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So the thumbnail for this video, any person that is even remotely aware of the movie, Harold & Kumar go to White Castle, will be aware of this quote - I am sort of paraphrasing it here - and we are also talking about compounds that are being found in Cannabis that, some of them are just undiscovered as of late. I mean in many, many ways, look I think Thailand made the right call with regard to Cannabis Policy. There are so many medicinal effects; there's just, it's a product, in a sense it's a cash crop. I would liken Thailand legalizing to the advantages the United States had in its early days that came from tobacco in terms of a cash crop, but also a versatile cash crop. This is a cash crop that can create fabric. It can create paper. It is my understanding now there are hemp products that create plastic, not just plastic but biodegradable plastic; actual plastic you could throw on the ground and it will eventually sort of disappear and sort of get back into the ecosystem if you will, on top of the sort of recreational if you will usages for consumers of those type of products, the sort of consumable Cannabis if you will. Across the board there are many benefits, not only economically there are also health benefits. But to be clear, I don't want to be a person that's sort of viewed out there as just viewing Cannabis as an unconditional good. My personal opinion is it should be legal, and it should be regulated in much the same way alcohol is regulated; consenting adults can choose to use it on their own volition if they feel like it. Now that being said, there is a lot of interesting news with respect to this. 

I thought of this recently after reading a recent post on X from Massimo@Rainmaker1973. Quoting directly: "Many growers simply discard Cannabis leaves as waste, but a new study suggests they are throwing away something potentially priceless. Chemists at Stellenbosch University in South Africa used advanced chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry to uncover a rare class of compounds in Cannabis leaves: flavoalkaloids." Now if you go back to the thumbnail, that's the part where Harold and Kumar go to White Castle where the guy says, “as Burger Shack employee for some 5 years now, I'm here to tell you that if you are craving White Castle, these here Burger Shack Burgers just don't cover it. Just thinking about those little White Castle burgers with the little onions that are like flavour crystals that explode in your mouth." Immediately when I read “flavoalkaloids”, I just thought of that quote from Harold and Kumar, and again for anybody that has had any dealings with Cannabis over the years especially maybe in a misspent youth, you're probably well aware of the movie Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. 

That being said, quoting further: "These molecules are extremely uncommon in nature and had never before been identified in Cannabis. Known for powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, flavoalkaloids show promise for treating cancer, chronic inflammation, and other conditions. The researchers examined three cultivated Cannabis strains and detected a total of 79 phenolic compounds, 25 of which were entirely new to Cannabis science. Most strikingly, 16 of these were the rare flavoalkaloids, and they appeared predominantly in the leaves of just one strain. The real surprise? These valuable compounds weren't in the prized buds, but in the leaves that are routinely tossed after harvest. Lead researcher Dr. Margriet Muller noted that cutting-edge analytical techniques made it possible to isolate these scarce molecules from the much more abundant flavonoids" - so there's flavoalkaloids and flavonoids. I didn't know that all kinds of flavour crystals or whatever you want to call it in Cannabis. Quoting further: "and other common compounds. Even seasoned Cannabis chemists were taking aback by the findings. While most research continues to focus on well-known cannabinoids like THC and CBD, this discovery reveals that Cannabis chemistry is far richer and more complex than previously thought." 

So interesting. You know at the end of the day, just going back to what I have said already which is I think Thailand made a really good move here, and it's not just because, “oh it's a Party Town, you want to do bong hits or something and go out and party”. No I mean because this is a product; it's a cash crop. It has tremendous implications for Thailand's economy to the better. And then on top of it we're discovering all kinds of new things about it because we're not just leaving it off in the corner and shunning it and calling it a narcotic which is pretty ridiculous if you think about it, and then not studying it all in any meaningful way.

That then calls into question, why? Who benefits at the end of the day from Cannabis a, not being legal and b, not being studied? Well, when it comes to A, the folks that probably most benefit are alcohol and big pharmaceuticals. When it comes to B, it might be big pharmaceuticals because again, if they're stuck in these leaves that has tremendous unique properties that cannot be matched by some sort of medicine that is generated by the pharmaceutical industry - which I'm not saying there's anything wrong with them per se - but again businesses tend to do what's in their interest and if this operates as some kind of competitor that they just can't beat, well it may be better to just sideline them.

Again, difficult to say how this is going to play out. I think for the most part, from both a research standpoint as well as from a market standpoint and a business standpoint, this is going to work out to Thailand's benefit. That being said, it's going to be interesting to follow, and we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.