Solventless Products for

Solventless Products for Healthier Consumption An Interview and Facility Tour with Aaron Nino and the CAMP Team

CAMP is a brand born from the idea of connecting with nature, connecting with others and connecting with yourself. The award-winning brand is led by Aaron Nino, a production manager with more than 15 years of cannabis experience as well as a variety of accolades and awards for his products. Under the award-winning CAMP brand, which is focused on solventless extraction and terpene-rich flower, Aaron and his team developed the first solventless rosin cartridge in the state of Nevada and they are dedicated to providing quality cannabis products, including flower, cartridges, disposables, and concentrates. I recently had the pleasure of touring the CAMP facility to check out their cultivation and production lab.

BILL SHEHAN: Thank you for allowing us to tour your facility. Are you the first company here locally doing solventless rosin-based products?

AARON NINO: Thank you for taking the time to visit. We are the first and only company in Nevada to create a solventless line of cartridges and disposables. We started our CAMP line two years ago, I’ve always wanted to bring a solventless line to our Nevada consumers.

BILL: I love the CAMP line. I am not usually a big fan of vape cartridges, especially when they have added botanical terpenes but when I tasted the CAMP cartridges, just knowing that no solvents or additives were involved made them that much better.

AARON: We actually used to introduce steam distilled terpenes into our vapes to get the rosin to burn evenly. But since our new Director of Cultivation Bill Campbell came on board, our flower has been much higher quality allowing us to mechanically separate the terpenes out of the rosin, cold cure, and reintroduce them. So basically, we take the rosin, press the terpenes out of it and then add them back into our vape cartridges giving them their strain specific, robust flavor. CAMP carts and disposables are 100% cannabis extracts – something we are very proud of.

BILL: That is awesome. Will we be able to see how the rosin is pressed today?

AARON: We will do some pressing for you today. We will also show you how we make our oil, how we separate terpenes and give you a peek into our cultivation.

BILL: Sounds good, let’s do this. >>>By: Bill Shehan square feet. The majority of our facility is for cultivation so what we are doing on the extraction side in this very small area is phenomenal. Working in such a small space allows me to oversee everything ultimately ensuring that good quality shows in our products. With our solventless products, the phrase garbage in/garbage out couldn’t be more true. The end result always relies on beginning with high quality flower. Since Bill has come on board, we have had some amazing flower to work with. We have been able to expand our variety. In the beginning we had a few staples but not the wide variety of strain specific cartridges we felt our customers wanted. Now, we have a diverse array of strain-specific vapes like our Andromeda and Bahama Mama which have been surprisingly flavorful and fruitful yielders.

BILL: You also have the ability to source good flower from other local cultivators who may or may not have a production license.

AARON: Yes. In the beginning, because we were having some challenges with our own cultivation, I sourced flower from the awesome team over at Green Life Productions. In order to produce great quality hash and rosin the grower needs to have the end product in mind from the moment they plant the seed. Quality hash comes from quality flower, period.

BILL: I can’t wait to see your rosin pressing magic. There are only three factors to consider: heat, time and pressure, right?

AARON: Exactly. And, you will see that when we press our hash, it’s just a little bit different depending on the starting material. To make rosin pressing more consistent, we use a

Pure Pressure machine which saves all of the information by various strains and ensures consistency every time we press. We are hashing old school right now with the washer and bubble bags until our new commercial equipment arrives.

BILL: It’s awesome that the time tested method of using bubble bags to make hash is still being used.

AARON: Right, that’s the way we used to do it. That method will always work. As we expand our facility, we will bring in new equipment to make the process quicker and more efficient. I want you to meet our Extraction Specialist, Paul Ortiz. Paul is going to show you how we make our hash. He has a love and passion for this and really has the process dialed in.

BILL: It’s cold in here, what’s the temperature?

AARON: Between 30-45 degrees.

PAUL: It has to stay cold, and with the door closed, it gets even colder.

AARON: If it doesn’t stay cold, the resin heads will not be captured like we want them to. The hash likes the cold and once we started doing it this way, both our quality and yields increased. The trichomes and the resin want to collect and if it is hot, it just isn’t ideal. Paul, go ahead and show us what you are doing in here.

