Austin, TX
The Austin Chronic – New to the Texas Medical Market: RSO Products and Delicious Chocolate
Sweet relief: Kevin Curtin sampling Texas Original’s new RSO Belgian Dark Chocolate Bites (photos by Kevin Curtin)
Valentine’s Day proved a fitting occasion for multiple medical dispensaries in Austin to roll out new menu items that pair cannabis and chocolate – to which I say: Lower your bow, Cupid; I need no convincing to eat chocolate that gets me high.
In the modern world of edibles, it’s easy to sleep on cocoa confections. After all, for most of us over the age of 30, our first THC-eating experience was likely the ubiquitous “pot brownie” – an earthy-tasting chocolate baked good with inexact dosage (in lieu of milligrams, we simply described them as “strong” or “weak”). Since then, gummies and candies, which are fast-acting and low-calorie, have come to dominate roughly 3/4 of the U.S.’ nearly $10 billion annual edible market, which also includes a growing beverage component. But chewing up a gummy or sipping a THC seltzer doesn’t really feel like you’re treating yourself in the same mouthwatering way that biting into a chunk of decadent chocolate does.
As a patient in Texas’ Compassionate Use program, I procured several new chocolate products this month. Among them, Texas Original’s first medical cannabis chocolate product: Belgian Dark Chocolate Bites. The jar, which costs $70, includes 20 hexagon-shaped chocolates that each contain 10mg of THC. The clerk at the dispensary noted that it takes about 45 minutes to feel the effect, so I ate two of them while at a friend’s birthday party in anticipation of an unanxious night’s sleep a few hours later.
I judge the taste and presentation of edibles by the standard of “would I be satisfied if this was some random non-cannabis snack that I impulsively bought at Trader Joe’s,” and the Belgian Dark Chocolate Bites passed. They are super solid texturally, as dark chocolate is firmer than milk chocolate, so there’s an initial crunch before it softens with a rich depth of flavor. I was starting to feel pretty uplifted as I sang karaoke at the party – a passionate version of Meat Loaf’s “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” if you must know – and, by the time I returned home, I had a body-high so pronounced that I remember telling my cat, “I’m really noticing how my skin feels right now.”
After two hexagon-shaped chocolates, I was restful and relaxed and slept like a baby. Actually, I slept better than a baby, because our actual baby woke me up at 5:20am.
But above all I was restful and relaxed and slept like a baby. Actually, I slept better than a baby, because our actual baby woke me up at 5:20am. This is when I noticed that, seven and a half hours after consumption, I still felt fantastic. I suppose that’s because edibles with significant fat content, while taking longer to hit you, also have more of a long-term effect.
The only thing I regret about the experience was pigging out on a bunch of assorted chocolates from a heart-shaped box left over from V-Day. I guess eating chocolate that gets you high doesn’t preclude you from wanting to eat chocolate while you’re high.
The most intriguing aspect of Texas Original’s chocolates is that they’re the first product in Texas’ medical market that uses RSO. Unlike a lot of three-letter acronyms in cannabis, RSO isn’t a dizzying combination of prefixes and suffixes only discernible to organic chemistry majors, like Resinonia-Smokeadosious-Oxidank or something. It plainly stands for “Rick Simpson Oil.”
If you’re unfamiliar: Rick Simpson is the rare person who discovered a potential medical breakthrough and did not try to monetize it. Instead, he freely taught others how to make it and gave the oils away until Canadian authorities eventually raided and seized his home.
An engineer by trade, Simpson sustained a head injury in 1997 while working at a hospital that left him with debilitating tinnitus and dizziness. When prescription medicine proved ineffective, he found better results using cannabis. Years later, when he developed skin cancer, Simpson crafted a concentrated cannabis oil that he applied to his lesions, and he claimed it cured his cancer. That led to him becoming both an activist and a Johnny Appleseed-like figure for an oil recipe that uses specific solvents and techniques to preserve the whole-plant profile of marijuana with all the cannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids, chlorophyll, and compounds.
Most edibles, tinctures, and vape cartridges use distillate, the process for which removes basically everything except the intended cannabinoid in a high potency. Meanwhile, the complete-spectrum RSO is praised for a theoretical “entourage effect,” where the plant compounds are believed to work together to increase the health benefits of the THC.
Texas Original’s director of marketing, Francesca Neely-Dickey, says that one of the most common requests they’ve gotten from patients is natural, full-plant products.
“They want something strain-specific, they want something full-spectrum, and they want something as natural as possible,” she says, noting the RSO oil is made from the Blue Dream plants Texas Original grows in their Manchaca facility.
Along with the chocolate bites, Texas Original also recently began providing patients with an RSO tincture, which is an extract that users can administer under the tongue with a dropper. Neely-Dickey expects more RSO products to come as the dispensary continues to evolve its menu.
While its anticancer benefits are largely anecdotal and lacking clinical trial data, RSO remains a popular treatment for cancer – which is one of the qualifying conditions of Texas’ medical cannabis program. But Neely-Dickey points out that there are other patient needs that make RSO a good addition to their product line.
“Unlike distillate, which only has the purified cannabinoids in it, RSO gives you more of a balanced effect and it’s a little less intense,” she says. “For some of our patients who are sensitive to THC, the distillate can be too much for them. RSO is more of a product that mimics the effects of smoking flower, so it’s really beneficial for those patients.”
