enthusiasm than a new Zelda game. Since the first one dropped in 1987, its raving fan base has always wondered what would be next for the franchise that often served with Super Mario Brothers as a flagship game that showed off the capabilities of Nintendo’s hardware from generation to generation. Zelda’s creators Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka were a part of both famous franchises. While it doesn’t quite serve that role in the same fashion given Nintendo has now allowed many more developers to publish games for their hardware in the Switch era, Zelda still very much serves as the benchmark for how much fun you can have on the Switch.

Zelda has turned down the cartoon style from 20 years ago. But the current look and feel still have a very anime feel that looks a lot cleaner than Wind Walker released in 2002. But 2006’s Twilight Princess feels much more similar to what the game looks like today. The modern version feels a lot brighter and more fun, like the way the lava pops with bright red and orange bubbles.

Miyamoto explained some of the thought processes they had as Zelda continued to transition into the 3D format in the 2000s. He noted part of the reason they went for the cartoon look was it made it easier to show expression in the characters. He also wanted it to feel like you were playing a cartoon in 3D, they definitely aced that test. 

Breath of The Wild provided a lot of the building blocks for this new sequel on the same generation of hardware six years later. In an interview with Game Informer, Miyamoto noted one of the big jumps as Zelda made the move to the Switch was the nature engine. Exploration has always been a significant backbone of the fun in the play-it-at-your-pace game where you can toss around chickens or make a speed run for the master sword. 

“Adventuring and exploring nature is what makes the game,” Miyamoto told Game Informer when the game launched. “I had to relook at what dungeons look like for us and kind of take it out of the dungeon. We spent five years kind of working on that.” 

Miyamoto admitted he himself likes the open-world aspect of players creating their own adventures across the storyline over the years but understands there are folks out there that like those deep storylines with a lot of backstories. He thinks this modern generation of Zelda games has done a good job balancing the two.

The Tears of The Kingdom Launch

Over the past few weeks, the world has now had a moment to dive into Hyrule. But the months and years leading up to this moment had a bit of mystery to them. Regardless, once the game hit shelves, it was on. 

In just three days, it became the fastest-selling Zelda game of all time. Ten million units moved globally in that first 72 hours, 4 million of them here in North America. That makes it the fastest-selling Nintendo game ever on any system in North America according to Nintendo. A major achievement for the game’s creators. 

“Many players are returning to Hyrule with all its new mysteries and possibilities, and with the record-breaking launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for Nintendo Switch, we can’t wait to see what they’ll create in the game and the stories they’ll share next,” said Devon Pritchard, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales, marketing and communications. “We’re grateful for all of our fans who’ve shown their passion for The Legend of Zelda over the years, and these sales numbers for the latest installment continue to show the strong momentum for both the franchise and Nintendo Switch this year.”

Reviews and Livestreams Pumped The Hype

One of the things that helped the massive launch was just how positive all the reviews were. It’s currently sitting at a 95 on Metacritic, the most noted aggregator of video game reviews by a mile. That score puts it as the 49th greatest game of all time per their review system. While 22 other games in history have scored a 95 on the site, TOTK ranks No. 1 one among those games that have scored a 95 since the website was founded over 20 years ago. 

Zelda’s 1998 edition Orcana of Time is the number one game of all time on Metacritic as the only game ever to score a 99. The last installment on Switch, Breath of The Wild, ranks No. 14 on the all-time list with the Wii U version coming in No. 26. Twilight Princess is No. 39, and The Wind Walker is No. 44. There are a few on the list after TOTK also. The Gamecube Collectors edition from 2003 came in at No. 54. The Game Boy Advance edition of A Link to The Past came in at No. 59 with Majora’s Mask right behind it at No. 60. Twilight Princess is two spots later at No. 62. A 3DS version also made it. With the TOTK’s reviews getting added to this all-time list, basically one in 10 of the top-reviewed video games of all time on Metacritic is a Zelda game, if you count the two versions of Breath of The Wild as one. 

