Cannabis And Science

Hi there!! Its blog time so that means it must be Friday!! Yay!!! I don’t know about you but this week has been looong. A lot of action more than a little stress and everyday has brought new revelations and opportunities for the future. Now as we slowly slide into the weekend I realize that this weekend is going t0 be all about processing the crazy events of the week. Which is fine by me, I could use the rest.

In last weeks blog we promised that this week we would go into more detail about the connection between cooking and formulation. Actually we are really planning to discuss the importance of quality ingredients, extraction, remediation and formulation. But that will just have to wait until next week, because this week we want to talk about what happened, this week.

Cannabis At The Planetarium

So what did happen this week? Well I am glad you asked. This week was the annual Cannabis and Science conference held here in the Czech Republic, more specifically in the city of Brno. Brno is the other major city here in the Czech Republic. Prague is to the North and Brno is to South and there is a good deal of animosity between the two cities.

Prague views Brno as  a kind of backwards country cousin. Brno views Prague as a deeply corrupt and amoral city slicker. The truth is that both cities have their pluses and minuses and both are lovely in their own right. Brno is quite well known as being the technological capital of the CZR. Brno is home to a great number of software companies, robotics groups, optics and satellite component makers. So it makes sense that the conference for Cannabis and Science would be held in Brno, at the Planetarium no less.

What Is In A Conference?

The purpose of the conference was to have a closer look at the medical cannabis industry and the medicinal benefits of not only cannabis but cannabinoids in general. The speakers at the conference were some of the heaviest heavyweights in the cannabis scientific community. The heavy weight of heavy weights, the Godfather of Cannabinoids, the renowned and esteemed Professor Raphael Mechoulam opened the conference.

Professor Mechoulam is the prime mover in global cannabis research. You can read more about him here. His research began in 1964 when he and his team isolated the psychoactive element of cannabis THC delta-9. Its worth noting here that the material they used to extract the compound was a 5 kilogram brick of Lebanese Hashish that Professor Mechoulam received from the Israeli police. Crazy times indeed.

Among the other speakers were Professor Brian Leonard of the Munich Neurological Institute. Prof. Leonard’s research is in the areas of Psychoneuroimmunology, neurochemistry of psychotropic drugs, and the psychopathology of depression. Its pretty intense work, you can read more about him here.

The Master Of Terpenes

Another speaker of note was the incomparable Lumir Hanus. Of all of the speakers Professor Hanus had the most information to share and he did so in a perfectly clear and straight-forward manner. Prof. Hanus began studying the therapeutic effects of cannabis in 1954 as a young chemist, you can read more about him here.

One of his main areas of focus is terpenes which we touched on in last weeks blog and wrote about more in depth here. Prof. Hanus argued that we know relatively little about how cannabis interacts with the body and that the whole plant needs to be considered. Not just the major cannabinoids. He also stated that CBD isolate is not as effective as full or broad spectrum distillate. This is due to the fact that isolate does not include the mission critical terpenes found in the other two products.

What Was The Take Away?

This conference in particular was an excellent reminder of why we at Cali Craft are in the cannabis industry in the first place. The business its self is wildly unpredictable. Just when you think you understand the rules, they change. Just when you have your price modelling figured out, the prices crash, again. People in the industry can be unreliable, unpredictable and in some cases down right criminal.

Attending the conference was like finding an oasis in the middle of a scorching hot desert. It was a much needed break from the madness that has consumed the industry as a whole. New life has been breathed into our commitment to creating high quality products that have real therapeutic value for the people who take them. It was also a reminder that our work in this industry has only just begun.

Moving Forward With Resolve

There is so much to explore in terms of extraction and formulation. The discovery of new cannabinoids. The therapeutic combinations of terpenes, flavinoids and cannabinoids to create refined products that can directly target specific conditions. As Professor Hanus stated in his lecture, what we know now about cannabis represents the top of an iceberg that we see above the surface of the water. All that we still have to learn is contained in the rest of the ice berg that lies beneath the surface.

So what is the take away? There is much more work to be done and we are psyched to keep working together with our partners, colleagues and clients to continue that work for the benefit of us all.