Evolution: Safe Cannabis has arrived….
Posted by Mickey Martin
Medical cannabis patients and providers are becoming far more sophisticated in the Age of Obama. Steep Hill Lab in Oakland has rolled out a sweet new program that gives the grower a leg up in the marketplace and helps patient collectives make much beter decisions about where they get their medicine. The SAFE CANNABIS program is offered as a means to allow growers to test their medicine before taking it to their collective. What this does in takes the burden off of the collective, in an effort to bring the product in pre-tested and ready to hit the shelf. The super tech packaging includes a window for viewing the medicine, a humidity marker to let you know it is at appropriate curing points, and an oxygen indicator to show the product is fresh and untampered with. The one pound packages are injected with nitrogen to assure freshness and sealed. Labeling includes a batch and lot number, as well as appropriate documentation to meet normal chain of custody requirements of the medical industry.
The service is relatively reasonable if you consider that it gives you a leg up over the many other folks looking to get their medicine on the shelf. It promotes safety and professionalism and is a good idea. It is not long until this will be a standard in the medical cannabis industry, but for now it is a great way to ensure patient safety and make your harvest a sure bet to get purchased by your local collective. All collectives should begin suggesting their vendors move in this direction IMO. If I were a collective I would surely pay a couple bucks more for a professional product that has been safety tested and professionally packaged. It is a no-brainer. Patients also are willing to dig a little deeper for a product in which they know the potency levels and are sure it is of the highest quality. This type of patient service is becoming the norm at a lot of collectives. Providing as much relevant and educational information about the medicine patients are using is an invaluable resource. We are just beginning to see the evolution of it as people now discuss the technicalities of the medicines (THC and CBD levels), as much as the smell, taste and effect. As people connect the dots between cannabinoid profiles and medicinal effects we are seeing a more engaged and informed patient as a result.
The Safe Cannabis program also brings a lot of comfort to people charged with regulating this industry. More cities, counties and municipalities are looking to regulate the industry, and many areas have required testing of the medicine to assure quality and safety. Collectives are responsible for the testing, but like I mentioned…what a far less pain in the ass it is if the vendor walks in with the medicine pre-tested. As regulation continues to develop you can be sure that safety testing will be a big part of the discussion. If you are not testing yet, you should be. Get ahead of the game. It is easy to do. I think they said it was all handled in 48 hours or less. What this level of safety testing does is legitimizes the effort of our industry and takes away the opposition argument that marijuana is unsafe and untested. As we win over the hearts and minds of those who do not understand medical cannabis, the more proof we can show of our effort to make cannabis safe and ensure quality, the weaker the opposition argument becomes.
Because we are a medical focused industry who provide medicines that are meant to help and not harm the end user, the more we can assure that the better we all are. We are only as good as our weakest link and the Safe Cannabis program seems to strenghthen all of our links. So get down with the evolution and get with the program. Step your game up. For more info visit: www.steephilllab.com/safecannabis
Posted by Mickey Martin
Medical cannabis patients and providers are becoming far more sophisticated in the Age of Obama. Steep Hill Lab in Oakland has rolled out a sweet new program that gives the grower a leg up in the marketplace and helps patient collectives make much beter decisions about where they get their medicine. The SAFE CANNABIS program is offered as a means to allow growers to test their medicine before taking it to their collective. What this does in takes the burden off of the collective, in an effort to bring the product in pre-tested and ready to hit the shelf. The super tech packaging includes a window for viewing the medicine, a humidity marker to let you know it is at appropriate curing points, and an oxygen indicator to show the product is fresh and untampered with. The one pound packages are injected with nitrogen to assure freshness and sealed. Labeling includes a batch and lot number, as well as appropriate documentation to meet normal chain of custody requirements of the medical industry.
The service is relatively reasonable if you consider that it gives you a leg up over the many other folks looking to get their medicine on the shelf. It promotes safety and professionalism and is a good idea. It is not long until this will be a standard in the medical cannabis industry, but for now it is a great way to ensure patient safety and make your harvest a sure bet to get purchased by your local collective. All collectives should begin suggesting their vendors move in this direction IMO. If I were a collective I would surely pay a couple bucks more for a professional product that has been safety tested and professionally packaged. It is a no-brainer. Patients also are willing to dig a little deeper for a product in which they know the potency levels and are sure it is of the highest quality. This type of patient service is becoming the norm at a lot of collectives. Providing as much relevant and educational information about the medicine patients are using is an invaluable resource. We are just beginning to see the evolution of it as people now discuss the technicalities of the medicines (THC and CBD levels), as much as the smell, taste and effect. As people connect the dots between cannabinoid profiles and medicinal effects we are seeing a more engaged and informed patient as a result.
The Safe Cannabis program also brings a lot of comfort to people charged with regulating this industry. More cities, counties and municipalities are looking to regulate the industry, and many areas have required testing of the medicine to assure quality and safety. Collectives are responsible for the testing, but like I mentioned…what a far less pain in the ass it is if the vendor walks in with the medicine pre-tested. As regulation continues to develop you can be sure that safety testing will be a big part of the discussion. If you are not testing yet, you should be. Get ahead of the game. It is easy to do. I think they said it was all handled in 48 hours or less. What this level of safety testing does is legitimizes the effort of our industry and takes away the opposition argument that marijuana is unsafe and untested. As we win over the hearts and minds of those who do not understand medical cannabis, the more proof we can show of our effort to make cannabis safe and ensure quality, the weaker the opposition argument becomes.
Because we are a medical focused industry who provide medicines that are meant to help and not harm the end user, the more we can assure that the better we all are. We are only as good as our weakest link and the Safe Cannabis program seems to strenghthen all of our links. So get down with the evolution and get with the program. Step your game up. For more info visit: www.steephilllab.com/safecannabis