“The fandom behind the Zelda franchise is stronger than ever and to date, Tears of the Kingdom is the best reviewed game of 2023 on Metacritic,” Marc Doyle, Co-Founder of Metacritic told L.A. Weekly. “In fact, it currently ranks in the top 50 games of all time and the number four Zelda game to ever be released.”

We asked Polygon Senior Reporter Nicole Carpenter if she thought the game got scored tougher by critics as a direct sequel. 

“I don’t necessarily think it got scored harder, but Breath of the Wild did have a major impact on the industry so there was an expectation for what Tears of the Kingdom would be. The bar was already set high and people expected Tears of the Kingdom to jump over that bar,” Carpenter told L.A. Weekly, “The game sold 10 million copies in a few days so it’s definitely up there for the biggest game of the year. Beyond that, Tears of the Kingdom will be one of most influential games of the year.”

Another thing the newer generation of Zelda games has had play to its favor is the rise of online streaming. The launch has been a hit. According to TwitchTracker.com, over the last week, people have spent 8 million hours watching other people play the game and the streams averaged about 50,000 people watching at any given time. Things peaked on May 11 when 351,714 users were simultaneously watching TOTK streams. 

50 Hours In

What?! The Great Deku Tree has a stomachache again?! Sign me up. That’s not even a spoiler at this point, it’s presumable Hyrule’s bad guys at any given moment have had an impact on his acid reflux. Those kinds of expectations are one of the things that have made the series great. Each time we go back, the little things we love are done even better.

We are about 50 hours in. I’ve completed the Wind Temple but have predominantly spent most of my time exploring. I’ve hit about 35 Shrines so far in the process of building up hearts for the main storyline. One of the reasons I’ve hit so many shrines early is because of how fun the new gameplay mechanics make them. The massive refreshing of all the minigames makes each one feel very unique.

Those four new core gameplay mechanics are called Fuse, Ultrahand, Ascend and Recall. Fuse lets you attach objects from the world to each other or your hand after you use Ultrahand to move them around. You’ll use a combination of those powers and the world around you all the time to upgrade your weapons, solve puzzles and even build vehicles. 

Ascend adds another vertical element of gameplay in addition to the massive sky map that covers the whole game from above. It allows you to climb through ceilings within reach of the ability and emerge through the floor on the other side. 

Recall allows you to move objects and then recreate that object’s movement through time. Say a rock falls down a waterfall you want to go up, you hit the rock with recall and ride it up the waterfall. There are some wild uses for one when it comes to all the puzzles.  

There also is a ton of wild physics mechanics attached to the main storyline. As you dive further and further in, you’ll get access to an even wider array of tools to combine with the Ultrahand and Fuse abilities.

With all that, and what feels like triple the game compared to Breath of The Wild, I think the only reason TOTK isn’t higher on the all-time list is that it’s a direct sequel. Regardless, it’s one of the best games ever.

GCANRX PREPS PHASE II TRIALS ON AUTISM CANNABINOID TREATMENT

With the number of parents self-prescribing CBD for their children’s Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) rising, GCANRx has been granted permission to start Phase II Clinical Trials for a cannabinoid treatment from the Israel Ministry of Health.

Dr. Adi Aran will be leading the effort. Aran is a pioneer in Israel when it comes to cannabinoid treatments for autism. The study Aran led into pediatric autism and cannabinoid therapy in 2017 proved a success for the 120 children that took part. 

GCANRx noted this time Aran will focus on studying the safety and efficacy of GCANRx’s neuroprotective cannabinoid therapeutic to treat autism-related spectrum disorders and other conditions like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and epilepsy. The focus however will be that data coming from 4 to 13 years of age using daily oral treatments.

“The primary efficacy objective of the study will be to assess the effect of the neuroprotective therapeutic compared to placebo on behavioral problems, using the Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Irritability Subscale (ABC-I) score – change from baseline to week 12,” GCANRx noted when announcing the new study. 

