CannMed Coffee Talk – Details, episodes & analysis

Dr. John Streicher is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology in the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona. He has built a long-term research program focused on finding improved treatments for pain. This has encompassed multiple approaches over the years, including testing cannabinoid and non-cannabinoid constituents of Cannabis sativa, identifying new ways to target opioid receptor signaling, and identifying new receptor targets in the body for pain relief. His lab works on both the basic science knowledge of how these systems work and also works to create new drugs for human therapy.

During our conversation, we discussed:

• The basics of terpenes. What they are and their role in cannabis
• The cannabimimetic effects of terpenes and their synergistic effects with cannabinoids
• What levels of terpenes are needed to get a therapeutic effect
• A recent study showing terpenes can relieve chronic neuropathic pain
• Combining terpenes with other drugs, such as opioids, to get better pain relief at lower doses
• Which terpenes provide the best pain relief

Thanks to This Episode’s Sponsor: Healer

Healer is a trusted, physician-developed medicinal cannabis brand founded to address the challenges of helping people and health providers get the best results with safe, reliably dosable products and education on how to best use them. Healer Hemp products are available nationwide and include a step-by-step usage guide and response tracker. Healer’s distinctive product formulations and education are based on the latest research and work of leading cannabis clinician, Dr. Dustin Sulak, D.O.

Visit Healer.com or HealerCbd.com

Additional Resources:

• Terpenes are Cannabimimetic and Enhance Cannabinoid Activity
• Terpenes Relieve Chronic Pain
• A Review Article of Terpenes in Pain
• A Screen of Minor Cannabinoids in Pain
• The University of Arizona Comprehensive Center for Pain and Addiction
• Review the Podcast
• CannMed Archive

Dr. Harold Han is Chief Science Officer and co-founder of Vertosa, and the pioneer in water compatible cannabinoid ingredients for infused products.

Harold designed the industrial leading cannabis emulsions that are widely applied in the cannabis beverage brands. Harold holds 16 patents in emulsion applications, and prior to founding Vertosa, he led a team that developed the emulsification oil for Bio Rad’s Digital Droplet PCR system.

Harold also publishes a regular series explaining the science of cannabis for product makers under the monicker “The Happy Chemist” — a nickname you’ll understand after you watch the interview.

One of his recent articles describes the different factors that contribute to cannabis beverage potency loss, which is a challenge for beverage brands. In fact, in regulated markets it’s common to see a 10-15% variation in potency compared to the label claim. In unregulated hemp-derived beverages, it can be even higher.

During the conversation we discuss

• The difference between cannabis beverages and alcoholic beverages
• What happens when cannabinoids oxidize
• How to put THC into water-based products using physical and chemical processes
• How every aspect of the supply chain can lead to potency loss in cannabis beverages
• Which beverage ingredients hasten potency loss
• How packaging conditions can affect scalping and oxidation rates

Thanks to This Episode’s Sponsor: Vertosa

Vertosa creates industry-leading active ingredients for infused product makers. Their patent-pending nano- and micro-emulsions are carefully designed for the specific needs of each customer, and their pre-suspended aqueous solutions empower them to create incredibly homogenous and stable products while maximizing bioavailability, clarity, and taste.

Learn more at Vertosa.com

Additional Resources

• Happy Chemist Article Series
• The Cannabis Beverage Manufacturing Handbook
• Review the Podcast
• CannMed Archive

TJ Martin is the VP of R&D at Abstrax, a company that specializes in the research, development, and production of botanically derived and cannabis-inspired terpenes. 

TJ and his team recently published a paper that identified several non-terpenoid compounds that are responsible for the unique aromas associated with exotic cannabis varieties, including the berry, tropical, candy, and fruity notes found in Zkittlez and Gelato as well as the rich, intense, chemical scents found in GMO. This research opens up a new world of aromatic compounds and challenges the idea of classifying cultivars based on terpenes alone. 

We discuss:

• How cannabis aroma affects consumer and patient experience 
• The variety of aromas the cannabis plant can produce and how it compares to other plants 
• Define exotic cannabis varieties and compare them to more prototypical cultivars 
• Why terpenes alone do not tell the entire aroma story in exotic cannabis varieties 
• How to communicate information about non-terpeninoid compounds to consumers and patients in a meaningful way 

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. Their team of experts can develop, implement, and optimize methods to get you up and running quickly.

