24 minute read
Product Showcase
Oil-Free Vacuum from BrandTech® Scientific
NEW! VACUUBRAND ® VACUU•PURE® dry vacuum pumps provide pure vacuum, and nothing else. Suitable for use from atmosphere to 5 x 10 -3 millibar, VACUU•PURE® provides 100% oil-free vacuum, with no abrasion and no wear parts. Two models are available, the 10 for non-corrosive applications, and the 10C, suitable for freeze drying, Schlenk lines, ovens and more. High-condensate tolerance means no cold traps in most applications. Integrated regeneration function purges condensate after use. Maximum pumping speed 10m 3/hr for the 10, and 9m 3/hr for the 10C. Visit www.brandtech.com for details.
FarmVisionAI™ Starter Kit
FarmVisionAI, by Illumitex, the digital horticulture company, announces the release of a self-installed AI Starter Kit to assist growers who want to implement or experiment with visual imaging AI technology in their grow. The AI Starter Kit introduces an approachable way for any size grower to gather valuable real-time data on its plants and learn how to use visual analysis as a tool to grow better plants and improve its business. It is available to purchase on line at farmvisionai.com.
The kit provides top-down cameras that wirelessly share to an on-site server, keeping data private and secure. Used with the FarmVisionAI™ platform, images will quickly provide users with valuable feedback on their grow, including nutrition deficiency and detection, labor tracking, harvest prediction, and more. Additionally, as business practices shift in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the AI Starter Kit helps growers stay connected to their grow without having to travel. The system is self-installed on site and enables the full suite of FarmVisionAI functionality that includes plant monitoring from remote locations, and AI based digital scouting.
Gorgeously designed, exceptionally built, homegrown…Safety?
HAIKU UV-C - KILL 99.99% OF AIRBORNE PATHOGENS. Big Ass Fans’ full-service air disinfection solution kills 99.99% of SARS-CoV-2 (causes COVID-19) and other airborne pathogens throughout your retail or production space.
HAIKU UV-C VERIFIED BY THIRD-PARTY TESTING. Independently tested and proven to achieve a 99.99% microbial reduction, Clean Air System’s UV-C technology dramatically lowers the risk of infection for all airborne pathogens. Our airflow experts apply scientific modeling of airborne infection to show you how our powerful air disinfection will provide cleaner, safer conditions for your business.
How clean is your air? Protect yourself and your buds!
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The Makings of
Cheech and Chong Glass
When you’re writing the list of the most famous stoners, there is absolutely no doubt about two of the names you’ll find near the top every single time — Cheech & Chong.
The comic duo of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong are legends whose legacy is dotted with classic movies and unforgettable comedy bits. They’ve given us catchphrases that will last a lifetime and jokes worth repeating for decades.
Simply put, if you don’t know Cheech & Chong, you’ve probably been asleep since 1970. That’s especially true in the smoke-shop industry, where Cheech & Chong aren’t just a recognizable name, but living legends who are still out there entertaining the masses and staying connected to the cannabis community.
So, in 2014, when it came time for Cheech & Chong to finally have their own officially licensed line of glass pipes, it was a big deal. They linked up with West Coast Gifts, a Vancouver-based business with roots that go back decades in the smoke-shop industry. It was a pretty fitting choice, as Chong had lived in Vancouver for a spell before his career really took off. Vancouver, it turns out, is where he and Cheech met for the first time.
It’s one thing to bring a new glass line to the market. It’s a much heavier task to create a glass line that’s influenced and approved by two of the most famous stoners of all time. After all these years — remember: “Up in Smoke” came in 1978 — expectations were high, so were the stakes. Well, West Coast Gifts has risen to the challenge, creating a line that’s been successful both in sales and creativity.
“It’s been all smiles and good times,” says Nick Wamsley, the glass designer for West Coast Gifts. “The thing I find so interesting with this brand is that people don’t buy just one glass pipe to smoke from. We have found collectors will buy several pipes at a time.”
Creating the official Cheech & Chong™ Glass? That’s like being the guy tasked with creating the new version of “Star Wars” or being the next person assigned to draw Mickey Mouse. The familiarity is wonderful, but there’s an important legacy to protect. Thus began the challenge of bringing Cheech & Chong™ Glass to life.
