Page 25 - CannabisOkMagOnlineMay2019

CANNABIS OKLAHOMA | MAY 2019 25
Scissortail laboratories

by Ian Cameron

Let’s talk about potency this month. Since testing is not When testing for potency in flower samples, the samples
yet a requirement in Oklahoma (be ready though, with must be assigned a dry weight correction based on their
the Unity Bill, the state is implementing testing require- percent moisture. Dry weight correcting calculates the
ments), most growers and processors are most familiar cannabinoid percentages of strictly the plant material,
with the potency test. But what does “potency” mean? and accounts for the percent of the flower weight that
What does it tell the grower, the producer, and most im- comes from water content. Without dry weight correct-
portantly, the consumer? ing, potency numbers can be skewed low, especially in
flower with high moisture content. Dry weight correct-
Potency is the amount of cannabanoids found in a can- ing standardizes potency values by removing the variable
nabis product. Every cannabis product has a potency, of moisture content.
whether it’s a flower, concentrate, or edible. The amounts
of cannabanoids in flower and concentrates are typically Some concentrates have been decarboxylated, which
expressed as a percentage of the weight of the product, means the product has already been heated to convert the
while in edibles the potency is generally expressed as mil- THCA to Delta 9 THC before reaching the consumers.
ligrams (mg) per edible product. Most laboratories test In this case, the potency of some concentrates, especially
for the basic 10 or 11 cannabanoids, specifically CBDA, distillate oils, are expressed in just percentage of all can-
CBDV, CBD, CBG, CBGA, CBC, THCA, THCV, Delta 8 nabanoids. Distillates or isolates can be so refined that
THC, and Delta 9. There are hundreds of cannabanoids, their potency numbers are in the upper 90%s. Knowing
but most consumers are interested in those 11 accurate distillate potencies is crucial for edibles manu-
. facturers so they can properly dose their products.
Then there is Total THC and Total CBD. What does
this “total” mean? “Total” represents the effect that the Edibles’ potencies are listed as milligrams of can-
cannabinoids will have on the user when the product is nabanoids per product. Manufacturers are able to accu-
heated. The cannabis plant naturally has high amounts rately measure the milligrams of cannabanoids by doing
of THCA and low amounts of Delta 9 THC. The THCA a simple conversion from their distillate potencies.
compound doesn’t have a psychoactive effect on the user,
Delta 9 THC is the compound that has a psychoactive For example, if the distillate that an edibles manufacturer
effect. When the cannabis plant is heated, the THCA uses has a 90% THC potency, then they know that in a
molecule is converted to a Delta 9 THC molecule. So gram, or 1000 mg, of their distillate, 900 mg is THC. So
then logic would say that “Total THC” is the amount of they can then calculate the weight of the distillate that
THCA molecules added to the amount of Delta 9 THC they add to their recipe, multiply that weight by 900 mg,
molecules, right? Not quite. Remember that potency for and are able to easily know how many mg are in each
flower and concentrates is expressed in a percentage of unit of their recipe. If they add 10 grams, or 10,000 mg,
the total weight of the product. The Delta 9 THC mole- of distillate to a batch of cookies that makes 100 cookies,
cule is lighter in weight than the THCA molecule (exact- then each cookie contains 90 mg of THC. Some states
ly 87.7% the weight of THCA, to be exact), which means have set limits to the amount of THC each packaged
that when THCA is converted to Delta 9 THC, the per- edible can contain, Oregon for example has set a limit at
cent of the total weight taken up by the newly converted 50 mg per packaged edible.
Delta 9 THC is actually smaller than an equal amount of Potency is a bit more complicated than just adding up the
THCA. The “Total THC” is as follows: amount of cannabanoids and is calculated and used dif-
ferently for various types of cannabis products. Accurate
Percentage of THCA x 0.877 + Percentage of Delta 9 potency numbers that have been dry weight corrected
THC = Total THC and that account for the conversion of THCA to Delta 9

The same is true for Total CBD. The weight of the CBD THC allow patients to easily and reliably dose their medi-
molecule is 87.7% of the weight of the CBDA molecule, cation and creates confidence in the medical cannabis
so the equation is the same. industry in general.