Best of the Week: February 28 – March 6, 2025

Let’s dive into the top stories shaping the conversation this week. Summaries of each article are listed below.

1. January/February 2025 Issue

Check out our latest issue! You’ll find a primer on mass spectrometry, a guide to selecting the most efficient vapor cartridge hardware, a deep dive into horticultural lighting metrics, an analysis of a survey on consumer trends and minor cannabinoids, a snapshot of global cannabis regulations, and a look at Germany’s medical cannabis market!

2. Workplace Safety Compliance in the Cannabis and Plant Medicine Industries

Many business owners may not realize that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has regulatory authority over cannabis facilities, including cultivation, processing, manufacturing, laboratories, and even retail. Just like any other industry, cannabis businesses must comply with OSHA’s safety standards to protect their employees from workplace hazards.

Our March blog, Kim Anzarut, CQA, CP-FS, CEO and founder of Allay Consulting explains the importance of robust safety protocols, regulatory compliance, and proactive hazard management for long-term success.

3. New Jersey’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission Updates Testing Guidelines

The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJ-CRC) recently announced updates to its testing guidelines. It also provided a guide on how to read a Certificate of Analysis (COA) (1). The new standards are intended to provide better precision, product safety, and transparency. The new testing guideline was approved in the February 2025 meeting, after research and collaboration with experts in the industry as well as regulators.

4. Study Highlights Retail Cannabis Sales May Play A Role in Reduced Drinking with Young Adults

A recent study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine investigated whether there was a connection between consumers using cannabis and alcohol and adult-use cannabis legalization laws.

The team looked through nationally representative data from more than 400,000 respondents from a time period of over 10 years. Researchers saw “limited effects on population-wide alcohol and tobacco consumption post-legalization,” and noted a decreased use in in the young adult demographic. Data from the study showed that alcohol use decreased in young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 years old. Older adults between the ages of 50 to 59 years old also showed that the frequency in binge drinking decreased. Additionally, cigarette use also declined in frequency.

5. Study Examines Recent and Long-Term Cannabis Use on Brain Function in Young Adults

A recently published study examined the effect of recent and lifetime cannabis use on brain function. The abstract of the study noted the need for more research into the effects of both recent and heavy cannabis on long-term brain function, as cannabis use increases globally. More research is needed in this area to better inform public health policies, the introduction also noted. The cross-sectional study, “Brain Function Outcomes of Recent and Lifetime Cannabis Use,” was published in JAMA Network Open in January 2025.

In this study, data from 1003 US young adults—ages 26-32 years—was analyzed. The data used was from the Human Connectome Project (HCP).Participants with more than 1000 cannabis uses were considered heavy lifetime users (8.8% of participants in this study), moderate users with 10 to 999 uses (17.8%), and non-users if they had fewer than 10 uses (73.4%).