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A new preprint out of Colombia found that 91% of older adults receiving supervised medical cannabis improved on pain, insomnia or mood and behavioral symptoms. The study covered 124 people over the age of 65 at a specialized practice, with 44 returning for a three-month follow-up.

The headline number is doing less work than three details buried underneath it — and those details explain why the medical channel is quietly the most interesting growth story in cannabis right now.

What the study actually found

Patients presented mostly with pain-related and musculoskeletal disorders, cancer, and neurodegenerative and non-degenerative neurological conditions. Their stated therapeutic goals were relief of pain, mood and behavioral issues, insomnia and motor symptoms. Treating physicians scored symptoms on a four-point severity scale, and improvement was defined as a drop of at least one point.

First improvement appeared at the second visit for 67.7% of pain patients, 65.4% of insomnia patients and 73.9% of those with mood or behavioral symptoms — median time to first improvement of three, two and one month respectively. Median severity fell significantly across all three domains, and no patient showed worsening.

The researchers noted a significant progressive decline in symptom severity over successive visits, suggesting a sustained trajectory rather than a one-time baseline-to-endpoint artifact.

Now the three details.

First: most participants had never used marijuana before. This is not a study of experienced consumers reclassifying themselves as patients. It's a cohort of genuine first-timers entering the category in their late sixties and seventies.

Second: the effective doses were low. Most commonly oral oil-based formulations, typically just a few milligrams per day of THC, CBD and/or CBG. That is a fundamentally different product profile than the potency arms race defining adult-use retail.

Third: a quarter of patients reduced or discontinued other medications. Overall medication burden remained stable, but 25% saw dose reductions or discontinuations of concomitant drugs.

The researchers are appropriately cautious — observational design means causality can't be inferred, and the preprint isn't yet peer-reviewed. Follow-up cohorts are planned in Colombia, Argentina and Chile.

The trend this sits inside

This isn't an isolated finding. It's the latest data point in a pattern that's been building all year.

A federally funded American Medical Association study found older adults are increasingly turning to cannabis for symptom management, with many motivated to try it as an alternative to traditional pharmaceuticals due to concerns about adverse effects. The AMA separately adopted a resolution this year recognizing both the risks and potential therapeutic benefits for older adults — and the CDC now wants to add a question about marijuana's medical benefits to a federal health survey.

Meanwhile Gallup's August poll found marijuana smoking at a record 17% among adults, and only 5% among those 65 and older. That gap is the entire commercial opportunity. Seniors are the most underpenetrated demographic in cannabis by an enormous margin, and the medical framing — low dose, physician-supervised, pharmaceutical substitution — is the only door that opens for them.

Where it's showing up in the numbers

The medical channel is expanding in exactly the places you'd expect if this thesis is right.

Georgia's program has exploded since SB 220 took effect, with patient counts jumping over 22% in a single month. Kentucky's governor describes the program as halfway to fully operational, and Cresco shipped first branded product there in June. The DEA hearing record documented more than 30,000 practitioners treating over six million patients across 43 jurisdictions — the exact figure DEA used to argue cannabis has currently accepted medical use.

Why this matters commercially

Here's the part operators should internalize.

Geriatric medical patients are, from a business standpoint, close to an ideal customer. They consume consistently rather than episodically. They're price-insensitive relative to volume — a few milligrams a day of oil is a small basket, but it repeats monthly for years. They're loyal to formulation once something works, which means brand switching is rare. And they arrive through physician referral, meaning acquisition cost is low and lifetime value is long.

They also don't buy flower. The Colombian cohort used oral oils. That's a manufactured, standardized, shelf-stable product with better margin structure and none of the potency-driven price compression destroying flower economics in Michigan and California.

And critically: this demographic will not buy gas-station delta-8. A 72-year-old with a neurodegenerative diagnosis wants physician supervision, consistent dosing and a compliance chain. That's the licensed channel or nothing — which is precisely why Ohio's channel-shift model and Green Thumb's 24 Florida medical doors look smarter than they did a year ago.

The read

Cannabis spent a decade optimizing for a young, high-potency, price-sensitive consumer, and that market is now contracting on price while consumption sets records.

The fastest-growing consumer is the opposite of that profile: older, medically supervised, low-dose, oil-based, pharmaceutical-substituting, and brand-loyal. They're the least penetrated demographic in the country, they're being actively courted by CMS and the AMA, and the clinical evidence supporting the use case keeps accumulating.

Rescheduling made the tax math work. Geriatric wellness is what makes the medical channel worth having.

Source: Marijuana Moment

📺 Trade To Black

DEA Transcript Fuels Rescheduling Speculation | TTB Weekly Recap

• The full rescheduling transcript is out. DEA released all 2,500-plus pages, with Judge Derek Julius's corrections including two that reversed the meaning of testimony. The bigger takeaway: the government built a strong Schedule III case, citing 30,000+ practitioners treating over six million patients across 43 jurisdictions.

• A high-profile bet on timing. Hedge fund manager Doug Kass posted that he'd taken a "super size" position in MSOS (NYSE: MSOS) and individual cannabis names, wagering a favorable recommendation lands soon.

• Curaleaf-Aurora escalates into a shareholder campaign. Both sides have now retained proxy solicitors. Aurora CEO Miguel Martin pushed back on Curaleaf's claims about Germany and cultivation performance, citing 17% international revenue growth — while Curaleaf fired back using Aurora's own filings. The Directors' Circular is expected in early September.

• Gallup confirms the consumption shift. 17% of American adults now say they smoke marijuana — more than double the 2013 rate — while cigarette smoking hit a record-low 11%.