CannMed Coffee Talk

Amy Simpson and BigMike Straumietis talk about Humanity Heroes, a charity that is providing essential living supplies to the homeless community living on the streets and in shelters across America. BigMike, who you likely know as the CEO of Advanced Nutrients, founded Humanity Heroes with the idea that “if a company has the financial resources, then it has a social responsibility to help humanity as a whole.” Amy is the Fundraising Manager at Humanity Heroes, organizing all the events the team puts on each year, 

We discuss: 

The origins of Humanity Heroes The growing homeless population in the United States and Los Angeles specifically How cannabis medicine and the cannabis industry can potentially help the homeless population How Humanity Heroes has expanded to help the cannabis community, especially those affected by natural disasters Future goals for the organization and more

Thanks to this Episode's Sponsor: CannMed Giving Back

Medicinal Genomics believes in the power of education to inspire science, community, and hope. So we decided to give back with a chance to win a free ticket to the CannMed Medical Practicum, on May 3, 2022 in Pasadena.

Go to our Giving Back webpage, to register and read the full contest rules.

Additional Resources

Join Humanity Heroes CannMed ArchiveCannMed Community Board (Facebook Group)Healthcare Provider Medical Cannabis Research Study

Dedi Meiri, PhD runs a lab at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology that investigates the anti-tumor effects of cannabinoids. More specifically, his team identifies which combination of cannabinoids can kill cancer cells. Most notably, his team identified three specific cannabinoids that kill leukemia cells and that formulation is currently being tested in a clinical trial in Israel. 

Dr. Meiri is a three-time CannMed presenter. Most recently he delivered a one-hour keynote presentation at CannMed 2019 where he talks about the work going on in his lab. I highly recommend watching that, and all of Dedi’s presentations. Not only is the information fascinating, but Dedi has a very engaging presentation style. 

Topics discussed include:

The fact that Dedi entered cannabis medicine research skeptical of its therapeutic potential and understanding the mechanism of action of the endocannabinoid system made him a believer   How he uses his own experience to convince skeptical physicians and non-physiciansThe database that his team created that tracks all the active compounds in medical cannabis products available in Israel as well as which products are effectively treating the patients’ conditions How this unique database allows Dedi’s team to identify which products and compounds they want to study in more detail How the diversity of cannabis chemotypes and the diversity of cancer types makes it nearly impossible for patients to select the right strain for the right type of cancer given what we know now Whether synthetic biology will be used to produce minor cannabinoids at scale The two broad classifications for cannabis medicine: general wellness with whole plant extracts and targeted treatments with individual compounds 

Thanks for This Episodes's Sponsor: Advanced Nutrients

Founded in 1999, Advanced Nutrients was the first to develop a complete nutrient system that unlocks the true genetic potential of the cannabis plant. Since its inception, the brand has introduced more than 50 innovations to the cultivation community, and continues to revolutionize the space through proprietary scientific discoveries. 

Learn more at advancednutrients.com 

Additional Resources

Dr. Meiri's CannMed presentations: 2017 | 2018 | 2019Cannasoul AnalyticsTechnion Israeli Institute of Technology

Collin Palmer is the Chief Experience Officer at Vessel Life Science. He has been obsessed with growing cannabis since he started growing in his backyard at 15 years old. Since then he has consulted with many cannabis companies in a variety of areas including genetic selection, lab optimization, product development, branding, and more. Over the past several years he has worked on bringing that experience to Vessel Life Science, which has been focused on working with several brands to bring new solvent-less products to market in 2022.  

