What Disconnect?
Cannabis products are sold from coast to coast. However, it is increasingly clear that the consumer community is not happy.
Cannabis has already become a multi-billion-dollar industry. Cannabis products are sold from coast to coast. However, it is increasingly clear that the consumer community is not happy, and many are leaving the regulated market because they experience Inferior products. These products are perceived as too expensive and burdened by excessive tax rates. Efforts to apply national standards are still in discussion, while the Cannabis industry is mired in a patchwork of state-by-state safety regulations and a lack of interstate commerce. The Cannabis consuming public deserves a solution.
As co-founder of the CESC, a nonprofit Cannabis Science organization, Dr. Jean Talleyrand, M.D. recently visited the Flore Dispensary in San Francisco’s Castro District.Flore Dispensary is a newly opened medical Cannabis retail store located at a historic corner. At this corner more than 25 years ago, Brownie Mary handed out Cannabis infused “treats” to AIDS patients. Just down the street, Dennis Peron’s Cannabis Buyers Club became the world’s first medical Cannabis dispensary since prohibition. A few years later, Dr. Talleyrand evaluated his first medical Cannabis patients, also down the street. Dr. Talleyrand now represents a pressing need for the scientific exploration of Cannabis products. The CESC is coordinating a launch of Version 2 of The Dosing Project with the Flore Dispensary. The Dosing Project investigates community-accessible Cannabis products to discover optimal doses and efficacy. What better venue than this: a historic community that provides a natural resource for research? The Flore Dispensary along with other CESC strategic partners are the proving grounds for this CESC initiative.
“The Cannabis community is thirsty for knowledge. They are curious to know what and how much works for their aches, pains, and stressors. They want to know what gives energy or relaxes them. What makes them hungry, sleepy, or (yes, even) aroused”
Dr. Jean Talleyrand, Chief Medical Officer of the CESC
How have we landed in the present situation: a largely unmet need for Cannabis product surveillance for both safety and efficacy for consumers?
At a recent (June 14, 2022) meeting of the FDA, after soliciting public comment it was clear that consumers expect regulators not to prohibit, but to monitor Cannabis product efficacy, safety, and content.
There are elements of regulatory disconnect at all levels of the Cannabis industry. Federal and state regulatory agencies are addressing limited parts of the challenges presented by Cannabis. Because the FDA has approved THC and CBD as pharmaceutical ingredients, it sets up a regulatory conflict with Cannabis products. The pathway for seeking regulatory approval and oversight for food and dietary supplements incorporating cannabinoids is opaque. This results from a basic tenant of the FDA that pharmaceutical ingredients cannot be food additives or supplements. Regulatory oversight at the state level has largely focused on product safety, eschewing the question of product efficacy, and leaving that to the commercial industry and marketplace to sort out for itself. Commercial organizations, however, are barely able to focus on evaluating their product efficacy. After being overwhelmed by high state and local taxation rates, and the vagaries of getting and keeping a bank account in the current banking environment, Cannabis product manufacturers are left with few resources to devote to research and development. As a result, the consumer is left in the dark and unsure how to make good purchasing decisions.
The CESC’s Solution: Establish a Cannabis product ecosystem. The CESC is building a product formulary comprising a validated set of Cannabis products that consumers can rely on. Furthermore, the CESC is developing an application that predicts dose and outcomes from products across all categories. This model is anchored to community assessments derived from the Dosing Project and powered using AI, machine learning algorithms engineered by top-tier Cannabis data science professionals.
Over the next five issues of The Cannabinoid Playbook, we will illustrate the conceptual foundation and provide the details how the CESC solves this disconnect between Cannabis industry growth potential and current consumer dissatisfaction.
I. A Paradigm Shift: Introducing the Dosing Project as a broad observational study platform providing a non-traditional approach to clinical study
II. Solving the “Sativa” or “Indica” dilemma: Cannabis aroma provides a foundation for classification
III. Beyond Cannabinoids: How Cannabis terpene, thiol, and ester components can expand product classification
IV. Validating characteristic anticipated effects of Cannabis use and categorizing responders
V. Evaluating Cannabis products
For further information, please contact The CESC at [email protected] at the end in the available white space at the bottom of the 2nd page. Also, can we add a link to our website in this sasme space. Visit The CESC
Editors’ Note: This is an excerpt from our Monthly Playbook. If you would like to read the full monthly playbook and join the thousands of others you can sign up below.