PAUL: I start with about 5 gallons of icy cold water here in a bucket. You don’t want too much ice in there, but you do want the water extremely cold. As you can see, the bucket is lined with a variety of different size screens. Once the buckets are fully prepared, I add my flower. As the flower moves through the various screens, finally making it through the smallest screen, this is where we catch the best stuff. Next, everything goes into the freeze dryer for about 24 hours. The end result is a beautiful batch of hash.

AARON: Most cultivation facilities are not growing specifically for hash. Since our facility is growing for hash, we have to make sure that our flower is high quality and that the strains we grow are consistently giving us a good end result. There are certain strains you focus on for hash. For example, GMO is a very heavy

hasher. The yield is greasy and that’s where you get your full melt hash. Right now, Bill is growing a First Class Funk for us which is GMO crossed with Jet Fuel. We are also currently in the process of a pheno hunt for new strains. Before we go into the pressing room, step in here and let me show you how we make our RSO.

BILL: The fact that you guys are working in such a small space is commendable. It is deceiving from the outside because the building looks huge.

AARON: As in most facilities, the majority of the space is utilized for cultivation. Once I came on board here, our direction changed a bit as we started going full force towards solventless products. Here is where we make our RSO which is primarily used by medical cannabis patients. By using this Roto Evaporator, we are able to complete the extraction while reclaiming our ethanol. And, The Source+ has a special, needs-based program set up specifically for medical patients to purchase RSO in bulk at our cost. Medical patients also really like our 1:1 solventless rosin cartridge made with our Connor’s Comfort strain. This is one of our best tasting cartridges - the flavor is very robust. And, our 1:1 CAMP tincture which is also made using our high CBD Connor’s Comfort strain is another customer favorite.

BILL: It is so awesome to know that we still have companies that are equally as focused on our medical cannabis patients as they are on the recreational consumers. What is going on with that machine over there? Are you extracting terpenes?

AARON: Yes, steam distilled terpenes, in my opinion these terpenes are the purest terpenes to inhale, other than mechanically separated terpenes. Here, smell these Grapefruit Durban terpenes.

BILL: Nice! Those smell amazing.

AARON: The next room over is where we press our flower and hash.

PAUL: This machine stores the settings for each strain that we press to help maximize our efficiencies. We are just waiting for the machine to cool down because we were pressing flower earlier which requires more heat. Now that it has cooled down, I fill my bag with the hash and load it on to the machine. As the hash gets hotter, the trichomes melt. Keep in mind, this machine brings down 1,000 pounds of pressure when we are pressing hash. Now I just let it do its thing for about 3-5 minutes. The amount of time it takes usually depends on what strain we are using.

BILL: Yah, I have a small press at home and there have been times that I press my flower and get nothing out of it and assume that I did something wrong.

PAUL: You’ve probably not done anything wrong, it’s probably just the strain you are pressing that is giving you no yield.

BILL: Man, that looks great. You guys really have it down to a science here. I understand you had some issues within the cultivation which I am assuming have been rectified.

AARON: Yes, Bill Campbell has put a ton of work into making our cultivation top of the line. Take a peek into our grow room.

BILL: Wow! Your plants look healthy and smell amazing. I cannot wait to try these newly grown strains. Thank you for allowing us into your facility.

AARON: Thank you for coming by. Please plan to revisit in a month or two to see the facility after our expansion.

The CAMP line of products can be found at The Source+ which has three locations throughout the state: 2550 S. Rainbow Blvd. in Las Vegas, 9480 S. Eastern Ave. in Henderson, and 5270 Longley Ln, Suite 103 in Reno. For more information about The Source+, visit thesourcenv.com. Follow The Source+ on Facebook @TheSourceNevada and on Instagram @thesourcedispensary. Follow 8|Fold on Facebook @8|Fold Nevada and on Instagram @8foldnevada. And, follow CAMP on Instagram @wheresyourcamp.

SUNDAE BEST

BAHAMA MAMA

CULTIVATOR SPOTLIGHT: BY Stephanie Shehan EVAN MARDER - DIRECTOR OF CULTIVATION AT FLEUR CANNABIS

Anyone who knows Evan Marder also knows that he is extremely passionate about cannabis. His love for the plant shines through in his work as a cultivator. I recently had the chance to sit down with him to chat about his work at Fleur and the path that led him there.

STEPHANIE SHEHAN: What is your title at Fleur Cannabis? Were you in the industry prior to working at Fleur?

EVAN MARDER: I am currently the Director of Cultivation at Fleur Cannabis. Previously, I was the Chief Operating Officer and Founder of Matrix NV.