During our conversation we cover: 

Collin’s journey in the cannabis industry starting with his first plants to his current projectsThe education and mentorship he received from cannabis cultivation pioneers How regulations create barriers for legacy growers to participate in the current cannabis industry How business pressures stifle innovation from commercial cultivators and encourage copycat tacticsWhy THC and CBD values alone do a poor job of describing cannabis products The fact that how and when cannabis is harvested, cured, and dried can influence taste and experience for the user Why plant pathogens seem to be more prevalent now than ever beforeHow plant pathogens, particularly Hop Latent Viroid can destroy a cultivation business Subtle cues that HLVd infected plants can show and more

Thank you to this Episode's Sponsor PhenoXpress

PhenoXpress offers low-cost genetic testing services to cultivation facilities. Using qPCR technology, PhenoXpress helps cultivators identify genetic traits, such as plant sex, while plants are still in the seedling tray. They can also identify plant pathogens, such as Hop Latent Viroid, Lettuce Chlorosis Virus, and Powdery Mildew before plants show obvious signs of infection. Contact PhenoXpress today so they can help you predict, prevent, and eliminate major crop problems before they happen. 

To learn more about how you can accelerate your phenohunt with PhenoXpress go to phenoxpress.com.

Additional Resources

Vessel Life ScienceHop Latent Viroid - A 256 base pair piece of RNA is a Billion dollar hit to the Cannabis IndustrySorry, but high-THC flower is overrated.CannMed ArchiveCannMed Community Board (Facebook Group)Healthcare Provider Medical Cannabis Research Study

Michael Levinsohn is a criminal and civil defense attorney with 20 years of experience representing people in all areas of the cannabis industry, including patients, cultivators, retailers, and healthcare providers. We catch up on new developments in cannabis law since last we spoke, including 

Ryan’s Law, which requires California hospitals providing palliative care allow terminally ill patients to use cannabis The likely reason Ryan’s Law is restricted to terminally ill patients and what hospitals and providers will have to do to accommodate this new requirementThe possibility that other states will follow California’s lead and enact requirements that are similar to Ryan’s Law Restrictions that prevent healthcare providers from recommending, developing, and endorsing cannabis-based therapeutics The likelihood that the MORE Act, which is a federal legalization bill, will become law  What a more realistic federal legalization path looks like 

Mr. Levinsohn will get into each of these issues and more at CannMed 2022 where he will be giving an oral presentation “The Legal Obligations of Cannabis Doctors and The Role of The Law in Cannabis Medicine“. So if you are a physician, nurse, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or any type of healthcare provider interested in recommending cannabis to your patients, you should definitely take his advice to heart. He works with a lot of the top cannabis clinicians including our dear friend Dr. Bonni Goldstein.

Thanks to This Episode’s Sponsor: Cannabis Center of Excellence

The Virtual Cannabis Center of Excellence, INC. (CCOE, INC.) is a registered 501c3 non-profit organization that conducts citizen-science focused population studies and programs in the areas of community engagement, medical cannabis, adult-use cannabis, and social justice in the cannabis industry. The group is currently conducting a survey of healthcare providers' knowledge attitudes and practices related to medical cannabis. If you are a healthcare provider, please take this 12-minute survey to help us better understand your experiences with medical cannabis, prior education around the topic, and interest in future clinical education related to medical cannabis. 

To learn more and to take the survey, go to https://www.cannacenterofexcellence.org/hcpmedcannstudy.html

Additional Resources

SB-305 Compassionate Access to Medical Cannabis Act or Ryan’s LawH.R.3617 - MORE Act of 2021Coffee Talk 11 with Michael Levinsohn

David Joly, PhD is Associate Professor at the University of Moncton, where his team investigates cannabis and cannabinoids. Dr. Joly has unique expertise in the field of plant cannabis genomics and their associated microbes, and his work has been cited more than 1000 times. 

Earlier this year, Dr. Joly published a paper titled “Genome-wide characterization of the MLO gene family in Cannabis sativa reveals two genes as strong candidates for powdery mildew susceptibility”. It’s an important paper when it comes to breeding powdery mildew resistant cannabis plants. As we discuss PM is as common as it is destructive, and it torments all cannabis growers, from the hobbyist home growers to the large-scale commercial operators. 