Learn more at agilent.com

Additional Resources

• Minor, Nonterpenoid Volatile Compounds Drive the Aroma Differences of Exotic Cannabis
• Abstraxtech.com 
• [Podcast] Discovering New Aromatic Compounds in Cannabis with TJ Martin
• Cannasulfur Compounds: A New Class of Secondary Metabolites Discovered in Cannabis
• Cannabis Aroma Predicts User Experience with Adie Rae, PhD
• The Nose Knows: Aroma, but Not THC Mediates the Subjective Effects of Smoked and Vaporized Cannabis Flower
• Register for CannMed 24
• What Makes CannMed Unique and Why You Don’t Want to Miss It
• Review the Podcast!
• CannMed Archive

On the latest episode of CannMed Coffee Talk, we welcome Brianna Cassidy, Chief Science Officer of CDX Analytics.

Brianna and the team at CDX perform safety testing on all types of cannabis samples, including potency, pesticides, heavy metals, residual solvents, and microbial contamination. As you will hear in the podcast, Brianna takes a creative and analytical approach to solving problems that come with testing cannabis products. At CannMed 2020, Brianna will share her process for evaluating new analytical methods and technologies for her lab. As you can imagine, there are a number of vendors looking to install their systems in cannabis testing labs, so it helps to have a thorough and objective process to choose the best option. 

Our team knows first hand that Brianna is thorough when evaluating new technologies. She and the team at CDX provided data that is an important part of the Medicinal Genomics Manufacturer Validation Document. 

Brianna and I also discussed the issue of consistency when it comes to potency testing. I was surprised to learn that Cannabis flowers from the same batch are often 50% more or less potent than what’s reported on the package. She also explained how water content can make a big difference in potency results. 

If you aren’t familiar with what exactly goes on at a cannabis testing lab, you are likely in the majority. But hopefully, by the end of this episode, you will have a much better appreciation for cannabis testing labs!

Click the player below to listen, and thanks to our sponsor, The Cannabis Scientist

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Additional Resources:

• Cannabis Uncertainty
• CDX Analytics website

We are excited to announce CannMed 2020’s Keynote Presenter in the Cultivation Focus Area, and our guest on the latest Coffee Talk Podcast, is Seth Crawford, PhD.

Dr. Crawford is the owner and co-founder of Oregon CBD, along with his brother, Eric. Together (and with the help of some 41 scientists, geneticists and breeders) they specialize in turning out new, exciting and unique strains of industrial hemp varieties designed for maximum yield in large-scale production. Their early adoption of disruptive testing technology allowed Oregon CBD to produce a number of industry firsts—the first high cannabinoid content auto-flowering CBD plant, and the first pure CBG,CBC, CBDV, CBGV and CBCV field-ready varieties. Their growing library is now full of novel phenotype, chemotypes and genotypes and they lead the country in the production and purity of feminized seed.

Even though he’s been growing cannabis since 2003 and hemp since 2015, Dr. Crawford also found time to earn advanced degrees from Oregon State University (MPP, public policy) and the University of Oregon (MS, Ph.D., sociology) and enjoyed a decade-long teaching career at OSU. His published work on the political economy of cannabis provided the first structural analysis of Oregon’s decentralized, pre-legalization production and distribution networks. In 2015, he grew his hobby-level breeding operation into industrial-scale field production of novel, non-psychoactive cannabis. 

His company’s most recent invention is 100:1 CBD to THC ratio varieties. And their ultimate goal is to develop a library of unique varieties that will allow farmers to succeed in any environment and produce any cannabinoid. In addition to their private projects, Dr. Crawford’s Oregon CBD is engaged in public research programs on feminized seed, flowering sensitivity, ratio inheritance, and non-destructive testing.

Needless to say, we delighted to have Seth Crawford with us on our Coffee Talk Podcast, and heading up the vitally important Cultivation Focus Area at CannMed 2020.

Additional Resources

• CannMed 2018 Presentation – Breeding Distinct Industrial Hemp Varieties for the 21st Century
• OregonCBD website
• OregonCBD Farmer’s Resources

In this episode we get the chance to talk with our first representative from the Safety Focus Area. Ini Afia is the Scientific Director at CannaSafe Labs, one of the largest cannabis testing labs in California.

