Compassionate Cultivation aims to significantly change the way Texas medical cannabis patients receive important information about the cannabidiol (CBD) products they’re consuming by offering full transparency on the test results and ingredients used in their locally made medicine.“There are just a handful of companies that I’ve seen who offer their complete test results online for patients to access,” said Garret Nicodemus, chief of operations for cannabis processor Xabis, which was contracted by Compassionate Cultivation to handle all aspects related to the manufacturing of the company’s state-regulated, low-THC cannabis oil products.“Everybody acts like they have something that’s protected or an industry secret, but the fact is that the more patients know and understand about what they’re putting in their bodies to treat a medical condition, the better.”Since opening the first licensed medical cannabis dispensary in the state of Texas earlier this year, Compassionate Cultivation has been providing qualifying patients CBD products for the treatment of intractable epilepsy. The company’s Lone Star product line is comprised of tinctures containing cannabis oil that are specially formulated and lab tested. All products are made using hydrocarbon-free, high-purity CO2 extraction processes, and each batch is subject to state-of-the-art analytical testing methods to ensure patients receive consistent medicine that is free of heavy metals, microbials and chemical contaminants.“Because we are dedicated to offering our patients the purest, highest-quality CBD medicine possible, from the growing of the plants to the processing of the tinctures, we are also committed to the idea that transparency is a black-and-white issue,” said Morris Denton, CEO of Compassionate Cultivation. “There are no ‘degrees’ of transparency. Patients and their doctors have a right to experience absolutely no uncertainty when it comes to prescribing and consuming medicine. “Only when doctors know and trust the concentrations of cannabinoids in the products can they make an informed decision about what will work for specific patients.”Compassionate Cultivation believes that transparency is imperative to support further growth in the regulated Texas cannabis industry. Without comprehensive information readily available about ingredients and products, patients and doctors are forced to extrapolate from the limited information that is available to deduce dosages based on incomplete data. In addition, for media trying to report on things like efficacy and cannabis business operations, an industry-wide veil of secrecy makes it harder to achieve accuracy.“Instead of just handing patients a product and saying, ‘OK, here you go, hope it’s what you were looking for,’ our intention is to offer a thorough explanation of what they’re getting, and to give them peace of mind that we’re not hiding anything,” Nicodemus said. “If we’re going to legitimize the industry and remove any stigma, we have to have the trust of the consumer that what they have is safe and effective. Right now, you look online at some cannabis products, and one batch has this, and one batch has that. There’s all this variability and inconsistency, and that is the exact opposite of what we’re shooting for.”Compassionate Cultivation tests for five primary cannabis plant compounds known as cannabinoids: CBD (cannabidiol); THC (Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol); THCA (Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid); CBDA (cannabidiolic acid) and CBN (cannabinol). In addition, the company tests for potential contaminants, including microbials, heavy metals, residual solvents and pesticides to ensure that the final product is the purest possible, and continually evaluates other testing options that could be beneficial.“We’ve based some of these choices on industry standards and what’s being done in other states that offer legal medical cannabis,” Nicodemus said. “But we also are testing for more than is legally required so that we can rest assured that we’re providing patients with the best product we can.”
Top photo: Chris Reichman, Sum & Substance Photography