In our conversation we discuss: 

How PM infects cannabis plants and how environmental conditions play a roleThe prevention and remediation options cannabis cultivators currently have The difference between PM resistance and PM susceptibility and how variations both can affect the severity of infection How breeding out PM susceptibility genes provides more robust protection than breeding in PM resistance genesWhat are MLO genes and how do they affect PM susceptibility How MLO genes were used to breed our PM susceptibility in other crops The importance of having a quality reference genome to investigate genes of interest. and more

Thanks to This Episode's Sponsor: Kannapedia

Kanapedia.net is the world’s most comprehensive cannabis genomic library, and a recent update has made it easier than ever for customers and researchers to explore Kannapedia’s database of more than 1400 cannabis to make smarter breeding decisions and demonstrate novel genetics. 

Kannapedia.net now has a number of new features to help explore your cannabis cultivars' genomic data. 

Improved Search and Filtering make it easy to identify cultivars of interest within the Kannapedia database.New Visualizations and Variant Tables highlight high-impact variants in genes of interest, including the MLO genes cited in Dr. Joly’s paper.  Responsive design means you can view your reports on any screen type.Private Reports allow you to keep sensitive data hidden. 

Visit Kannapedia.net to learn more. 

Additional Resources

Genome-wide characterization of the MLO gene family in Cannabis sativa reveals two genes as strong candidates for powdery mildew susceptibilityDr. Joly's Twitter CannMed ArchiveCannMed Community Board (Facebook Group)Healthcare Provider Medical Cannabis Research Study

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View the Transcript

Good afternoon, David. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. All right, so you and your team recently published a pretty important paper on powdery mildew susceptibility, which we are going to get into. But first, I wanted to lay some groundwork. Our audience here on the podcast, includes people from all facets of the cannabis industry, and not

everyone's going to be intimately familiar with PM. So let's start by outlining the powdery mildew problem. So I was wondering if you could explain why is powdery mildew a threat to cannabis cultivation and really what is at stake here?

Yeah, well, first of all, I would say that powdery mildew is a threat because it's very common. First of all, so it's not something rare that people are likely not to expect. So it certainly will happen at some point.

So it's very common and it can spread very quickly. So when once a crop is infected, so usually the recovery options are often limited. So we don't want growers, of course, to use those nasty fungicide that we see some time on other crops.

So we still have access to a few environmentally friendly options, but those are not always very efficient or they are not easy to apply on larger scale. So now about its impact on the plant itself, of course, it will rarely kill it because it's what we call an obligate biotroph.

So it needs living tissues to propagate. But it can severely reduce photosynthesis when it gets out of control, especially. And this it will in the end affect yield. So something that no grower want. Another impact I can think of is, of course, it will affect the smell of the plant.

So when you have a plant infected by powdery mildew, people will notice it has a different smell. And so we know that consumers are more and more interested in the flavors and the scent, the aromas of their cannabis.

So certainly it's a problem that people will want to avoid. Sure. And now it's called powdery mildew, because it has sort of a powdery white look on the leaves when a plant is infected, and I'm familiar with the fact that it will show up on the leaves.

Does it also infect the flower itself? Will it sort of affect the bud that eventually would get to the consumer? Yeah, well, we often say that that powdery mildew can affect all aerial parts of the plants, which will include stems.

As long as they’re non-woody, it can infect the leaves and it can infect some part of the flowers, not all but like when we refer to cannabis flowers. So before we have the cracks and those can be infected by powdery mildew.

But, we need to understand that powdery mildew. So, you know, you will hear a lot of things about powdery mildew. People will say it's systemic and stuff like that. So, if I can describe rapidly how powdery mildew works.

So usually like powdery mildew first, it's a fungus, right? So it will propagate mainly through its asexuals spores that we call canadia. So those spores will land on a leaf and then they will germinate and produce those kind of tiny projections into the cells from the epidermis and only the epidermis.

So powdery mildew will only affect one layer of cells, which is the first layer of cells. It won't get further down than that compared with other fungi. So it is certainly not systemic. It is very restricted to the epidermis.

Now, we have epidermis on leaves, but we also have epidermis on the stem. So that's why you can see powdery mildew elsewhere. So those tiny projections I was talking about. So, that gets into the plant cells.

So they are needed by the fungus to absorb its nutrients from the plant. But it will also be a way for the fungus to suppress the defense response from the plant. But then why do people think it's systemic?