If you aren’t familiar with what exactly goes on at a cannabis testing lab, you are likely in the majority. The cannabis testing labs are sort of like unsung heroes in the cannabis industry. They serve a very important role in ensuring consumer and patient safety, but they rarely get recognized for it.

During the conversation, Ini discussed the types of tests labs perform in California, what challenges they face being in a regulated market, and how they balance keeping customers happy while also keeping consumers safe. So by the end of this episode, you will likely have a much better appreciation for cannabis testing labs! Ini also describes the research he has performed on analyzing the ingredients in vaporizer cartridges, in the wake of last year’s vaping crisis. 

Click the player below to listen, and thanks to our sponsor, CannaSafe Labs!

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Additional Resources:

• Vapes: What Are You Actually Inhaling?
• CannMed 2019 Panel – The Future of Cannabis Testing

We are excited to announce Bonni S. Goldstein, MD as the CannMed 2020’s Keynote Presenter in the Medicine Focus Area.

The title of Dr. Goldstein’s presentation is “Cannabis Medicine for Children.” She will be sharing her latest clinical findings, including promising results from her clinical practice focusing on the use of phytocannabinoid medicines to treat serious pediatric medical condition, including epilepsy, autism, and cancer.

You can hear Dr. Goldstein talk about her work on the latest episode of the CannMed Coffee Talk Podcast where she joins us as our guest. (Use the player at the bottom at the post to listen.)

As one of the most respected and experienced medical practitioners in this field, we are honored to have Dr. Goldstein once again take a major role at CannMed 2020. She has been a member of CannMed’s Advisory Board for three years and developed the CannMed Medical Practicum, a day-long workshop where healthcare providers, clinicians, caregivers, and patients learn the science of medical cannabis as well as practical advice about how to use various cannabinoids to treat a range of medical conditions.

A native of New Jersey, Dr. Goldstein received her undergraduate degree at Rutgers University, and her medical degree at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She did her internship, residency, and chief residency at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). Dr. Goldstein was a Clinical Instructor in Pediatrics at USC School of Medicine, Emergency Transport Attending Physician at CHLA, and Emergency Medicine Attending Physician in the Pediatric Emergency Department at LA County – USC Medical Center.

Her interest in the science of medicinal cannabis was kindled more than ten years ago after witnessing its beneficial effects in a friend who was seriously ill. Since then, she has been evaluating and treating both adult and pediatric patients for the use of medicinal cannabis.

Dr. Goldstein is a sought-after lecturer to many patient support programs, including the Cancer Support Community in Southern California. She has been a featured speaker at CannMed since our first conference at Harvard University in 2016.  She has also presented at the Medical Cannabis for Autism conference at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the International Congress on Clinical Trials in Cannabis in London, as well as many other cannabis conferences.

She is currently the Medical Director of Canna-Centers, a Los Angeles-based medical practice devoted to helping patients use cannabis medicine for serious and chronic medical conditions. She is also Medical Advisor to WeedMaps.com, a board member of the International Association of Cannabis as Medicine, and a member of the International Cannabinoid Research Society and the Society of Cannabis Clinicians.  She is the author of Cannabis Revealed and her second book, Cannabis is Medicine, will be published by Little, Brown Spark in September 2020.

We are thrilled to have Dr. Goldstein as one of our Keynote Speakers and look forward to her participation in the CannMed Medical Practicum!

Additional Resources:

• Canna-Centers Website
• WPA4A
• Project CBD
• Dr. Goldstein’s CannMed Presentations – 2018 | 2017

In this episode of CannMed Coffee Talk we talk with Martin A. Lee, the co-founder and director of Project CBD. In addition to creating content for the Project CBD website and speaking at conferences around the globe, Martin has authored several books, including Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana–Medical, Recreational and Scientific. In fact, we have a copy in our Medicinal Genomics office.   

Martin and I discussed the topic everyone is talking about, COVID-19. Martin has reviewed the scientific literature to find out whether CBD can calm the cytokine storm that the COVID virus can set off, whether CBD has anti-viral properties, and if cannabis is an immune system booster, suppressant, or both. As you can imagine, with a virus as new and novel as COVID-19 and a federal ban on cannabis, the research is far from conclusive. But I think you will see there is some potential and some areas that merit future research. Who knows, maybe we will see some compelling data at a future CannMed event.  

Click the player below to listen, and thanks to our sponsor, Project CBD!