STEPHANIE: What led you to the cannabis industry?

EVAN: This is a long story, but I'll do my best to tell a very condensed version. I started growing when I was 16. I bought a growth chamber called a Phototron (they still make and sell them) and started growing in a closet in my father’s basement. That got me started. Throughout the 90's I grew indoors using early stage ballasts with metal halide and high pressure sodium lighting. I did a lot of reading back then to hone in growing methods. In the early 2000's I got a patient card here in Nevada and set up a grow room at my house with the hopes that Nevada would eventually take on the business model of California, where they allowed patient grows to sell to dispensaries. After many years it became obvious Nevada would never adopt that model, but in 2013 it became apparent Nevada was going to set up regulations for cannabis businesses. In late 2013, I started looking into and studying what it would take to become a cannabis business owner in Nevada. After months of research, in February 2014, I decided to risk everything I had and came up with a business plan, a business name (Matrix) and started shopping my plan to investors. Again, long story short, I was able to attract investors to my project by June 2014 and that's when all the fun began.

STEPHANIE: What sparked your passion for growing?

EVAN: I started growing in 1986 when I was 16. It's been a passion of mine ever since. I never had a mentor, it was more about figuring things out for myself and using what my mom had taught me about gardening. My mom grew up on and around farms and has always been an avid gardener with an outstanding green thumb, so I guess it's fair to say she passed that on to me. From the time I was about 17 on, I also read everything I could get my hands on about cannabis. Before legalization we were all really afraid of getting busted, so I always felt I had to be very careful where I sourced my information and not really discuss it with others. By 2006, I would say there was a decent amount of online growers forums. I did a lot of reading on those forums over the years, especially later on to understand the commercial side of the business. For example, there were a decent amount of discussions about mechanical engineering and how to control environments, which looking back, none of it was really good info, but it helped me to understand the challenges of scaling up from a 400 square foot room to a 30,000 square foot building.

STEPHANIE: Tell us about the work you have done at Fleur.

EVAN: Fleur Cannabis has been the ultimate thrill of my cannabis industry life, which to me says a lot because I've had some major ups and downs since getting into the legal side of things. We've created a very healthy work environment that the plants thrive in. One of the things I've focused on in my career in cannabis has been team building, and Fleur is no exception. Fleur is now staffed with great people that excel in their specific departments. Back when

I started Matrix, our core group on the ground was made up of family and friends, and then we built around that with people that shared the same vision. We built a great team filled with people who were passionate about the plant who mostly wanted to stand out and succeed in this industry partly because of their love of cannabis and the culture. We've essentially done the same thing with Fleur. At Fleur, I have also had the luxury of working for great people who appreciate me and the team we've built. They allow us to do what we do best with no micro-management, and I can't stress how important that is. I've seen several cultivations that were in a good place end up failing because the investors thought they knew more than the people they originally hired to grow for them. They ended up micromanaging the business to a point where they forced those out that were initially responsible for the company’s success. I am also a firm believer that the plants respond to the energy of who is around them. I've seen first hand examples of this countless times throughout my life, so to me it's very important that the staff has a constant positive attitude and positive energy. One of our jobs as managers is to make sure everyone on our staff is well taken care of and supported with the tools they need to succeed on a daily basis. Fleur pays our employees more than most cultivations offer, and we also offer benefits to all of our employees, which sadly seems to be somewhat rare on the cultivation side of the industry. The ownership at Fleur and Evergreen Organix and I see eye to when it comes to this. My philosophy coming into this industry was that I always kind of wanted to be the Google of cannabis. Google has a reputation of being an amazing employer that takes great care of their staff at a very high level. Everyone at Google wants to be at work when they're at work. Granted, we're not the corporate giant Google is, but providing that same level of a positive work environment is very important to us, and will always be part of our goal here at Fleur. As far as actual cannabis is concerned, we are constantly hunting for new strains and doing our best to get the best results out of the strains we currently offer. We of course want to make sure we put out flower with high cannabinoid percentages, but we also really focus on terpene production. We encourage everyone to look at how high and how deep our terpene profiles run on our test results at dispensaries and compare them to other cultivation numbers. We also have a lot of

STEPHANIE: Tell us a little about your growing technique/style.