Well, there's many reasons for that. So in other plants, that survives winter, for example. So people talk it was systemic because very rapidly in the spring, you could see powdery mildew appear. And so the reason for that is that it can stay dormant within buds.

And I'm not talking about cannabis buds here, but like any axillary buds that you can find on a plant, and it can also stay dormant on plant debris. And mostly, I think the big reason is that it can be present, but at a very low level.

So people will think that the plant is healthy. They will then propagate it or share it with friends, and then suddenly the conditions become favorable and it will be a big boom for the fungus. But it was there.

It can stay, you know, dormant at very low levels. Yeah, so important thing you mentioned there, so environmental conditions can sort of bring on an infection. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, so that's why usually so, you know, people will have their mother plants.

And so the mother plants are in a setting where usually the humidity is not as high as the cuttings will be once the ones they start propagating that plant. So you have a plan that was maybe not in the ideal conditions for the fungus.

So you don't see it, but it's still there. It's still somewhere. And then when you do the cuttings, you put them, you know, into a higher humidity level and then the fungus likes it. It will start to propagate. And then when you.

When you get your plants outside, outside of the rooting period there, it will add time to get established and then people will often also see it getting more important during flowering. So is it because it had time to mature or because the canopy is maybe more dense or also because I

don't know if the light can affect I'm not sure it has been studied, but maybe like because we changed the light regime during flowering, maybe it also helps the powdery mildew to propagate more easily. Okay, so I know you briefly touched on it, but I mean, a lot of your paper is is about trying to identify these

genes that may be responsible for susceptibility to powdery mildew. And then there's also the opportunity of finding powdery mildew resistant genes, which I'm sure we'll get into. But in the absence of sort of breeding for resistance, What steps do cultivators currently have to either prevent pm infection or once it's happened, sort of remediated?

Yeah, so I mean, right now, as I said at the very beginning, so there are a few options that exist to kind of reduce the incidence of the incidence of the disease. So and about those products, so I know there was there was a study conducted by the group of the group of Zamir Punj at Simon

Fraser University, who you also had on your podcast a year ago. So, they tested a bunch of different products. So some are based on the use of bacteria that will attack the fungus. So we can talk about the products like actinovate or rhapsody, but they also look at products that are based on plant extracts, such as

neem oil and also some other products that are well known in the organic farming, such as potassium bicarbonate, or that we know as milstaff is the name of the product that we often see for cannabis use or hydrogen peroxide also, which is another product.

So there are different products....

Evelyn Alvarez is currently the Quality Assurance Director at Encore Labs. She has ten years of experience working on analytical instrumentation and in regulated lab environments including work on EPA and OSHA methods. She received a degree in Environmental Science with research experience on pesticides. 

Evelyn was recently quoted in a Refinery29 article that revealed an unfortunate element of the unregulated Delta-8 THC market. That being that some Delta-8 THC producers will falsify lab results, also known as certificates of analysis, (COAs) they post online. 

We cover that topic and others in our discussion, including: 

How COAs differ from state-mandated compliance tests How the lack of regulatory oversight of Delta-8 THC products puts consumers at risk Red flags consumers can look for when reviewing COAs The recent increase in Delta-8 THC products How the process of synthesizing Delta-8 THC from hemp may introduce contaminants that most labs are not testing for and more

Thanks to This Episode's Sponsor: Encore Labs

Encore Labs is the premier cannabis testing facility licensed in California with an ISO/IEC 17025 certification. They offer state-wide comprehensive analysis to cultivators, infused product manufacturers, distributors, providers and dispensaries not only for regulatory purposes but also to characterize the unique aspects of your cannabis.

Learn more at encore-labs.com

Additional Resources

Encore Labs websiteI Took A Delta-8 Gummy Before Going On A Run. Things Got Weird — Really Weird (Refinery29 Article)CannMed ArchiveCannMed Community Board (Facebook Group)Healthcare Provider Medical Cannabis Research Study

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View the Transcript

Good afternoon, Evelyn, thanks for joining us. Hey, thank you for having me. Very excited to talk about these very important topics for consumers. Yeah, about that. So, you were quoted in a pretty wild article that came out last month on the website Refinery29.

