The Leaf THE LEAF Jan-Feb 2019 | Page 24

potency printed on the label. Scientus Pharma’s new product line, on the other hand, will utilize a newly patented extraction process that it believes is going to revolutionize the world of cannabis medicine. The company claims it can achieve 99.9 percent decarboxylate in every batch. A representative from Health Canada, the agency responsible for overseeing the country’s medical marijuana program, told VICE that cannabis extracts are “subject to some of the most stringent requirements in the world.” The problem, they countered, is that licensed producers are responsible for their own testing, either in-house or through a third party source. This leaves plenty of room for discrepancies to emerge. Nevertheless, the Canadian cannabis industry is sceptical about the study’s claims, attributing the research and its subsequent release to “corporate strategy.” They argued that although THC and CBD levels can fluctuate from time to time depending on the source, what is printed on the labels is accurate. Some believe the discrepancies are likely due to human error and not direct evidence that the medical marijuana being sold in Canada is an outright sham. But no one in the industry is going to admit that they are providing patients with cannabis that has little to no strength, especially considering that hundreds of thousands of patients claim to receive immense therapeutic benefits from these extracts. But the Scientus Pharma research suggests — dare we say — that the placebo effect is in full swing in the northern nation. What a kick in the pants it would be to learn, after all these years, that Canada’s medical marijuana sector is just now on the verge of producing effective cannabis extracts. For what it’s worth, patient advocate Tracey Curley told VICE that the word on the street is the Scientus Pharma study is on the money. “I’ve certainly heard of a discrepancy in dosage depending on what product client is using even though the label says that they are very similar,” she said to the news source.