EVAN: Fleur Cannabis is a Clean Green Certified cultivation facility (Clean Green Certification is one of the only certificates for a cannabis cultivation to be certified 'organic’ and is the most respected certification in our industry) utilizing sustainable, completely organic growing practices, just like Mother Nature intended. All our plants are grown in no-till living soil using our own hybridized version of Korean Natural Farming. Our composts and fertilizers are made in-house using all organic components, including plant material taken straight from our plants and organic fruits sourced from local farmers. This organic method of growing brings out the full potential of the plant, naturally, and we feel very strongly that it provides the cleanest, tastiest cannabis possible. We do not spray pesticides or fungicides and never use commercial fertilizers. I've used most every method possible to grow cannabis over the years, but after delving into the organic side of things and doing it at scale, I've come to the conclusion there is no better way to grow. For me it will forever be an organic style of growing from here on out. In my mind there is no better way, and commercially I feel growing organically makes the most sense.

STEPHANIE: Are there any particular obstacles that are related to growing indoors? Do you also have experience growing outdoors?

EVAN: There are tons of obstacles growing indoors, most of which start with creating the perfect environment. Millions and millions of dollars have been lost in this industry with people who have built cultivation facilities only to fail miserably. It's definitely not easy and not the golden goose so many people think it is. When we were designing Matrix there was no blueprint you could purchase, no one offering solid information on how to do this. We had to figure it all out for ourselves. We spent hundreds of hours over the course of 2015 and 2016 with general contractors, architects, mechanical engineers, and electricians formulating a plan. No one back then had a clue. A lot of 'consultants' claimed they did, but very few actually knew how to scale up and meet the build-out demands Nevada created. 2015 for me was mostly spent in construction meetings and behind a computer screen developing the floor plan and business plan for Matrix. The amount of dedication it takes to do a project like this, and then the time to manage it, is something that I think most people can't really grasp. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, I was a single guy with no kids and really nothing to lose, so it was a gamble I could afford to take. Had I been married with children I highly doubt I would have had the time and the finances to get through it all. The lead up just to get the business started was all incredibly time consuming, expensive and challenging. All that said, I haven't even touched on the challenges of actually growing once your business is off the ground. It's fair to say you can take any problem you could potentially have in a home grow and multiply it by a million. As far as my outdoor experience is concerned, that has been limited. I was part of an outdoor grow in Florida many years back, but not on a level that I can add significant insight on. I tried growing outdoors in Delaware too, but the climate there and the soil (it's clay based) aren't good to grow cannabis.

STEPHANIE: Are there any particular obstacles related to growing in Nevada? Any restrictions?

EVAN: I love growing in Nevada. Aside from the hot summers which present challenges with HVAC, the humidity here is great, and we don't have an abundance of natural predators that attack the plant that you'd have to worry about as a grower, like in other parts of the country. Don't get me wrong, we still face the same challenges, it just seems to me based on my experience as a grower here to not be as prevalent, at least in Clark County. As far as the regulations and the state are concerned, I've always said there is no state that does privileged licensing better than Nevada. Nevada has a long history of governing taboo industries like gaming and prostitution, and in my opinion that experience played a part in creating what I feel is the best cannabis program in the world. The regulations here are very strict and buttoned up and I feel that has played a large part in the reason why we

have not seen any federal interference. My experience with the state regulators has been that they are tough but fair. They want to make sure Nevada continues to be the gold standard for the cannabis industry, and I am all for that. Of course there have been growing pains, especially in regards to working with the seed to sale tracking system we are forced to use, but that is to be expected, especially in a budding industry that is still federally illegal.

STEPHANIE: How difficult is it to abide by lab guidelines? Any particular limits or restrictions that you would like to see changed?

EVAN: I have been told that the average commercial failure rate for flower in Nevada is around 30%. That does not mean that most of the flower grown here is garbage, that's not the case at all. This speaks to the fact of how stringent and difficult to pass our testing is here in Nevada. A while ago I read a study that was done some years back that found something like over 80% of the flower grown in California couldn't pass testing in Nevada. 80%! I think it's fair to say that the cannabis on Nevada dispensary shelves is the safest, cleanest cannabis in the world, and it's all because of the testing that we have to pass in order to be able to sell our flower. Nevada tests for a vast array of microbials, mycotoxins, heavy metals, pesticides and fungicides. The thing most cultivators fail for is microbials, and most of the time it's for Aspergillus and/or yeast and mold. Aspergillus was added to the testing protocol a couple years into the program and let me tell you, that created a whole new headache for cultivators and I think a lot of them are still trying to figure out how to keep from failing for it. That said, I'm very proud to say that here at Fleur we are passing over 99% of our tests, and that has a lot to do with the fact that we grow organically and that we have implemented a lot of procedures to make sure we always test clean, all of which are completely safe and organic in nature. There are companies in this state that use all sorts of post harvest mold remediation techniques to pass the testing, including the use of radiation. I think it's important for people to know we don't do anything like that. We are old school, we grow clean cannabis using very clean, natural organic methods. No mold remediation is necessary for us simply because we never have any mold on our flower, and we don't use nasty pesticides and fungicides to ward off pests and pathogens. Just clean and green!

