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Cannabis Lab Testing Seminars Begin April 6th

Owen Smith

On Wednesday April the 6th I will be attending a free Cannabis Lab Testing Seminar at The Hive in Vancouver, BC. The event is hosted by Canlio and Wagon Wheel. These two groups have recently combined to offer producers, dispensaries and patients access to affordable lab testing services. The event highlights how cannabis providers are seeking to raise their services to a higher standard despite remaining unregulated and illegal enterprises.

RSVP Here

Canlio offers users the ability to:

  • Request tests
  • Generate shipping Chain of Custody paperwork
  • Receive test reports and compare results between products and over time
  • Publish results and promote your products as Independently Tested

Wagon Wheel Labs testing capabilities include:

  • Cannabinoid Potency
  • Terpene Levels
  • Microbial Analysis
  • Residual Solvent Detection

Canllio Wagon Wheel

Testing Cannabis has mostly been spoken of as a safety precaution to protect those with compromised immune systems from exposure to contamination such as heavy metals from the soil, moulds and harmful bacteria. Testing provides a shield against these perils but more excitingly it offers the development of a new and improved way for people to select cannabis.

As a cannabis provider for five years at the V-CBC, I had only the simplest tool to help patients discern the effects of a particular cannabis strain before trying it. Like many clubs, we used the Sativa to Indica spectrum to distinguish between stimulating ‘daytime’ products and sedating ‘nighttime’ ones. Strain profiles would typically be presented as “70% Sativa” or “70/30 Sativa Cross”. These profiles were often suggested by growers and altered based the feedback of staff and members utilizing our resident vapour lounge.

Edible Spectrum Chart copyThis Ratio does not reflect the potency of a given cultivar. a cannabis plant with 10% THC could have a 80/20 Sativa rating while a 20% THC plant could have a 70/30 rating and still contain a great deal more THC. Not to mention how the differing terpene profiles (smells) have also been shown to contribute to the end effect. The format for an effective request would sound something like, “I would like a strong or weak; Sativa, Indica or % Cross; with a sweet or savoury scent.”

Cannabinoids can effect each individual in highly variable ways depending on factors such as familiarity; tolerance; body fat and time of day. the same cultivar may effect two different people in two different ways. Without being lab tested, this complex of variables limits how accurate our best guesswork can be.

Lab testing cannabis will give us an accurate report of the strength of the cultivar aswell as offering us a much more detailed account of the ratio between key cannabinoids. The strain CBD 10:5 (shown below) from the V-CBC contains 10.2% CBD and 6.28% THC. A Full Terpene profile is also available for analysis. It is a watershed moment for patients that will accelerate and target the process of self-titration, allowing for less unwanted effects and informing providers who can then describe with surety the cannabinoid content of their products.

cbd 10 5
(Screencapture from www.Canlio.com)

Canlio’s online testing platform offers dispensaries and producers the ability to track their test results by Lot and Batch, to see how alterations in their methodology affect their final product. With these tools under their belt, the ever innovative cannabis movement is poised to transform the popular experience of using this important plant.

I hope that you will be able to make it to one of the series of Seminars. For those who can”t make it, their will be a video produced and published on Canlio at the end of the series. For more information contact info@canlio.com.

Check out the Facebook Event Page

RSVP Here

Owen Smith
Owen has been writing for the Cannabis Digest since 2009, covering a wide range of topics related to medical cannabis. Owen’s articles are closely related to his constitutional challenge to legalized cannabis edibles extracts and oils. He is the founder of Ethical Growth Consulting www.ethicalgrowth.ca

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