Is Canada Selling Placebo Cannabis Oil to Sick People?
By Mike Adams ‘Cannabis Now” 14.12.2018
https://cannabisnow.com/is-canada-selling-placebo-cannabis-oil-to-sick-
people/?fbclid=IwAR0seipYYp0nVGF2S5snRynDdbK1wSq5UqmWL5oLSrev2LkKxxTeI2ZT9sY
Ontario-based biopharmaceutical company
Scientus Pharma commissioned a study of
Canadian cannabis oils through the
Toronto General Hospital Research
Institute, the goal of which is to show
that most of the cannabis oils being
sold on the Canadian market
essentially have no medicinal juice.
Cannabis oil has become increasingly popular
over the past several years as more cannabis
consumers, especially those on a quest for the
plant’s medicinal benefits, search for
healthier ways to consume the herb without
smoking it.
Patients searching for the trapdoor out from
under conditions like chronic pain and anxiety
report having more effective results from the
use of these kinds of products than other
consumption methods.
Extracts make it easier for both doctors and
patients to control dosage, and they’re more
convenient for those patients to consume at
work — or in other situations where whipping
out a joint would surely be frowned upon.
In Canada, the cannabis extraction market
now outpaces dried flower by 56 percent,
according to the latest statistics provided by
Health Canada. But there is some evidence
that the extracts being sold in the northern
nation are the equivalent of a “placebo,”
according to a recent report from VICE.
If this is true, it means some Canadian
patients have been spending hundreds of
dollars a month on fake medical marijuana.
“[Patients] are paying $300 to $500 a
month for that product and it’s not
doing anything for them,” Har Grover,
chairman and CEO of Scientus Pharma, told
VICE.
So far, the study has found that the majority
of these products are tantamount to snake oil.
Products claiming to have 100 percent
potency really only have around 20 percent
active THC, according to the report.
The situation with CBD oil was even worse.
Some CBD products claiming to 100 percent
potency contained no active part of what some
consider the most therapeutic compound.
This means Canadian medical marijuana
patients are mostly getting their hands on
extracts with “80 percent inactive substance,”
Lakshmi Kotra, a senior scientist at Toronto
General Hospital Research Institute, told
Vice. “We have reasonable doubt to say that
what’s reported on the label may not match
what’s inside the bottle,” Kotra added.
Scientus Pharma also (conveniently, it seems)
has plans to remedy this problem with a new
line of cannabis oils and gel capsules, soon-
to-be distributed in the medical marijuana
market.
The company argues that the method most
licensed producers use to decarboxylate (the
process of activating the THC and other
compounds) has led to inconsistencies in
these kinds of products, which makes it
probable that the consumer is not getting the