STEPHANIE: Any tips for new cultivators entering the industry?

EVAN: I get asked this a lot. First off, unfortunately social media isn't a great place to ask for a job. It's a great place to learn about a cultivation you may want to work at, or to see an ad that a certain place is hiring, but I rarely see people get hired through a social media platform. It's usually through something like Indeed or Craigslist, or through word of mouth. Also, in my experience reputable cultivation facilities most of the time won't hire a grower for a grower position right off the bat. Usually people start off as a trimmer or a packager and work their way up to a cultivator position. My best advice would be first and foremost to have a great work ethic. Be punctual and communicate well. Be respectful and easy to get along with. Understand what your goals are and what you want to achieve in this industry and work towards them knowing everything takes time. Hone in on the craft and read as much as possible and if you're fortunate enough to be growing at home, grow using the same methods you want to work on and master on a commercial level. Also, please understand being a cultivator is a physically demanding job and it's not easy. There's a decent amount of heavy lifting and back breaking hard work. This is indoor farming after all. I've seen people over the years not realize what the job entails and get turned off pretty quick after they realize how physically demanding it can be.

STEPHANIE: We have seen some great things coming out of Fleur recently. Any favorite strains you want to talk about?

EVAN: I am a big fan of all of our current strains. To name some, Orange Cookies and LA Confidential are two of our cult classics that I really like. The Face on Fire we produce is incredible. She's consistently testing above 27% with a 3%+ terpene profile. We have some new strains on the market that I'm a big fan of, Sun God, Zest, Strawberry Cough and Live Fire to name a few. There's a new strain just getting started in the pipeline that we named Bushido OG. This strain was named after another cannabis community brother, Master WIn. Master Win was a dear friend of our grow manager, who, along with his 2 dogs, unfortunately died in the California wildfires this past year. We feel good about giving him this homage as this was a guy that had an incredible life story that ended way too early. The strain is a cross of Wookies-n-Cream x Lemon OG and is testing around 27% total THC with a terpene profile around 4%. She's also leaning heavily on the sativa side. Our first year at Fleur we really focused on developing sativa dominant strains, now we're hunting for more indica dominant strains. Strain development is a constant work in progress that I would like to see continue for as long as I'm around and involved, which hopefully will be a long, long time.

STEPHANIE: How about the new high CBD strains which are amazing, especially for patients - tell us about them.

EVAN: We also like to focus on developing 1:1 CBD/THC strains. In addition to Fire Angel, which is a 2:1 CBD/THC strain that was here before I came on, so far we have two new CBD/THC strains, CBDiesel and Do Si Durban. We like the Do Si Durban, but CBDiesel is the real standout here. It's a CBD cross off of Super Sour Diesel and has the same terpene profile with an outstanding 1:1 combination of around 10% - 12% CBD and around 10% - 12% THC. I'm a huge fan of this strain and am hopeful everyone out there will appreciate it as much as I do. It's just a perfect strain for any time, day or night.

STEPHANIE: You have a solid team working with you at Fleur, anyone you want to mention?

EVAN: Absolutely! We have a great staff that I would love to give a shoutout to. When I arrived at Fleur we already had an outstanding grow manager, Sven Blum. Sven has been an absolute rock star and a pleasure to work with. He is a core part of the company and is incredibly passionate about what we do here. He is our in-house pheno-hunter and manages and guides the cultivation team on a daily basis. He has simply been outstanding. Our plant and soil scientist, Nate Weeden, is a guy I got to know while I was at Matrix and was someone I always wanted to work with. When this project came up Nate was working at one of the labs in town and jumped at

