Good morning. Welcome to The Greenfields, your twice weekly walk through the lovely fields of the cannabis industry.

What’ve we got for you today?

• Patients stick with illegal cannabis 💸

• Ben & Jerry's Buds 🍦

• Photos of People (or cats) Surrounded by Cannabis 📸

• Emyria over the counter CBD trials 🍻

Patients stick with illegal cannabis

The high (😉) cost of medicinal cannabis in Australia is keeping sick people in the illegal cannabis market. A study from the Lambert Institute found that only 13% of patients were using medicinal cannabis exclusively.

Price was the biggest barrier to leaving the illegal cannabis market. 47% of people said medicinal cannabis was too expensive and legal medicinal cannabis patients are paying $20 a week more on average than illicit medicinal cannabis users.

Just behind price was access to doctors. 36% said they didn't know a doctor that prescribed and 25% said that their doctor was unwilling to prescribe.

That hasn't stopped the number of people with a prescription for medicinal cannabis increasing from 2% in 2018 to 37%.

The study covered a period between September 2020 and January 2021. Since then the number of medicinal cannabis prescriptions have increased by about 200k over 2021 and 2022.

The study is run every two years and you can participate here.

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Photos of People (or cats) Surrounded by Cannabis

This weeks Photos of People (or Cats) Surrounded by Cannabis comes to us courtesy of Cannabis Hub.

If you'd like to see your photo in Photos of People (or cats) Surrounded by Cannabis share it with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram.

Ben & Jerry's Buds

The Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's is launching a non-profit cannabis brand called Ben's Best Blnz (also known as B3). All profits from the company will be used for social equity initiatives like supporting Black cannabis entrepreneurs, freeing people incarcerated for non-violent drug crimes, and racial justice.

Great work Ben.

Ben's Best Blnz will offer a range of low-THC pre-rolled joints and vape cartridges. Cohen came up with the idea when smoking a joint on a camping trip and reminiscing about what weed was like in the "olden days".

The recreational cannabis industry in the US and Canada are chasing high (😉) THC percentages that are verging on being complete nonsense. B3 might be in a position to break this trend because of their backing by Cohen and their non-profit status.

Dr. Lenny's Lab

Got a question about cannabis you'd like answered by an actual scientist?

Dr. Lenny is a plant and brain scientist that can answer your questions about cannabis, plants, brains, genetics, research, medicine, and biology.

Reply to this email with your questions and the best one will get an answer in an upcoming newsletter.

Emyria has a crack at over the counter CBD

Emyria (ASX:EMD) had a lot of interest in trials for an over the counter CBD treatment for mild anxiety and stress in people with a chronic health condition.

Almost 2000 people have registered for the trial and 50 people have already started taking EMD-RX5, a 150mg/mL synthetic CBD capsule.

Emyria hopes it will be the first over the counter low-dose CBD treatment available on the market.

Over the counter CBD treatments have had a terrible time with trials this year. Cann Group (ASX:CAN) and Ecofibre (ASX:EOF) have both had sleeping treatments fail Phase 3 trials in 2023.

CBD treatments with less than 150 mg/mL have been allowed to be sold over the counter since December 2023. But the TGA has yet to register a single low-dose CBD treatment. The Cann Group and Ecofibre sleep treatments failed to show any improvement over taking a placebo.

Will Emyria do any better? 

Emyria claims to have based the development of the drug from real-world insights from patients prescribed medicinal cannabis through Emyria's Emerald Clinics. This might give them some advantage to understand what dosages are effective in treating stress and anxiety, but it's not the same as a clinical trial.

They are also emphasising the use of synthetic cannabinoids as opposed to cannabis flower. It's not clear how much of a difference this will make to the outcome of the trials though.

The trial will run until July 2023. Emyria reported in Q1 2023 that they had 1.73 quarters of funding available to them, with a further $2m in R&D Tax Refunds coming their way. This should see them through until the end of the trial.

Tell us what you really think

That’s your walk through The Greenfields of the cannabis industry today. We hope you've enjoyed it.

We’ll see you again on Tuesday, but if you want more follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is not financial advice. It is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell anything or to make any financial decisions. Please do your own research and do not buy anything dodgy.