I find the story concerning in a lot of ways. But let's just start, I guess, with the general premise. So, I don't know if you want to kind of explain how you got involved in all of this or if you want to if you want to do that first.

Sure. Yeah. And to some of the concerns that it raises. Yes, so a while back, we got an email to our lab and Molly, the journalist from Refinery29 was reaching out, initially just asking some very straightforward questions about a Delta-8 product that she was going to write a review piece on.

When I started digging into the sample information, I realized that the reports were very clearly fabricated, just completely made up. When I reached back out to her with that information, she was pretty blown away as well. And that just kind of started a good back and forth between her and I, which ended up turning into this great

piece by her. I mean, she really went down the rabbit hole and spoke to many different people in the industry, you know, from researchers to regulators. It turned into being a good highlight for everyone, you know, for consumers, especially in terms of safety.

Yeah, exactly. So. So basically, Molly had taken this Delta-8 THC gummy and had a pretty intense experience. Right? More intense than she was expecting or that was advertised. And so, she went to the website and looked at the COA that was listed there, as many of these products have.

And she looked at it, everything looked good, less than 0.3 THC, no residual solvents, everything looks good. But she goes one step further and actually reaches out to the lab. How? How common is that, do consumers actually reach out to your lab to confirm a COA that they see online?

Prior to Delta-8, not very common. Now that Delta-8 products have become more and more popular, we've gotten a lot more inquiries to our line. And it's good that people are asking these questions that, you know, there unfortunately is fabrication out there.

There's unfortunately not enough education about what these products are and what regulations, if any. But there are. So, the more that people can pull in and ask us questions, you know, we're happy to help essentially relay the data to them.

We can't go into say in terms of the physician's end of things, but we can interpret the results. Right, so I guess before we get too deep into it, can you briefly explain sort of what a COA is and why it is important for cannabis users and patients in terms of product safety?

Yeah. So COA, simply put, is a summary of the results of testing performance products. So COA stands for certificate of analysis, depending on the number of tests requested. It can tell you a lot about a product. So, it's cannabinoid profile.

You know how important it is, how much THC or CBD is in it. It's terpene profile. We test for a lot of harmful things, things like pesticides, heavy metals, residual solvents, microbials, mycotoxins. All of those are important in terms of safety if we detect it.

It's one of those harmful compounds. You shouldn't be consuming it. Just the whole safety profile alone is super important for the consumer if they are purchasing these CBD or Delta products. How do they really know that that's what is in the product or how do they know that it doesn't contain Delta-9 THC?

I've heard of situations where people consume CBD products and then end up failing the drug test. You know, maybe if they would have gone one step further to look for the report, it could have helped.

More importantly, for patients that are trying to dose, if they want to make sure that what is labeled on the container is actually what it contains so that they can have accurate dosing for whatever it is that they're trying to to focus on.

Exactly, and so these COA’s that the manufacturers put up on their websites, it seems like a lot of the things that they're testing for is similar to what you would do for compliance testing for products that are on a dispensary shelf.

Is that fair to say? Is it really the same battery of tests that are done for these COAs? Does it depend on what the manufacturer requests? What are the differences between the two types of tests?

That is a very important question. It really depends on what they are requesting for testing or compliance testing here in the state of California. There are very specific regulations that we follow really from the beginning of testing to the end.

And I can kind of get into how the sample arrives to the lab and this is important. For a compliance sample, we are required to send one of our trained samplers out to the facility, and we are required to sample something that is unbiased and representative.

And there are a lot of other requirements say the larger the batch sizes, the larger sample we pull. So even just getting to the lab, a compliance one is something that we picked. We refer to non-compliant samples as R&D, so things like CBD and Delta-8 that are submitted, those don't have any requirements.

Manufacturers can send them in, they can drop them off, they can cherry pick if they still wish. It's unfortunate, but they do. So, from the get go you're getting something potentially different than what you're buying because of how it was submitted.