GCANRx went on to explain that 75 million people around the world have Autism Spectrum Disorder. The lifelong condition impacts 7 million people domestically, 5.4 million of which are adults. Americans spent $268 billion caring for people with ASD in 2015, that number is expected to jump to $461 million by 2025. 

“We are excited to announce that GCANRx has received a final official approval to embark on its Phase II Clinical Trial for our therapeutic aimed at treating ASD and other neuropsychiatric disorders. This significant milestone marks another pivotal moment in our path to develop innovative therapeutic solutions for patients suffering from complex neurological disorders,” said Aitan Zacharin, chief executive officer of GCANRx. “Positive results in this study carry promise for a novel treatment for ASD as well as for other neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease, which share similar pathophysiological processes, and can have an enormous impact on the lives of countless families as well as on public health.” 

GCANRx started selling cannabinoid products in Europe in 2018. They had trouble getting wind in their sales. The company believes the move to a more medical approach will be very viable. Especially as more and more parents are choosing to head in this direction to help their kids. 

Zacharin told L.A. Weekly they believe the success they have seen is backboned by the entourage effect. He noted some of the big dogs in international cannabis medicine have been experimenting with THC and CBD isolates in recent years. The reason we haven’t heard about it? The results fail to match the success of more full-spectrum products like what GCANRx is bringing into phase two. 

“Essentially, it’s a combination of therapeutic,” Zacharin said. “It uses cannabinoids, CBD and THC. But it also has some other compounds in it. That alone has also been shown in clinical studies to be effective in treating autism and treating some of the behavioral elements of autism,” Zacharin said before noting the evidence they’ve seen in pretrials. “We actually found that synergistic effect.”

When it finally jumps through all the regulatory hoops, we asked Zacharin if they planned on using natural or synthetic cannabinoids to go to market.

“Natural materials are our focus, which is probably the way to go with you right there. We’ll have to ultimately see how that plays out in the regulatory pathway. That’s something we’re exploring now with advisors,” Zacharin said with the conversation leading back to the lackluster results of synthetic isolates. “With this plant. It’s so complex, so multifaceted. You know that you just can’t eliminate other cannabinoids.”

Is GCANRx at the point where it is fair to say they understand there’s an entourage effect happening but don’t completely understand it? But know that it’s safe enough to bring to market?

“Yeah, undoubtedly,” Zacharin replied. 

Photo: Andy Feliciotti

ADVOCATES WANT CANNABIS DESCHEDULED NOT RESCHEDULED

Last week’s leaked letter from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommending that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reclassify cannabis from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance under federal law was lacking for advocates who want to see it descheduled. 

All of the OG cannabis reformers are weighing in. Congressman Earl Blumenauer has been involved in cannabis reform for 50 years. He founded the Congressional Cannabis Caucus in 2017. 

“This is a step in the right direction, but it is not sufficient. I hope it is followed by more significant reforms,” Blumenauer said. “This is long overdue.”

Blumenauer noted he pushed the Biden Administration to deschedule marijuana last December. Later in the spring, he called for more transparency in the wider Controlled Substances Act scheduling process. 

NORML, the nation’s oldest marijuana reform organization, noted the DEA said as recently as 2016, cannabis had no current accepted medical use regardless of all the babies with Dravet’s Syndrome that started the CBD explosion making national headlines for years at that point. The DEA will have the final say in all of this; we know how it went the last four times. 

NORML’s deputy director and longtime policy ninja, Paul Armentano, weighed in on the letter.

“It will be very interesting to see how DEA responds to this recommendation, given the agency’s historic opposition to any potential change in cannabis’ categorization under federal law,”  Armentano said. “Further, for decades, the agency has utilized its own five-factor criteria for assessing cannabis’ placement in the CSA — criteria that as recently as 2016, the agency claimed that cannabis failed to meet. Since the agency has final say over any rescheduling decision, it is safe to say that this process still remains far from over.”