In the thick of things was Wamsley, a veteran glassblower who was brought on board as West Coast Gift’s glass designer around the time it signed the deal with Cheech & Chong. It was his job to design a line that pulled out what people loved from the past about Cheech & Chong, merge it with modern smoke sensibilities, something that appealed to the people who have been smoking since the 70s and others that weren’t even yet born.
“We’ve definitely had conversations about this,” Wamsley says. “We have this line that hits the novice but also has a lot of cool stuff for the people who know every little thing about glass.”
That’s the necessary duality of Cheech & Chong™ Glass. By nature, it’s going to attract people who aren’t the savviest smoke-shop customers, but have followed Cheech & Chong closely for decades. They’ll recognize the name Cheech & Chong and immediately be interested. Those customers are important, but so are the glass pipe collectors and smoking connoisseurs. The hard truth is, Cheech & Chong™ Glass has to serve both audiences with the same amount of function, design and attention to detail.
A big part of that, Wamsley says, is listening to the icons themselves.
“They send us product ideas. They’ve helped with marketing and promotions. They’ve been a real treat to work with,” Wamsley says. “We don’t just make stuff and send it out.” They approve every single product that comes through our line.”
That sounds like something that should always be part of the process with celebrity glass lines, but it isn’t. At West Coast Gifts, they don’t just slap a few decals on its glass and all of a sudden it’s Cheech & Chong’s signature line. No, this had to be more than that. This had to combine their vision with their history.
That’s where Wamsley comes in. He’s a big Cheech & Chong fan, who was able to dig into the movies he loved as a teenager and create products that should be instantly recognizable to the duo’s biggest fans.
“It really started out with deciding the feel of the products,” Wamsley says. “How to make it true to Cheech & Chong and where they’re coming from, graphic-wise and glass-wise. We’re trying to bring in that old-school style with color-changing aspects and stuff like that. But we’re also really trying to bring in some things that you don’t always see. We definitely have some things that are pretty unique in the line because people want to see that.”
So Wamsley created products like the
Labrador, which is a hand pipe modeled after the huge spliff in “Up in Smoke.” That immediately became a hit, so they made an even bigger one. It remains one of the best sellers in the Cheech & Chong™ Glass line. Some of the other top sellers these days include the Blind Melon Chitlin and the Basketball Jones. Another piece draws inspiration from their ice-cream truck. A couple of the newest and more creative pieces are the icicle and bulb Christmas Tree ornament pipes. It looks like a pipe on one side and an ornament on the other. This was an idea directly from Cheech & Chong and is already a big hit this holiday season. Most of the products come with names inspired by scenes in Cheech & Chong’s movies or comedy routines. Since Cheech & Chong™ Glass hit the market in June 2015, there have been almost 100 products — ranging from hand pipes and water pipes to oil rigs and flower bubblers. The packaging is important too. The water pipes and rigs come packaged in attractive Cheech & Chong™ Glass branded boxes, and include a certificate of authenticity and a Cheech and Chong™ Sticker. The hand pipes come packaged in high-quality neoprene pouches for storage and protection with the Officially licensed Cheech & Chong™ logo on them and a Cheech & Chong™ sticker inside.
That’s part of the vision for Cheech & Chong™ Glass: Make things that are cool and different and surprising, while keeping the legacy of Cheech & Chong growing in new directions.
This year marks the 50Th anniversary of Cheech & Chong! To commemorate this amazing milestone, we are releasing a Limited Edition Cheech & Chong™ Glass water pipe and Limited Edition Cheech & Chong™ Glass hand pipe that is packaged in a custom designed, collectable 50th anniversary tin. It’s the perfect gift for any cannabis connoisseur!
“Creating innovative glass designs definitely gets me excited,” Wamsley says. “We’re looking for even more down the line. We’re always coming up with new stuff, trying to push the envelope a bit and come out with quality glass that is fun and enhances the smoking experience. After all, that’s what Cheech & Chong are all about!”
