The Science of Cannabis
By Anna Guy
Now that cannabis is legal in Canada, many consumers have questions about the effects and outcomes from using it. People’s desire to use cannabis ranges a great deal, as does the desired effect individuals seek. Some users seek a recreational high, others only want the medicinal benefits. With such a new industry, it can be difficult to navigate. That’s where Emerald Health Therapeutics steps in.
“We serve everyday people—men and women with normal lives and normal jobs. Whether they are using our medical or adult-use marijuana products, they’re using them for a purpose; they are looking for an outcome that will improve their quality of life.”
The principle behind Emerald Health Therapeutics, Inc. (TSXV: EMH; OTCQX: EMHTF; Frankfurt: TBD) is cutting edge cannabis science married with human understanding. Headquartered in Victoria, BC, the Emerald Health team has dedicated their working lives to the health sciences, helping people overcome everyday medical conditions to live better lives.
A Licensed Producer of dried cannabis and cannabis oil for medical and recreational purposes, Emerald Health is a vertically integrated, seed-to-sale enterprise. Emerald combines core competencies from decades of experience in pharmaceutical innovation with large-scale agriculture expertise focused on developing value-added cannabis-based products with potential wellness and medical benefits.
The key to understanding—then producing—the desired outcome from cannabis consumption lies with understanding the endocannabinoid system, or, in other words, understanding how the body achieves homeostasis. Calm, sleep, mood, energy, relief, and mood are all achieved by positively influencing endocannabinoid receptors and the production and retention of endocannabinoids.
Through the science of the endocannabinoid system and the cannabis plant, Emerald Health offers the best of both worlds—controlled, predictable, effective outcomes from a natural, plant-based source.
“From an adult-use perspective, we want to meet consumer demands and we are making significant strides to provide a diverse range of patented products designed to enhance the health and well being of our consumers,” says Rob Hill, CFO. “Our goal is to give people the confidence to consume cannabis products knowing that the outcome and their desired effect is going to be consistent every time.”
From a medical perspective, Emerald are pioneers in providing safe, efficacious, and high-value cannabis products. “Our goal is to develop standardized pharmaceutical dosage medication in a pill or capsule format,” says Hill. “We plan to initiate clinical studies that will help us better understand how we can deliver consistent dosing and alternative methods of consumption for patients.”
“Whether they are using our medical or adult-use marijuana products, they’re using them for a purpose; they are looking for an outcome that will improve their quality of life.”
The Emerald Difference
Emerald’s vision is to enhance human health through cannabis science. The creation of EHN and the launch of the Endo product line in Canada are key steps in Emerald’s strategy to achieve this goal.
The Endo nutritional supplement line originates with its American sister company, Emerald Health Bioceuticals. Their team of experts have formulated the award-winning, condition-specific line that offers advanced support for the endocannabinoid system. EHB has won various awards for the Endo product line, including the Taste For Life’s 2019 Essentials Supplement Award, which recognizes the most outstanding natural supplements in health and wellness in the U.S.
EHB has secured multiple distribution and sales channels in the United States and internationally for the Endo product line, ranging from small independent natural health product retailers to nation-wide grocery store chains like Whole Foods Markets and Amazon.
“Market research (commissioned by Emerald) identified that approximately 60 per cent of legal cannabis users also use natural health products,” says Hill. “This strong consumer overlap between the two markets creates a unique opportunity for the Company to establish its health brand through EHN and begin sales of endocannabinoid-supporting products in natural health product channels.”
Emerald Health grows and produces Indica, Sativa, and Hybrid medical cannabis and adult-use cannabis for consumers, and packages it in a variety of ways to best suit individual taste and preferences, such as Cannabis oil, dried or pre-rolled cannabis, all with CBD and THC percentages clearly marked in each product.
It can be challenging to separate fact from fiction when it comes to a new industry. Emerald Health wants its customers to get exactly what they want by offering “all the education, explanations and solutions you need to help you understand the world of cannabis.” They even offer a Cannabis 101 educational document for the uninitiated and initiated alike, to clear up any questions they may have.
“In Cannabis 101, you’ll learn about the different kinds of cannabis plants, the chemical compounds that generate its health effects and where the buds come from. But you’ll also find answers to your questions about consuming cannabis, from the safest way to consume it to the many different kinds of therapeutic effects you can expect.”
The Facilities
Emerald Health Therapeutics produces cannabis at Pure Sunfarms JV with Village Farms, one of the largest, most experienced greenhouse growers in North America, as part of a 50-50 joint venture. The result of this partnership is a state-of-the-art, 1.1 million-square-foot, single-site greenhouse—the only greenhouse in Canada to produce cannabis year-round.
“We have been extremely pleased with how quickly the team there has learned to grow very high-quality cannabis on an industrial scale previously not seen anywhere in the world,” says Hill.
When Pure Sunfarms was established in 2017, Village Farms was already a trusted local employer and neighbour in Delta, British Columbia. Located on 50 acres in one of the best growing climates in North America, Pure Sunfarms has 17 individual grow rooms, each with more than 50,000 square feet. The greenhouse needs supplemental lighting for only half the year, relying mostly on sunlight.
Pure Sunfarms is optimized for year-round harvesting, and will produce more than 85 harvests per year. Its automated process line – one of the first of its kind—has the capability to harvest, trim, dry and package cannabis. Pure Sunfarms has the potential to expand to 4.8 million square feet, which would make it the largest cannabis cultivation site in the world.
Emerald Health also recently acquired Agro-Biotech, a Licensed Producer in Saint-Eustache, Québec, and Health Canada has approved a modular expansion project, on a 32-acre site in Metro-Vancouver, for a 500,000-square-foot hybrid indoor and greenhouse growing space, with expansion potential to one million square feet.
Being at the forefront of a new industry is a big undertaking. “We have big plans to create a world leader in cannabis science and to get there takes incredible focus and energy,” says Hill. “Everyone at Emerald—from the people in our grow facilities, to post harvest production, sales and marketing, our accountants, HR teams, Quality Assurance, R&D and new product development are working at levels they’ve never before been asked to. But it’s so very worth the effort. We are in the very early days of this new and exciting industry and we truly believe in the potential benefits of the cannabis plants. The hundreds of stories I’ve heard from people who use cannabis to find relief previously unobtainable from traditional medications are uplifting and compel us all to push forward with urgency.”
Emerald will continue to capitalize on the enormous opportunities that lie ahead by building on the momentum it has created in Canada through our expanding supply chain capacity with Pure Sunfarms, Verdelite (our Quebec based indoor grow and processing facility), outdoor grow, and finalize its expansive relationship with Factors Group, which gives us industrial-scale extraction, encapsulation, packaging, and distribution capabilities. Says Hill, “We will feed this processing capability with supply from PSF, Quebec, and outdoor grow, including hemp to create value-added products that will give people the confidence to consume cannabis products knowing that the outcome and their desired effect is going to be consistent every time.”
