The Cannabis Science Conference returned to the Portland Expo center after a pandemic hiatus took it online. This was the fifth time I have been in attendance, but unlike the previous events I actually was a Faculty Presenter along with my partner in crime David Benedicktus.
Together as Cannabis Patients PNW, we presented an oral abstract on Spinal Cord Injury: A Patient's Perspective and it was very well received. I was excited to connect with this group of “Canna Nerds” in person to gauge the present industry and maybe observe where it seems to be going in the future.
The exposition hall was about a third of the size of past shows with also about a third as many vendors as in past editions. Much leaner and focused, there was representation from a lot of industry sectors but clearly those that have recently entered the space and not the legacy companies that showed year after year. In chatting with the vendors it was also pretty obvious sales were down and business flat. There still seemed to be a little something for everyone but everything was subdued and slower.
First booth upon entering the show floor was Oregon State University’s Global Hemp Innovation Center which is a collaborative cross disciplinary project from Agriculture, Animal Health, Business, Forestry, Pharmacy, Plant Breeding, Harvest Processing and Textiles. It is impressive in its scope and breadth of research and it is fairly local. It also highlights the tenants of CPPNW of education, advocacy and normalization as they are teaching college curriculum about cannabis.
There were some unique and eye-catching displays from the Cannabis Museum that had many archival and historical cannabis preparations and products including hemp clothing and shoes, lots of tincture bottles and rope making materials, and a library of canna literature from the past. John Marsh, the collector, said this is the first assemblage of all of the various pieces in public display and that he would eventually like to see it open in Las Vegas paired with a dispensary and consumption lounge where patrons pay $1 to see cannabis history.
Books on various cannabis subjects were for sale at a publishers booth manned by legendary
organic gardening author, Jeff Lowenfels who also presented on mycorrhizal fungi. He is a funny and accessible writer and presenter who is able to talk about heady science to hillbillies and is extremely popular in the PNW as he hails from Alaska and moonlights in Portland. I overheard other attendees who learned so much from his presentation they were going to implement his organic strategies.
Dr. Dustin Sulak, the keynote speaker is an allopathic physician who uses cannabis in his
practice and has developed a whole line of products and dosing guidelines called Healer.
Approachable and easy to understand, the Healer brand seems aimed at the novel user who
wants to use cannabis therapy to supplement or replace pharmaceutical recommendations.
Their wide range helps people find what works for specific conditions and the guides help to
make up a formula. Really comprehensive and innovative, Healer is available in Maine and
Maryland currently.
Medicinal Genomics, which is an east coast testing lab that sequences cannabis DNA, including sex testing, were present and talked about some of the industry challenges in testing. Essentially a patchwork system of state regulations that are ever changing make it really tough for producers and processors to get analytics from laboratories that comply with the law. The USDA has some involvement but they don’t set national standards due to the federal classification as Schedule 1. Henceforth there is confusion and disorganization as companies hold multiple state licenses and are close in proximity but vastly different in regulation like Oregon and Washington.
As for the rest of the conference, namely the presentations on the Medical, Analytical, Growing and Psychedelic subject matter was really the strength of this edition of the CSC. Great talks have always been the backbone of this conference and I was pleased that this hasn’t changed. On day one, we listened in on diverse subjects ranging from how “The Nose Knows: How Cannabis Aroma is Changing Medicine and Commerce” to “Cannabis, Psychedelic Use as Adjunctive Therapy in Metastatic Breast Cancer'' and “The Chemistry of Volatile Sulphur Compounds in Cannabis: From Discovery to Applications.” Day 2 saw “Ayurveda, Dentistry, and Clinical Insights in Smoking Cannabis”, “GC-MS Analysis of Delta-
8-THC from Cannabidiol Conversions'' and finished the day with our CPPNW Spinal Cord Injury talk. Whew!
I think the response from the audience and the questions they had were truly the highlight for us at this event, and it made me recognize that we truly belong among these cannabis scientists, researchers and educators. They are our contemporaries and peers and now friends, and the continued interest in CPPNW is evidenced by being asked to participate in an awesome national Cannabis Higher Education conference and an upcoming interview in Cannabis Science and Technology magazine. Not to toot our own horn, but this is long overdue recognition and some needed invigoration for our scrappy little nonprofit! It feels really good!
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