For more information on Cheech & Chong™ Glass & West Coast Gifts: Contact info@ cheechandchongglass.com or high@westcoastgifts.ca, and follow @cheechandchongglass on Instagram
LIFE AFTER TERMINATION Five Actions to Mitigate Liability Exposure for Employee Bonus Payments Post-Termination
By Malcolm Boyle, Q.C. & Alex Warshick, McInnes Cooper
Employers frequently use incentive, bonus and stock option plans to attract and keep employees, but their liability for a payment under that plan could live on – even after an employee’s employment ends. In Matthews v. Ocean Nutrition Canada Ltd., the Supreme Court of Canada reconfirmed the employment contract effectively “remains alive” for the purpose of assessing a dismissed employee’s damages during his or her reasonable notice period. It awarded a former employee more than $1M under a contractual bonus incentive plan that triggered after his “active” employment ceased but during his reasonable notice period, despite plan wording purporting to limit entitlement to active employees. Here’s the question the Court considered, the two-part test to answer it and five employer actions to mitigate liability exposure.
The One Million Dollar Question
Mr. Matthews was a long-service executive entitled to participate in his employer’s incentive plan. The plan entitled qualified employees to payments upon certain triggering events, including the sale of the employer. It also included clauses purporting to disentitle those who were no longer a “full-time employee” when a triggering event occurred:
[The employer] shall have no obligation under this [plan] to the Employee unless on the date of a [triggering] event the Employee is a full-time employee of [the employer]. For greater certainty, this [plan] shall be of no force and effect if the employee ceases to be an employee of [the employer], regardless of whether
the Employee resigns or is terminated, with or without cause.
… The Long Term Value Creation Bonus Plan does not have any current or future value other than on the date of a [triggering event] and shall not be calculated as part of the Employee’s compensation for any purpose including in connection with the Employee’s resignation or in any
severance calculation.
The employer hired a new COO who, the courts decided, undertook a four-year “campaign” to “marginalize” Mr. Matthews’ role in the company. He stayed, believing the company would soon be sold and he would be entitled to a portion of the sale proceeds under the plan, but ultimately resigned. The company was sold 13 months later. Mr. Matthews would have been entitled to more than $1M under the plan. The employer refused to pay him because he wasn’t an “active employee” at the sale date. Mr. Matthews sued, arguing (among other things) the employer constructively dismissed him (acted as if it were no longer bound by the employment contract, forcing him out).
He sought compensation for breach of the employer’s duty to provide common law reasonable notice (it is implied in every employment contract that the employer must give the employee reasonable notice upon termination, including a constructive dismissal) and for the plan payment. The lower courts agreed the employer constructively dismissed Mr. Matthews and he was entitled to compensation for 15 months’ reasonable notice – but disagreed on his entitlement to the plan payment. Mr. Matthews appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada on the sole question of his plan payment entitlement.
The Two-Part Test
The Court used a two-part test to determine whether a dismissed employee’s damages for the employer’s breach of its obligation to give reasonable notice included the plan payment:
“But For”. But for the termination, would the employee have been entitled to receive the plan payment? Yes, but this wasn’t an issue; no one appealed the decisions on the constructive dismissal or the reasonable notice period, and all agreed entitlement to the plan payment would have arisen during the notice period.
Exclusion. Does the plan wording unambiguously alter the employee’s right to damages for breach of the duty to provide reasonable notice? The Court said it did not. Noting courts will “strictly construe” clauses that exclude or limit an employee’s rights where the contract is “unilateral” (not negotiated), the Court found none of the wording used was enough:
“Full-time” or “active” employee. To calculate damages for breach of the duty to give reasonable notice, the employment contract notionally “remains alive” and isn’t treated as “terminated” until the end of the no-
tice period. Mr. Matthews would have been “full-time” or “active” during the notice period if the employer hadn’t breached its duty to give reasonable notice. Damages are based on the employee’s total compensation – including any bonuses he or she would have earned during the notice period. “With or without cause”. An exclusion clause must cover the exact circumstances that happened. Here, it didn’t: termination without cause doesn’t imply termination without notice, or an “unlawful termination” – which words also wouldn’t have been enough even if they were in the plan. “Severance”. Damages for breach of the duty to give reasonable notice and “severance pay” are distinct legal concepts.