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Additional Resources:

• CANNABIS, CBD & COVID-19
• Martin’s CannMed 2019 Presentation “Psychedelics & Cannabis Therapeutics”

We are excited to announce CannMed 2020’s Keynote Presenter in the Science Focus Area is Dr. Ethan Russo.

The title of Dr. Russo’s presentation is “Cannabis and Psychiatry: The Final Frontier”, and it will explore basic science and clinical trial data to assess the role of cannabis psychopharmacology with respect to issues of impairment, depression, insomnia, PTSD, schizophrenia, anxiety and addiction.

You can hear about this fascinating topic and more in our latest episode of the CannMed Coffee Talk Podcast, where Dr. Russo joins us as a guest. This is a great episode for listeners who are new to cannabis medicine because Dr. Russo covers some of the basics, like “what is the endocannabinoid system?” Having said that, there is still plenty of meat on the bone for more advanced listeners. Use the player at the bottom at the post to listen.

Dr. Russo began his career as a physician, board-certified in Neurology with a Special Qualification in Child Neurology, but he has always held a strong interest in medicinal plants, which he gradually incorporated into his practice and research endeavors, with the intention of bringing cannabis-based and other botanical agents back into the mainstream of medicine.

He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (Psychology) and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, before residencies in Pediatrics in Phoenix, Arizona and in Child/Adult Neurology at the University of Washington, and was a clinical neurologist in Missoula, Montana for 20 years.

After his clinical experience, he began dedicating his career to developing innovative approaches targeting the human endocannabinoid system to produce dramatic results for patients suffering from a range of neuro- and immuno-based diseases and disorders.

From 2003 to 2014, Dr. Russo was instrumental in developing both Sativex® for pain and MS, and Epidiolex® for intractable epilepsy while at GW Pharmaceuticals. In 2015, he became Medical Director of PHYTECS, a company devoted to the research and development of medicines, supplements and lifestyle approaches to optimizing the function of the endocannabinoid system (ECS), the critical homeostatic regulatory mechanism of human physiology. From 2015-2017, he was Director of Research and Development for the International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute.

Dr. Russo has also held faculty appointments in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Montana, in Medicine at the University of Washington, and as visiting professor, the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is a Past-President of the International Cannabinoid Research Society, and former Chairman of the International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for the American Botanical Council and has published several books, numerous book chapters, and over forty articles in neurology, pain management, cannabis, and ethnobotany, and he has consulted or lectured on these topics in more than 30 US states and 30 countries.

His current venture, called CReDO Science, aims to advance cannabis-based and botanical therapeutics via the development of optimized chemovars and extracts, as well as pursuing novel formulations and diagnostics related to the endocannabinoid system. More information can be found by visiting https://credo-science.com.

Needless to say, we are delighted to have him as such an important part of CannMed 2020.

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Related Links:

• Ethan Russo, MD CannMed 2018 Presentation
• Ethan Russo, MD ResearchGate Profile
• CReDO Science LLC Website

We have a great episode for you today featuring Medicinal Genomics Chief Scientific Officer Kevin McKernan. Kevin is a legend in the genomic sequencing space going back to his days working on the human genome project. He has applied his experience and knowledge to trying to better understand the cannabis genome, which as he mentions in the episode is one of the hardest genomes to figure out. So much so that many of the top names in genetic sequencing have collaborated to try and solve the problem. 

If you aren’t familiar with sequencing terminology you may not understand all of the information Kevin drops, and it’s a lot, but safe to say his efforts and those of his collaborators will benefit everyone in the community. With a solid understanding of the cannabis genome, cannabis and hemp breeders can create plants that can better produce the compounds needed to treat patients in need.  

In time, they may also find markers for better yield and pathogen resistance that can drive down the cost of cannabis so it is more accessible. 

This is just another example of how cannabis scientists, clinicians and cultivators can all learn from one another at CannMed 2020. If you would like to join us at Pasadena this September, now is a great time to get your ticket!

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Links to learn more about Kevin and his genetic sequencing work:

• Kevin’s CannMed Presentations: 2019 | 2018 | 2017
• Sequence and annotation of 42 cannabis genomes reveals extensive copy number variation in cannabinoid synthesis and pathogen resistance genes
• Cryptofunded Cannabis Genomes
• Kannapedia.net
• StrainSEEK Strain Identification and Registration Service
• Medicinal Genomics’ Cannabis Genetics YouTube Playlist