Like Blumenauer, NORML has been calling for cannabis to be removed from the Controlled Substances Act for years. They recommend doing it in a manner that’s similar to liquor and tobacco. 

“The goal of any federal cannabis policy reform ought to be to address the existing, untenable chasm between federal marijuana policy and the cannabis laws of the majority of US states,” Armentano said. “Rescheduling the cannabis plant to Schedule III of the US Controlled Substances Act fails to adequately address this conflict, as existing state legalization laws — both adult use and medical — will continue to be in conflict with federal regulations, thereby perpetuating the existing divide between state and federal marijuana policies.”

Armentano closed, noting it’s the same level of intellectual dishonesty to categorize cannabis next to anabolic steroids as it is in its current situation on the list next to heroin.

With the US recreational cannabis market worth more than ever, it would seem something is going to have to be done to remedy the situation. Last week, California announced it had taken in just over $5 billion since the legal market kicked off in 2018, New York City’s first shop did $12 million in its first six months, and there are about 50 more data points off the top of my head why states aren’t going to let this fly. 

In the end, descheduling is likely. But the road is going to be a bit longer. And you can expect it to be the result of a future Congress and White House taking some kind of mandated action that the DEA won’t have a say in. 

MISSOURI CELEBRATES FIRST ADULT-USE CANNABIS SALE

Missouri’s first weekend of legal cannabis sales is in the books. 

The nearly 200 dispensaries dotting the state netted $12.6 million in sales in the first three days of adult-use sales. There is an argument to be made that number may have been higher had the permit release timing been a little clearer; even operators didn’t realize they would be allowed to commence sales Friday. 

John Mueller is the CEO of Missouri’s largest operator Greenlight, a multi-state operator that has 15 retail permits in Missouri. Mueller, a Missouri native, told L.A. Weekly that Greenlight had its fair share of action over the weekend, with sales doubling overnight once adult-use kicked in. 

Mueller notes the tail end of last week was a bit of a gray zone. 

“Then what happened is, on Thursday, the state said they would start issuing out the licenses and you didn’t have to wait. We thought they would have all licenses at open at whatever time on the sixth,” Mueller explained.

They would get the permit at 8:30 a.m. Friday morning and be open in an hour and a half. But unlike the big lines we’re used to seeing outside dispensaries on opening day, at first it was a quest by consumers to confirm the news on shops opening earlier than expected. Mueller says the phone continues to ring off the hook in that regard. 

Even with the traditional first sale not the spectacle it’s been in other states, dispensaries did great. Mueller noted some places saw up to four times the amount of usual foot traffic depending on where. 

Mueller said there is plenty to be happy about besides the numbers. He feels dispensary operators got a lot to work with in the regulations. 

“Thrilled with the performance, but there is a whole lot of stuff. You know we got drive-through here authorized, express pick-up windows in the lobbies and then also making sure that that patient wasn’t relegated to a bad status.”

Greenlight has separated the adult-use and medical lines at the dispensaries to make sure none of the state’s 200,000 medical cannabis patients feel left behind in the transition over to adult-use sales. 

Mueller doesn’t feel like things have been overly restrictive on operators, apart from the normal childproofing packaging and things like that.

“We carry about 300 products per store, so we’re a pretty wide selection and we’ve got a pretty robust cultivation and manufacturing side of this equation,” Mueller said. 

He noted the dispensaries currently operating are able to acquire flower from 28 different cultivators in the state. He thinks there are about 50 different manufacturers in the state that are all cranking out products too. 

While that number may sound small to Californians, it’s still a decent number of producers on day one. We asked Mueller if it was enough for a real level of competition similar to the fight for shelf space we’re seeing on the west coast. 

He was quick to argue, sure. Currently, Greenlight’s discount eighths are running $25, with the top shelf clocking in at $45. 

There weren’t a lot of surprises for Greenlight during the transition. The company was able to lean on its past experiences transitioning from a medical market to adult-use in Nevada. Greenlight also has operations across the southeast and midwest in Arkansas, West Virginia, Illinois and South Dakota.