Cannabis Education is Key to Cannabis Brand Adoption
Cannabis education is key for consumer adoption. Brands that work to educate their existing and potential cannabis consumers will see increased adoption for their products. This point was punctuated in a recent article, Cannabis education, demographics and product familiarity all help win over buyers, on MJBizDaily.com as it was stated, “What compels consumers to buy certain cannabis products mostly depends on the individual, each customer’s goals and experience level with cannabis.”
Lucid Green's mission since the start of business in 2018, has been to create trust and transparency in the cannabis industry. Providing cannabis consumers with important product information, dosage recommendations, and independent lab tests certificate of analysis (COA) have been key characteristics of LucidIDs - the intelligent UPC (universal product code) for cannabis. Lucid Green provides a platform for cannabis brands to provide cannabis consumers with product education.
Since we believe cannabis education is so important we sought out a leading cannabis researcher to provide some deep insights regarding cannabis research and knowledge transfer. Randall Quarles is President and CEO, at CBGA Medical, LLC / TheAmazingFlower.com. He has been in the cannabis industry 5 years - since Florida passed medical marijuana. He started CBGA Medical - focused on sharing better knowledge on the active ingredients and combination of mixtures in cannabis and its effectiveness to patient and consumer goals. His mission is to help people improve their lives via quick references on the basics of using cannabis. We interviewed Randall and received some keen insights from him.
In order for consumers to get the most positive results from cannabis usage, they need to be educated with regards to cannabinoids and terpenes, what the “typical” effects of these active ingredients are, and specifically, how they affect them personally. As Randall states, “There are hundreds of cannabinoids and terpenes that have been shown to show significant benefits.”
“The general feeling in the industry is that Indicas are more of a body high and relaxing whereas Sativas are energizing, and we believe that is primarily due, and the research supports it, to the different terpenes in both of the cultivars. For example myrcenes and linalool are typically dominant in indicas which have a more sedating effect. Whereas terpinolene, limonene, and ocimene are more dominant in the sativa varieties and they are known to have more energizing effects.”
The challenging part is knowing how the combinations of different ingredients interact and affect individuals as opposed to looking at one ingredient such as CBD and THC. You have heard the term “entourage effect.” Mr. Quarles defines the entourage effect - “the combination of the different active ingredients in cannabis both cannabinoids and terpenes work together in synergy providing an effect that is not available in a single molecule. There is research that there is a synergy effect between cannabinoids. CBD andTHC work better together in a lot of medical situations compared to CBD or THC alone. The jury is still out on terpenes regarding whether they are synergistic. But what we do know from anecdotal evidence is that individual terpenes and different terpenes mixtures, will have different positive effects on many people.”
“Studies have shown that cannabinoids are generally good for reducing pain and terpenes are generally good for reducing inflammation. But putting it all together to have clinical trials that are accepted by the medical community, is still one of the challenges that we face.”
“There has been a lot of good research that shows beneficials effects of the cannabinoids. They have shown really good responses to some treatment resistant conditions like epilepsy, severe nausea in cancer patients, chronic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, and Crohn's disease. But we also know there is very little research on multiple molecules.”
“When you look at all the active ingredients in cannabis, it will be a herculean task to be able to look at all the permutations of different cannabis plants and address the combination and entourage effect. But the way to start out is to take baby steps. Start off with a few of the cannabinoids that we know have beneficial effects, start setting different dosages and administration methods for these cannabinoids. We should also focus on the most serious conditions where there are the most treatment resistant patients that are really not seeing any relief from traditional treatments. Many of them are seeing a dramatic improvement on the quality of life from cannabis treatments under a doctor’s supervision. The war on drugs has handcuffed research on cannabis - we’re behind in terms of where we could be.”
There needs to be much more research on cannabis and how it can improve life for many people. At the same time, there is so much information available that most cannabis consumers are not getting access to. Education of consumers is key and Lucid Green is committed to providing a platform that brands can educate their target audiences. In addition to getting the product information and certificate of analysis mentioned in the beginning of this article, individuals can record their own experiences with cannabis products, amount ingested, and feelings in their own journal within the LucidID App (available for IOS and Android). This private journal is called the “Stash Cabinet” and is one of the features of the LucidID App.
Become a knowledgeable cannabis user - visit TheAmazingFlower.com for quick references in plain speak. And use the Stash Cabinet in the LucidID App so that you can reference your previous cannabis usage experiences and optimize future ones.
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