When it gets to the lab, that was a great question that you asked, what kind of testing is performance? So for compliance testing, we perform the whole gambit that the state requires. So a lot of what I mentioned earlier, pesticides, mycotoxins, heavy metals.

However, for these noncompliance tests, it's whatever the manufacturer requests. So if they're only concerned about cannabinoid profile, that is the only thing that we test because they have no requirements. So if it did have something harmful, since we're not testing for it, there's really no way for that to be communicated to anyone.

Yeah. And furthermore, even if that were requested by the manufacturer say mycotoxins or heavy metals or something like that, if you report that back to the manufacturer, is there any mechanism for that to be reported also to some sort of regulator or anyone to make sure that that product still

doesn't make it to the market like I assume is in place for compliance testing? Yeah, another huge difference, there is no requirement for that information to be submitted anywhere else than to the person that requested it or anything that is non-compliance for our compliance results.

The state has really specific regulations. When we finish and approve the results, we are required to simultaneously report it to the distributor that the people who submitted the request to the testing to the State of California, the Department of Cannabis Control.

And we have to upload it to a system, track and trace system. In California, we use metric and all of that case, you know, digital data for everything. So even if this distributor tried to transfer it elsewhere, say, to a retail shop, they won't be able to do that because those failed results are stuck with it.

And even so, since we notified the Department of Cannabis Control, they're already going to take action on that. But for these non-compliant samples, those manufacturers really aren't required to do much. Maybe they're good actors and they're going to go back and mediate their batch and submit again for testing and then sell the product.

But maybe they're not and they're just going to submit a different sample and still push it through elsewhere. Right, and like you mentioned earlier, the fact that they can sort of submit samples that may not exactly be representative of an entire batch.

Yeah....

Justin Bueno, PhD is the Scientific Director of Goodness Growth Holdings, Inc. Since joining Goodness Growth Holdings in 2018, Dr. Bueno has published two peer-reviewed articles in the field of cannabis science. One article, published in the Journal of Cannabis Research, described the validation and the science behind the novel TerpSafe packaging system towards the preservation of terpenes in cannabis flower. This article will be the basis of his presentation at CannMed 2022 titled, “The Preservation and Augmentation of Terpenes in Cannabis Inflorescence”.  

Our conversation was all about terpenes, including:

How terpenes contribute to cannabis effects and overall quality Why using THC potency as an indicator of quality is short-sighted The difference between terpenes and terpenoids How the terpene profile of cannabis flower can change over time as molecules evaporate  The inconsistency of terpene concentrations from flower to flower within the same batch How the new TerpSafe technology is addressing terpene preservation and batch consistency 

Thanks to This Episode's Sponsor: CannaSafe

CannaSafe is a California-based cannabis analytical testing lab paving the way in the industry though research, education, and social equity efforts. Championing safe and effective cannabis, hemp, and CBD for all, one test at a time.

Learn more at csalabs.com

Additional Resources

The preservation and augmentation of volatile terpenes in cannabis inflorescenceTerpSafeGoodness Growth HoldingsSorry, but high-THC flower is (Weedmaps Article) CannMed ArchiveCannMed Community Board (Facebook Group)Healthcare Provider Medical Cannabis Research Study

John Malanca co-founded United Patients Group (UPG), a trusted resource and leader in medical cannabis information and education for patients, physicians, pharmacists, governments, and organizations, both domestically and internationally. UPG also acts as a virtual hand for patients and their loved ones struggling with chronic and terminal illnesses by helping them navigate through this ever-changing industry.

At CannMed 2021, John will moderate a panel of medical cannabis experts to discuss and answer some of the reasons why cannabis is essential to wellness, yet not a one size fits all medicine.

You will hear the powerful story that brought medical cannabis into John’s family’s life, as we explore the challenges patients face when beginning cannabis treatment. We discuss:

How the cannabis medicine landscape has changed over the last 10 yearsThe fact that cannabis medicine is not a one-size-fits-all medicine, and treatment needs to be personalized to each patientThe limited guidance many patients receive from medical providers when it comes to cannabis medicinesThe limited education most healthcare providers have on the endocannabinoid systemHow patients can navigate the growing number of cannabis productsand more

Thank You to This Episode's Sponsor: The Cannigma

The Cannigma is a cannabis education site that's committed to making sure scientific information about cannabis is accessible to anyone who needs it – be it to relieve their own suffering or that of a loved one, to learn a bit more, or even just for fun. The site takes an evidence-based approach to every issue surrounding cannabis – from safety to cooking to medical research – and makes all of that information digestible and useful.

