Health Canada on extracts vs. edibles

Where does Health Canada rank extracts versus edibles? Last week, Canada’s federal bureaucracy took the cannabis industry by surprise. Some licensed manufacturers have marketed “chewable extracts,” which Health Canada says are actually edible.

In an email to CLN, a Health Canada spokesman said:

“Health Canada has identified edible cannabis products that were incorrectly classified and marketed as cannabis extract products. These non-compliant products do not meet the controls of the Cannabis Act and Regulations designed to mitigate the public health and safety risks associated with edible cannabis.”

Aurora Cannabis, for example, has a product called Glitches. These chewable extracts usually come in packs of 10. Each individual extract contains 10 mg of THC. So if you buy a whole pack, buy up to 100mg.

But according to Health Canada, this product is edible, so a full pack shouldn’t exceed 10mg of THC. In other words, each chewable extract should contain 1mg.

“We take compliance seriously and have developed our Aurora Drift Glitches in compliance with regulations and have met all pre-launch Health Canada requirements,” said an Aurora spokesperson. “We respect Health Canada’s oversight and continue to have a regular, open dialogue about the way forward.”

So where does Health Canada come in on extracts versus edibles? Beyond the issue of THC limits, which are a product of bad legislation, there is the issue of foodborne illness.

Extract products do not go through the same regulatory framework as edible products. Ergo, there is a problem when LPs use edible ingredients and refer to the product as “extracts”.

That’s what’s on HEXO’s CEO, Charlie Bowman’s mind. When Health Canada first announced the change, some Canadian cannabis connoisseurs worried that federal bureaucracy would be after potent extracts.

Finally, HEXO, which owns Redecan, produces an MCT oil-based cannabis extract that can deliver up to 800mg of THC. Was Health Canada concerned that people like me discarded the 8mg dispenser and emptied half the bottle?

Fortunately, HEXO did not receive any of these letters. “We have no products that would be considered mislabeled or misrepresented,” Charlie told CLN.

regulate food

Edibles vs. Extracts

Health Canada’s problem stems from the ingredients. “I think Health Canada is doing the industry a huge favor by pulling them back and saying what you can and can’t put in them,” Charlie said.

“My entire career has been in the food industry. I take food safety and food issues pretty seriously. Because if you get it wrong, you can hurt a lot of people just by the mass amount of products that are produced every day.”

Redecan stays away from lozenges or anything consumers might consider edible. This is supposed to keep children away, but it also has to do with the product quality.

For Charlie, product consistency is key. That’s his problem with producers who may label edible products as extracts.

“You can have 2,000 products made and if you test them, you might get at least 1,500 different answers as to what the concentrate in those products was,” Charlie said.

“The right way to do this is via a nano-emulsion.”

Nano-Emulsion is a technique that allows entrepreneurs to extract cannabinoids from cannabis plants. The nano-emulsion breaks down the compounds into tiny droplets that are suspended in water, creating a stable mixture.

This increases the bioavailability of the active ingredients and facilitates their incorporation into various products such as food and beverages. This also allows for greater consistency.

Health Canada on extracts vs. edibles

Health Canada on extracts vs. edibles

While one can argue that Health Canada’s concerns about foodborne illnesses justify their action, one has to wonder what are they smoking over there?

As a federal bureaucracy, they naturally follow the rules and regulations. There is no profit motive or competition from other companies. Obedience to the political hierarchy drives the actions of government offices.

But the people at the top who make the rules don’t know a thing about cannabis. If they did, there wouldn’t be a THC limit, period.

According to George Smitherman of the Cannabis Council of Canada, THC limits are essentially a “$500 million gift to the illicit market.”

Government officials cite public health and safety reasons for the THC limit. But what are these alleged damages? Dry mouth? The munchies?

Now anyone in Canada over the age of 19 can go to their local liquor store and buy enough whiskey to kill themselves (and potentially cause serious harm to others in the process).

Anyone with a little common sense can see that alcohol is objectively more dangerous than THC.

So why the THC limits? It’s ideology. It’s not science because it’s certainly not “evidence-based.” Like everything else from this government, adherence to doctrine trumps reason.

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