The Five Employer Mitigation Actions
Employers can take these five actions to mitigate their liability exposure in light of this decision:
Be Blunt. Review the wording of bonus, incentive and other benefit plans and employment agreement termination provisions, and revise them if necessary. This plan used common words, though sufficient to limit employees’ entitlement. We now know what words won’t suffice; we don’t know yet what will. But any exclusionary clause must contain an explicit and unambiguous waiver of the right to receive a payment during any termination notice period, spelling out and limiting damages on termination in advance, and expressly excluding or limiting entitlements to bonus, incentives or other payments. Adding a waiver of liability for the bonus could also help.
Be Thorough. Include a review for consistency with minimum employment standards laws; the Court noted the question whether an exclusionary clause is consistent with minimum employment standards laws could arise. This could particularly be the case with statutory protections of pay rates during notice periods. Look also at the wording of “discretionary” bonus plans; it’s risky to rely solely on their discretionary nature to disentitle an employee post-termination.
Give Notice. Consider ways to draw an employee’s attention to any exclusionary clauses and how to evidence this attention, such as requiring the employee to initial it, bolding it, underlining it, and/or including a specific and separate clause acknowledging the employee’s agreement to the term. The Court signaled it might be appropriate in a future case to consider whether an employer adequately brought limiting or exclusionary clauses to the employee’s attention.
Use a Termination Clause. If your employment contracts don’t include a termination clause, consider adding one and, based on this decision, exclude or limit damages for bonus payments or other incentives during the notice period. Employers can terminate an employment contract at any time – but always subject to common law reasonable notice. However, it’s open to employers to displace the implied entitlement to common law reasonable notice with a contractual notice period contained in a termination clause. There are many benefits to doing so: common law reasonable notice is notoriously uncertain to calculate. However, courts closely scrutinize termination clauses just as they do exclusionary clauses in bonus plans. Any clause purporting to remove an employee’s right to common law reasonable notice must use clear, unambiguous language expressly specifying some other period of notice and meeting minimum statutory entitlements.
Take Care. Making changes to bonus, incentive or benefit plan contracts and employment contracts now vis-à-vis employees you hire in the future is easy. Making changes to them vis-à-vis your existing employees isn’t: unilaterally changing a fundamental employment term or condition without giving the employee “consideration” (something of new value in exchange) or sufficient advance notice can make these new contracts unenforceable or might amount to constructive dismissal.
Malcolm Boyle, Q.C. is a Partner and Alex Warshick is a Lawyer at McInnes Cooper, Halifax.
This article is information only; it is not legal advice. McInnes Cooper excludes all liability for anything contained in or any use of this article. © McInnes Cooper, 2020. All rights reserved.
A PRIMER ON CANNABIS TESTING IN CANADA
Canadian Analytical Laboratories is an established Canadian leader bringing over 35 years of testing expertise to the Natural Health Products, Botanicals, Pharmaceuticals, Food, Cosmetics and Cannabis Industries. Visit cal-laboratories.com for more information.
Laboratory testing is a foundational component of a robust Quality Management System (QMS). Analytical testing is primarily concerned with confirming product specifications as they relate to potency and purity. Products that fail to confirm specifications may be sub-potent or adulterated with contaminants. Such products will be deemed to be non-compliant by Health Canada and potentially could pose threats to consumer health.
Analytical testing offers many benefits towards understanding and maintaining a brand. Quantitative profiling of cannabinoids ensures that consumers receive consistent products, and this helps build consumer confidence and trust. Clearly, ensuring the absence of harmful pesticides or microbial contamination ensures consumer health and maintains compliance with existing regulations. The cannabis industry is still evolving and so are the testing standards. The move towards safety, identity, strength, purity and quality (SISPQ) concepts have their origins in the pharmaceutical industry and it is these important tenants that need to be further extended to cannabis products.
Operating a cannabis testing laboratory in Canada requires an analytical testing licence from Health Canada. The laboratory needs to have access to proper testing equipment and competent, highly-educated and trained chemists and microbiologists. A well-managed laboratory can deliver fast, efficient and accurate testing benefiting producers and processors, and thereby save time and money.