AUSTIN (KXAN) — As flood threats continue across parts of South Central Texas, Austin Pets Alive! has activated emergency response efforts to support animal shelters affected by the inclement weather.
In a social media post, APA! wrote, “We began offering aid last night, working to secure fosters for 10 dogs in the Castroville shelter, an open-air shelter that sits at the bottom of a valley.”
APA! said the situation escalated overnight with additional shelters reporting flooding. One shelter confirmed that floodwaters reached its facility, APA! added.
Communities overwhelmed due to weather include Uvalde, Castroville and Sabinal.
The nonprofit is asking the Austin community to foster, adopt or donate to free up capacity for animals displaced by the disaster. APA! needs to clear out its facilities to assist the animals in need of shelter.
Here are ways you can help:
- Adopt: APA! is offering a “Name Your Own Adoption Fee” on all animals.
- Foster: The shelter is seeking foster homes for a minimum of three weeks.
- Donate: Proceeds will fund vans and response teams setting up a staging and triage center at the heart of the disaster zone, along with an expanded stockpile of preventatives, PPE and additional supplies.
If you would like to donate, click here.
AUSTIN, Texas — With heavy rain expected across parts of Central Texas this week and flooding top of mind, the city of Austin is proposing to put more money toward flood mitigation improvements in next year’s budget.
The proposal would invest in new flood infrastructure, add staff, and help move flood mitigation projects forward, according to city leaders. Austin City Councilmember Ryan Alter said the investments are aimed at keeping the city prepared for future flooding.
Residents who live near waterways say they have seen how quickly conditions can change. David Haderspeck, who lives near Shoal Creek, said the creek “fills up pretty fast” and “gets a lot higher than you’d expect.” He said he has watched the water rise dramatically after rain.
“I’ve seen it come up probably 10 to 15 feet to the ordinary high-water mark,” he said.
This week, parts of Central Texas, including the Hill Country, are expected to get heavy downpours. While Austin is not expecting the same impacts as parts of the Hill Country, leaders said the city is using this year’s budget planning to continue investing in flood safety.
Alter said the city has the expertise to address flooding risks but needs to follow through on projects.
ALSO| Central Texas urged to prepare as heavy rainfall sits in forecast over next two days
“We have the experts. We just have to put the plans into practice, and that’s what we’re doing in this budget,” he said.
Under the budget proposal, the city would provide about $134.5 million for the Drainage Utility Fund, which helps pay for flood mitigation, drainage infrastructure and watershed protection efforts.
Alter said the proposal would shift more of the funding balance toward building new infrastructure.
“What we’re going to do is shift that balance a little bit more to building new infrastructure so that when we do have large flooding events, we’ve got that infrastructure in place to keep people safe,” he said.
The proposal also adds staff and invests in both new and existing flood mitigation projects across the city.
Asked whether the proposed investments would be enough moving forward, Alter said, “I do…I think we’re doing the right thing and just making sure that our residents have the infrastructure to stay safe.”
Alter said heavy rain cannot be prevented, but the city’s goal is to have infrastructure in place to help keep people safe when it happens.
FILE – LinkedIn logos are displayed on an iPhone and computer screen. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas Attorney General’s office has opened an investigation into LinkedIn over allegations that the professional networking platform misleads consumers with advertising and profiting from misleading or fake job listings, otherwise known as “ghost jobs.”
LinkedIn investigation
In this photo illustration a Linkedin logo seen displayed on a mobile phone. (Photo Illustration by Stanislav Kogiku/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
What we know:
Texas announced on Tuesday it has issued a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) seeking documents, data and internal communications related to LinkedIn’s advertising, marketing, job listing verification practices and its Premium subscription services.
The investigation centers on whether LinkedIn violated Texas’ consumer protection laws by promoting paid subscription services while allegedly failing to disclose that some job listings on the platform may not actually be representative of hiring opportunities.
What is a ‘ghost job’?
An image of a woman holding a cell phone in front of a LinkedIn logo displayed on a computer screen. On Tuesday, January 12, 2021, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Dig deeper:
LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft and the world’s largest professional networking platform, with more than 1 billion registered users worldwide.
A “ghost job” generally refers to a position advertised online that either is no longer available or that an employer has no immediate intention of filling. The attorney general’s office cited independent studies estimating that ghost jobs account for between one-fifth and one-third of online job postings.
Texas AG targets Premium Subscription Fees
Photographer: Mark Felix/Bloomberg via Getty Images
What they’re saying:
According to the office of the attorney general, LinkedIn does not independently verify the hiring status of most job listings on its platform. Ken Paxton’s office alleges that the company’s marketing for its Premium subscription services does not disclose that a significant number of postings could be inactive, unfilled or not reflect genuine employment opportunity.
“I will use every resource available to my office to help job-seeking Texans find and secure real employment opportunities,” Paxton said in a statement. “LinkedIn has a duty to provide the services it advertises and ensure that consumers paying for Premium subscriptions are receiving access to legitimate job postings.”
Texas officials said LinkedIn’s Premium Career and Premium Business subscriptions cost about $39.99 and $69.99 per month, respectively, and are marketed to jobseekers looking to improve their employment prospects.
What’s next:
The investigation does not include any formal allegations of wrongdoing, and no lawsuit has been filed.
The Source: Information in this article was provided by the Texas Attorney General’s Office.
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