ADVENT OF CANNABIS EDIBLES WILL ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS, POSE OTHERS

If you’re reading this, you’ve already passed into the world of Cannabis 2.0.

On Thursday, Monkey Bars, Canna-bits, Special-tea and any other Thc-laden edibles, real or yet to be imagined, became legal in Canada.

As of Oct. 17, Health Canada’s second round of regulations governing edibles, extracts and topicals came into effect.

But don’t expect to pick up some gummies on the way home. It’s just the first day producers can apply to sell the new products. The earliest estimate for items to land on store shelves is mid-december.

Edwin Jewell, founder of FIGR East, is ready. “We’ve done a lot of research to see what consumers are looking for, and when the time comes, we’ll have products available to participate in (the edibles) market as well.” He’s keeping details under his hat for now.

So, will party punchbowls get replaced by “special brownies” or “space cake”?

Not anytime soon, figures Dana Larsen, a dispensary owner and cannabis activist in Vancouver.

“Recreational use of edibles, it exists, but it’s way less. The vast majority of people who want to enjoy cannabis in a social setting are going to smoke it and not eat it,” said Larsen.

“People do eat it for fun sometimes, but people who are eating it are doing it for pain relief, or they want to sleep.”

Larsen is worried legalization of edibles will have a big impact on medical users.

As with anything, Larsen said cannabis users need to get informed and start with low potency products.

“If you’ve never used cannabis before, a potent extract is not the place to start.”

FOCUS ON LABELLING, PACKAGING

He’s not impressed with the limits on potency per package.

“The rules around food should be focused on proper labelling, childproof packaging, things like that,” said Larsen. “You want to make sure people who aren’t intending to eat it don’t get into it.”

But some medical cannabis users consume large quantities of high potency cannabis extracts and edibles, especially if they’re in a lot of pain or treating an opiate addiction with cannabis.

“To limit the access to stronger dosages like this is going to cause harm,” said Larsen.

“We sell big bottles of vodka that can kill you if you drink it all and nobody’s worried about that, but a 10 mg cannabis cookie is too much for us to handle.”

Pushing medical users into a recreational market will increase their cost as they purchase several packages and take away the help they may need — recreational stores are not allowed to discuss medical benefits, said Larsen.

He is in the process of bringing his operation into compliance with Health Canada regulations, but he’s in no rush.

“If they want people to stop buying illegal cannabis, they’ll need to make legal cannabis much higher quality and much lower price,” said Larsen.

HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

Vasantha Rupusinghe, a food biochemist from Dalhousie University questions whether Canada is ready for cannabis edibles.

Once legalized, CBD and THC will be considered food bioactives according to Health Canada. Bioactives give foods a little something extra—think probiotics or omega3s — but too much of anything is still too much, said Rupusinghe.

Especially for THC, the psychoactive portion of cannabis. Rupusinghe is not alone in his worry that unsuspecting users will eat too much cannabis at once — either by mistake or out of inexperience.

“The first concern is whether we have enough scientific data to say what is a safe amount to incorporate into a food format,” he said.

As for whether there is enough data on the effects of edibles, the answer is simple. “Not yet.”

Dalhousie is awaiting permission from Health Canada to grow and research cannabis.

The effects on vaporization and inhalation are well studied, down to the specific pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, and the biochemist is keen to get working on similar research for edibles.

A LOT WE DON’T KNOW

Rupusinghe wants to know the best ways to incorporate cannabis into food to retain the beneficial properties as well as the impacts of processing on the active compounds in CBD and THC.

Quality assurance is important to Rupusinghe as well. “When they concentrate THC and CBD, they can also concentrate pesticides and solvent residues. So people could get intoxicated or get sick and not just with the cannabis.”

Cheaper methods of extracting THC use methanol or butane and these chemicals can persist in the product after extraction, said Rupusinghe, adding he could talk for hours about the safety aspects of cannabis edibles.

“As (members of the) public, what we need to see is the right label, right warning and right dosage go on the packages.”

CULTURAL SHIFT

Big changes to policy like cannabis legalization take time, agree those in the industry.

“There’s a big cultural shift happening,” said Larsen. “There’s a lot of social resistance to it at a lot of levels.”

Jewell was up against the social resistance when he started his company in 2013. His company transitioned from a medical producer to include recreational products when cannabis became legal last October.

“Canada hasn’t gone to hell in a hand basket. Things have remained pretty calm. What people kind of forget is that people were using cannabis before. We’ve made it legal in an effort to try and keep it out of the hands of kids and to take it away from organized crime. So, the process of getting there is baby steps and we’re making sure those things don’t happen.”