Learn more at cannigma.com. 

Additional Resources

United Patients GroupCannMed ArchiveCannMed Community Board (Facebook Group)Healthcare Provider Medical Cannabis Research Study

Dr. Jeffrey Raber is CEO of the Werc Shop, an independent testing lab established in 2010. Dr. Raber is trained as an organic chemistry scientist, but he is also a serial entrepreneur, patent inventor, and executive, with over a decade of experience in cannabis testing.

At CannMed 2018, Dr. Raber presented “Cannabis Compositions Viewed Through Molecular Glasses” which you can view on our CannMed Archive page. At CannMed 2021, Dr. Raber will present “Thermal Degradation: A Fly in the Cannabis Vapor Ointment” which explores how the act of heating cannabis oils for vaping can alter certain molecules and how that information can be applied to testing regulations. 

We discuss: 

What we have learned from the 2019 vaping crisis and how are those lessons being applied What additives pose a threat to vape users The lasting appeal of vaping products in terms of convenience and consistency How inconsistencies in vaping hardware plays a role How cannabis vape products differ from nicotine products The challenges and limitations of testing equipment and methods Signs consumers can look for when evaluating the safety and quality of vape products 

Thanks to This Episode's Sponsor: Agilent Technologies

Whether you manufacture or test cannabis, you face the challenge of delivering high-quality products, increasing sample volume, and meeting emerging regulations. Agilent offers best-in-class cannabis and hemp analysis solutions featuring robust instruments, software, services, and consumables. Our team of experts can develop, implement, and optimize methods to get you up and running quickly.

Learn more at Agilent.com

Additional Resources

The Werc Shop WebsiteCannMed ArchiveCannMed 2021 ScheduleCannMed Community Board (Facebook Group)Healthcare Provider Medical Cannabis Research Study

BigMike Straumieitis is the Since 1983, BigMike Straumieitis has worked tirelessly to find new ways to bring cannabis to its true genetic potential—legally and illegally. He’s overseen the cultivation of over a million pot plants over the course of his career. in 1999, BigMike founded Advanced Nutrients, the first fertilizer company with products specifically designed for cannabis plants. Today, Advanced Nutrients is the #1 selling hydroponic nutrient company and the cannabis industry's most profitable company. 

BigMike and Advanced Nutrients are long-time supporters of CannMed, dating back to our very first event in 2016 at Harvard Medical School. We are excited to have Advanced Nutrients as a CannMed 2021 Partner, providing guidance and assistance on planning our Cultivation Focus Area. 

We discuss: 

How BigMike got started in the cannabis black market and transitioned to a legitimate force in the legal industry How nutrient requirements for cannabis are different from other flowering plants The difference between primary and secondary nutrients and how they help improve cannabis yield How nutrient requirements change according to growth media and environment Common mistakes homegrowers make  A major announcement about a new Advanced Nutrients product line 

Thanks to This Episode's Sponsor, Advanced Nutrients

Founded in 1999, Advanced Nutrients was the first to develop a complete nutrient system that unlocks the true genetic potential of the cannabis plant. Since its inception, the brand has introduced more than 50 innovations to the cultivation community, and continues to revolutionize the space through proprietary scientific discoveries. Their most recent innovation, Advanced Hemp, is the first all-in-one fertilizer that is backed by 20 years of science and specifically formulated to assist growers who are looking to yield higher CBD counts.

For more information, visit www.advancednutrients.com.

Additional Resources

Advanced Nutrients Grower SupportHumanity Heroes CannMed ArchiveCannMed 2021 ScheduleCannMed Community Board (Facebook Group)Healthcare Provider Medical Cannabis Research Study