For years, medical cannabis patients relied on trial and error. Enter the age of cannabis technology.
It isn’t always a smooth journey to settle on strain, reduce adverse effects, and determine dose. Unfortunately, patients are often on their own. But, the cannabis world is a different place than it was even just five years ago. Today, cannabis technology is helping patients stay safe, improve dosing, and treat their symptoms more effectively.
With legal access, it’s easier than ever for tech companies to develop specific devices designed for patient use. In the days of old, when cannabis lingered on the fringes of medicine, it just didn’t make financial or legal sense for anyone to invest in technological developments. Luckily, it’s 2019, and times have changed.
Merging of cannabis with technology for better therapeutic value is a big focus in the industry. Cannabis technology is all about creating a more predictable, consistent, and accurate experience for patients.
Best Cannabis Technology Options for Medical Cannabis Patients in 2019
With so many developments in the medical cannabis and technology sector, it’s worth an end of year round-up. How is cannabis technology helping patients in 2019? What are the best tech options for patients seeking a safe, reliable experience?
1. Understand Your Relationship with THC Using Lobo Genetics
Cannabis isn’t like a regular pharmaceutical. To date, there are no accurate dosing guidelines applicable to all patients. Many physiological influences impact the therapeutic value, adverse effects, and experience. Indeed, between one patient and the next, there can be very different effective and comfortable doses.
Lobo Genetics is a genetics company working to unravel the mystery of why cannabinoids produce such varied results from one patient to the next. Their testing format is remarkably similar to popular consumer DNA test kits. Therefore, to find out your relationship with THC or CBD, Lobo Genetics starts with an oral swab submitted via post. Then, using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technology, Lobo Genetics can analyze a patient’s DNA for their sensitivity to either THC or CBD.
According to Lobo Genetics website, the THC analysis can “Discover effects on THC metabolism, mental health and memory,” and the CBD analysis works to “Discover effects for your metabolism of CBD.” The results help patients more intelligently choose a strain, and better direct the course of their treatment.
2. Consistent Decarboxylation Thanks to Ardent
Consistent at-home edibles always start with decarboxylation before infusion. Fortunately, decarboxylation, commonly called decarbing, can be done at home by baking dried cannabis flower in a low-medium hot oven. The heat changes the molecular structure of some cannabinoids, so these transform from the non-activated molecules (THCa, CBDa) into the more preferred active forms (THC and CBD). The problem? At-home decarbing this way isn’t perfect.
Fortunately, there is Ardent, a revolutionary device for patients who make their medibles at home. It is a small, countertop tool, which decarbs perfectly, every single time. Using interior sensors, it ensures the flower, trim, kief, or concentrate does not burn. It also ensures the process transforms the maximum amount of cannabinoids into their activated forms. It’s supporting patients by making their edibles more consistent, accurate, and predictable, which boils down to better therapeutic value.
3. Responsible Edibles with tCheck Potency Tester
Another cannabis technology making edibles more predictable for patients is the tCheck potency tester. Commercial producers of edibles submit their products to regulators to determine potency and homogeneity. At home, the potency and homogeneity are, at best, a good guess. Miscalculations by the home chef have led to many patients overdoing it with an edibles dose. It’s one of the reasons behind the development of the tCheck tester.
The small handheld device makes potency testing easy for patients making their own edibles, or even testing the potency of commercial products. As researchers have discovered, even commercial edibles have issues with consistency and accurate dosing. tCheck works with flower, concentrate, and infusions.[1]Vandrey R, Raber JC, Raber ME, Douglass B, Miller C, Bonn-Miller MO. Cannabinoid Dose and Label Accuracy in Edible Medical Cannabis Products. JAMA. 2015;313(24):2491–2493. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.6613
For patients, having the ability to test THC quickly and easily in the kitchen makes the process 100 percent safer. It’s imperative to know how much THC is in the final recipe, to keep the medicinal benefits consistent, and reduce the risk of acute marijuana intoxication.
4. Grow Your Own Medicine with LEAF
Many patients turn to cannabis as a means to stay in control of their medicine. For some, it’s important to want to know what went into the cultivation, from start to finish, before it becomes medicine. So, based on a passion for quality, there is already a long-standing tradition of patients growing their own cannabis.
LEAF builds off this tradition, making it easier than ever for anyone to grow their own supply. Because growing cannabis at home has never been easier – even if there isn’t a green thumb insight.
LEAF is a “set and forget-it” enclosed unit, with automatic temperature, lighting, nutrient, and water settings. Equally important, linked with a mobile app, and appropriate training videos, any patient can grow medicine in their home with no experience needed.
5. Make Perfect Medibles with the Magical Butter Machine 2
The first step to many edibles is the perfect cannabis infusion. Typically, cannabis-infused into butter, oil, and coconut oil quickly become pantry staples for patients treating chronic disease. However beneficial the medicine, many patients struggle to find the time to make clean, high-quality infusions. Although most cannabis infusions are easy enough for beginners, they require precious time, which not everyone has.
The Magic Butter Machine transforms infusion, making it into a simple, frustration-free process. Moreover, the results are predictable, with every single batch. Additionally, the Magical Butter 2.0 now is capable of creating cannabutter, cannabis oil, tinctures, and lotions. A Magical Butter Machine is a practical timesaver for those with a busy schedule. It consistently pumps out delicious infusions, with little fuss or messy cleanup.
The Best Cannabis Technology for Patients Improves Medicinal Value
Before medical cannabis was as widely accessible as it is today, patients had to put in a lot of hard work to source their medicine, tinker with the dose, and infuse their own edibles. For many, growing their medicine and creating edibles became a labor of love, but it was labor nevertheless.
Further, the process of making cannabis medicine from scratch, and sometimes from seed, is time consuming. Moreover, it’s prone to hiccups and doesn’t always deliver consistent final results. However, not all patients have the time, nor the attention to detail needed to produce cannabis (and edibles) at the high standards required for maximum therapeutic benefit.
Its 2019, and cannabis technology is stepping up to help patients with this entire process. From the at-home grow units, assisting patients to grow clean medicine, to the Ardent and Magic Butter Machine making edibles predictable – cannabis technology has an ultimate goal in mind. In 2019 it’s all about making medicinal cannabis consistent and reliable.
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