Lexaria- Chris Bunka-Chairman and CEO
Chris Bunka,
Chairman & CEO,
Lexaria

The world is experiencing a once in a lifetime movement towards embracing cannabis and cannabis related ingredients. Dozens of countries have passed legislation allowing for some aspect of legal cannabis use, most often for medical use but increasingly, for recreational consumption. Research and Development into the effects of cannabinoids on humans was traditionally impossible to undertake due to severe national drug laws, but with the relaxation of these laws, an increasing volume of R&D is now underway.

Many companies are now undertaking in vivo, in vitro, and even human clinical studies related to cannabinoids. As well, even Fortune 500-style companies are making multi billion-dollar investments in locations such as the United States, Canada, and Europe. 

Lexaria Bioscience Corp, of which I am fortunate and proud to be Chief Executive Officer, is one of the world’s leading advocates for increasingly sophisticated R&D in the cannabinoid space. Lexaria performed one of the world’s first in vitro intestinal cell absorption studies in 2015 examining the absorption characteristics of cannabidiol (CBD). In that study, Lexaria’s patented absorption technology was found to deliver between 3x and 5x more CBD across human epi-intestinal cells. 

In each of 2016, 2017 and 2018, Lexaria performed increasingly sophisticated human volunteer studies to evaluate the speed, quantity and quality of delivery of cannabinoids through human ingestion. 

The focus on gastro-intestinal (“GI”) absorption of cannabinoids is not by accident: Western society long ago decided that smoking tobacco is a net detriment and involves massive societal costs as measured by health care and by human impact. While most of the newly public cannabis companies were and are more focused on profits than they are on human health outcomes, a few companies have acknowledged that smoking is not the preferred method to delivery ANY drug, whether it be nicotine or cannabinoids. 

In harmony with modern health objectives, it has now been proven that GI absorption of cannabinoids can be as effective as pulmonary absorption, without the negative health or neighborly impacts of smoking. Modern technologies can make cannabis edible and beverage products with virtually no hint of cannabis flavours; delivering effects rapidly in as little as 10 minutes or less; and do so without adding chemicals, added sugars or other suspicious ingredients.

Dynamic companies have also learned that it pays to be innovative and to share intellectual capital. In a landmark 2018 human clinical study, Lexaria discovered that its absorption-enhancement technology, called DehydraTECHTM, delivered 317% more CBD into the human blood stream at the 30-minute market of the test, than a positive control of the same 90mg dose. Delivering more CBD more quickly has dramatic potential in the quest for treatments of seizure disorders or pain remedy, where every second counts. 

Another breakthrough pioneered by focusing on edible forms of delivery rather than the smoking of plant matter, is in the field of consistency. Any experienced smoker of cannabis will tell you that one Purple Kush does not equal another: inconsistencies between one crop of plant and another are legendary and can at times lead to strongly negative experiences. Even within a single plant, huge variation in THC and CBD content can exist from the crown of the plant that receives more sunlight, and the lower levels that receive less.

Modern cannabis edibles products relies on GMP large batch processing: gone are the days of mixing bulk brownie mix with cannabis oils or plant matter and producing 30 servings. Modern production draws upon a single blend of cannabis oil to be infused into 1,000 or 10,000 servings per run. This means that, once the cannabis oil is sampled by the lab prior to food production, each of the following servings will be nearly identical in strength, potency, effect and experience. This is a very effective method to diminish the variances in natural plant vegetative matter. 

Modern R&D is the cornerstone of advancement across nearly every industry in the Western World. Companies like Lexaria Bioscience Corp are driving the world forward with some of the most advanced R&D to ever take place in the cannabis industry, for the benefit of legal regulators and consumers everywhere.