Laboratory testing typically generates data for seven areas of analytical interest: quantitative cannabinoid assays; terpenes profiling, heavy metal determinations, microbiological evaluation, presence of residual solvents, pesticides and mycotoxins. Products need to be tested in all of the formats present in the growing cycle and include raw ingredients to secondary ingredients and packaging. Testing can be offered as a complete package or “a-la-carte” depending on client requirements.
Laboratories test cannabis samples using validated or compendial analytical methods. These methods detail all of the required steps taken in the lab and include details on sample preparation and sample analysis to the calculation of the result. Compendial methods exist in certain pharmacopeias around the world such as the European Pharmacopoeia; however, laboratories are expected to demonstrate equivalency of the method through a verification process. In the absence of standard methods, laboratories are required to validate their own methods. Standards for analytical method validation are described in international standards (ICH Q2(R1): International Conference on Harmonization) and represent a measure of the suitability of the method and to determine if it is indeed fit for its intended purpose.
POTENCY & PROFILES
• THC and Cannabinoids: Potency analysis is the most common test conducted by laboratories. Precise cannabinoid potency testing demonstrates your product is compliant and accurately labeled. Whether cannabis is produced for recreational use and/or for medical cannabis use where dosing is critically important for patients seeking specific therapeutic responses. Potency measurement refers to quantifying the percentage of THC and CBD (cannabidiol) considering the potential to convert THCA into THC and CBDA to CBD in the cannabis samples. There are many other cannabinoids markers of interest that are routinely analyzed by laboratories. Potency and composition are an important factor for cannabis growers as both having a direct role in the value and selling price of the plant. Accurate potency testing can be a challenging activity especially since products come in a variety forms such as flowers and concentrates; baked goods and candies; and oils and tinctures used for ingestion
or smoking or vaping. Testing is conducted using a High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) with a suitable detection system.
• Terpenes: Terpenes are essential oils. Cannabis has a wide spectrum of these substances with more than 140 different terpenes responsible for the plant’s unique aroma and flavours. The relationship between terpenes and cannabinoids helps determine the strain. Laboratory testing has an increasingly important role in identifying strains, potency and terpene profiles within raw and finished products for the benefit of medical cannabis patients. Terpene potency can vary from plant to plant based on factors such as climate, age of the crop and soil type. Potency can also significantly be reduced by the heat used during the extraction process required to create a final product. There are dozens of terpenes in cannabis plant; however, most laboratories test for potency and profiles of the most frequently occurring ones using Gas Chromatography (GC/FID).
CONTAMINATION
Contaminant testing typically is centered around chemical and microbial contaminants. Chemical contaminants may arise with chemicals used during the grow process such as heavy metals or pesticides, whereas microbial contaminants may arise from an inherent microbial load on the plant or from growing conditions. If contaminants are present above threshold levels, test results are required to be reported to health agencies, production may be halted, and investigations are required.
• Residual Solvents: Solvents are used during the extraction and purification of cannabis products. Solvents include water; organic solvents such as isopropanol, ethanol, heptane, and acetone; or gases such as compressed carbon dioxide. The choice of solvent is usually dependent on the type of product being produced. Residual solvents are harmful to health and should be absent in the finished product or least be present at safe levels based on Health Canada’s allowable limits. Residual solvents testing is performed using Gas Chromatography (GC/ FID) coupled with a Head Space attachment. In this technique the sample is gently heated to volatilize any residual solvents into the gas phase.
• Pesticides: Pesticide residues represent the leading cause of batch failures. Various pesticides are used to protect plants by eliminating or preventing insect or bacterial infestations which can adversely affect the growth and quality of cannabis plants. To protect consumers Health Canada enacted mandatory testing and reporting requirements for 96 pesticide residues. Health Canada has published Limits of Quantification (LoQs) for fresh cannabis, cannabis plants and dried cannabis. These limits are established based on the identification and quantification of the molecule using current chemical analytical methods and equipment. Analyzing cannabis batches for pesticides is complex and requires rigorous sample extraction techniques and utilization of highly sensitive instruments such as Gas Chromatography tandem Mass Spectrometry [GC-MS/MS] and Liquid Chromatography tandem Mass Spectrometry [LC-MS/MS]. One of the major challenges that laboratories face in pesticides analysis is the background of the naturally occurring chemicals in the sample, which affect the pesticides analysis due to interference. Furthermore, Health Canada expects companies to report any test result that equals or exceeds the laboratory’s LoQ. Therefore, it is very important for companies to select the laboratories with proper validated methods for pesticides analysis.
“Analytical testing offers many benefits towards understanding and maintaining a brand. Quantitative profiling of cannabinoids ensures that consumers receive consistent products, and this helps build consumer confidence and trust. The cannabis industry is still evolving and so are the testing standards.”
• Mycotoxins / Ochratoxins: Cultivation conditions, transportation, storage and processing of cannabis plants create an ideal environment for the growth of mould that can lead to fungi (Aflatoxins B1, B2, G, G2 and Ochratoxin A) which are toxic metabolites. If allowed to flourish, they can begin to produce chemical mycotoxins which have been known to cause liver, kidney and reproductive damage as well immune suppression. Screening for mycotoxins and ochratoxins is complex as they are usually present at low concentrations. These toxins can be analyzed using HPLC or LCMS/ MS but using specialized fluorescence detection systems.
• Microbial Screening: Microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast and mould are ubiquitous. They are present the air and water and are even resident on our skin. They are often present at low enough levels and, provided that they are not pathogenic, are generally not harmful. The general perception is that since cannabis grown in controlled environments with managed humidity and ventilation controls and good growing practices (GPP) is generally less susceptible to microbial contamination; however, due to the nature of cannabis plants and flowers, microbial contamination is a major issue. Laboratories screen for the presence of the pathogens E. Coli and Salmonella, as well as the number of aerobic bacteria, yeast and mould, and bile-tolerant gram-negative bacteria in samples using published pharmacopeial methodologies.
• Heavy Metals: Heavy metals occur at the growth stage of the cannabis plant. Cannabis is a highly effective bio-remediator and extremely efficient at absorbing heavy metals from soil and storing it in select plant tissue without causing harm to itself. However, heavy metals are toxic to humans that cause specific systemic toxicities both after acute and chronic exposure. The presence of heavy metals in cannabis is one of the biggest threats to customer safety and can cause severe adverse health effects. Typically the big four: arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury are analyzed by laboratories using Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometry coupled with MS detection (ICP-MS) for trace metal analysis. ICP-MS is well suited as it provides much greater sensitivity than other techniques as it measures down to parts per trillion.
• Foreign Matter: Foreign matter can be introduced anywhere along the value chain. Health Canada requires checking for the presence of anything that does not belong there such as hair, fluff, insects, feces, packaging contaminants and manufacturing waste. This is typically done under microscope magnification and quantified as a percentage of foreign matter by product weight.
NUTRITIONAL FACTS PANEL TESTING
Nutritional Facts Panels for cannabis look very similar to food labels. Health Canada regulates the packaging and labeling requirements and requires large amounts of information and warning statements, and minimal amount of marketing communications. General nutritional facts panel testing, especially for edibles, includes nutrient testing fat, carbohydrates, sugars, fibre, protein, calories, sodium, cholesterol, potassium, calcium as well allergens such as for gluten.
Net quantity of the product is determined by density and water or moisture content expressed as a percentage of water weight in the sample. Oxidative Stability Testing under controlled laboratory conditions can be helpful to determine best before dates.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Analytical testing provides verification and reassurance that a company’s process works, and that the cultivation and processing procedures consistently yield products of high quality. Companies that embrace and understand the role of a well-established and experienced laboratory will realize the benefit since they can rest assured that their operations produce reliably consistent and safe products for their customers. Happy and healthy customers translate to long-term value, brand credibility and sustainable revenue growth. Have a conversation with your potential laboratory partner and if they understand how critical it is to understand your product and discuss with you the suitability of their analytical methods – you have found a good partner.