the opportunity. Nate is a major talent that worked his way through UNLV waiting tables and obtained a Biochemistry degree. He has focused his knowledge on plants, especially cannabis. Nate oversees soil and plant health and is responsible for bringing the method of Korean Natural Farming to Fleur that we currently use today. I'd also like to give a shoutout to my brother, Jay Marder, he is our general manager and my right hand man. I'd be nowhere without him. Also an old dear friend of mine, Ron Carrell. Ron is a Vegas native and long time friend who is our facility manager and does an outstanding job making sure the plants have the optimal growing conditions to thrive. Last but not least, shoutout to Mason Garrett and our packaging department for getting all of our products out the door in a timely, efficient manner, as well as Rick Busack and our trim team for all of their excellent trim work, and of course our cultivators and porter. They all crush it for us on a daily basis. These are the unsung heroes of a cultivation facility. The amount of tedious work that goes into getting our products out the door is more than most people can wrap their heads around. Last, but definitely not least, I'd like to thank Jerry Velarde and Jillian Nelson and her family for this opportunity with Fleur and for all of their support. Jerry and I have built a friendship and working relationship that is one of the highlights of my professional life, and working with the Nelson's has been nothing short of outstanding. I've found them all to be great people.

STEPHANIE: Do you have a favorite strain? Being a cultivator, what do you look for when purchasing your own personal-use cannabis products?

EVAN: Being from the northeast originally I've always had an affinity for the gassier strains like Sour Diesel. Back in the late 80's and early 90's we were seeing a lot of Skunk #1, and to this day that is the strain I've always loved the most. Problem is, I haven't seen it since the mid 90's. I know some of the Cheese strains are close in smell and effect, but trust me, nothing that I've seen has matched that Skunk we were getting back in the day. Personally I think growers just stopped growing it because it had such a strong odor it made it hard to mask the smell. My belief is most growers moved away from it because it would end up getting them busted. Hopefully someone out there that kept some seeds reads this article and is nice enough to send me some...lol. Another personal favorite is Strawberry Cough and we're growing a great pheno of that strain at Fleur now. The funny thing is, a lot of people ask me to grow a lot of old school strains, but the problem is that a lot of those strains test below 18% and our market is driven by THC potency. That limits what we can grow. I'm hopeful with time and education that will change. People need to realize you can get a great high off of something with a 17% THC range and a good terpene profile, it's not all about THC.

STEPHANIE: Anything new and exciting coming up from Fleur?

EVAN: We will be developing many new strains over the coming years. We have a MAC cross we will be releasing soon, as well as the Bushido OG and others

STEPHANIE: How can readers follow you?

EVAN: Please give me a follow on Instagram @Evan.matrix.mmj I post a lot of pictures of the grow on a weekly basis. There are a decent amount of impostors out there that steal my image and pics on IG and Facebook, so please make sure to follow the right account. I only have the one, evan.matrix.mmj. Also, please give us a follow @Fleurcannabisnv

STEPHANIE: Anything you want to add?

EVAN: First off, thank you for doing this interview! Everyone at the magazine has always been great folks to get to know and I admire and value what you have added to the cannabis landscape in Nevada. You've been here since the beginning and I've always been a fan. I'd also really like to thank the Nevada cannabis community for all of the love and support I've received over the years. Like many of you out there, my journey in this industry has not been an easy one. The support I've received from so many of you has been a motivational factor for me that has kept me going through thick and thin, and is everything I could ever hope for from the community that I've always loved and wanted to be a part of. From the bottom of my heart, thank you all.

>>>>>>>>> Further Exploration of the Endocannabinoid System with Sunil Pai, MD

This article continues my series of interviews with a licensed clinical practitioner regarding the central role of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in human health. This installment covers the dosing and biphasic response curves of cannabinoids, the role of inflammation in disease and health, and the active and passive states of CB1 and CB2 receptors in the human ECS.

Sunil Pai, MD is an internationally recognized expert in integrative medicine based in Albuquerque, New Mexico and author of the critically acclaimed 2016 book An Inflammation Nation. He is a lecturer and a contributing author to medical textbooks and scientific journals.

Pai is a practicing doctor who combines an evidencebased approach with 20 years of clinical experience. Each year, he educates thousands of physicians and medical professionals about the nuanced biochemistry involved in the administration of hemp-derived cannabinoids and terpenes for the treatment of a variety of disease states and conditions.

Curt Robbins: “Thank you for taking time from your clinical schedule to talk, Dr. Pai.”

Sunil Pai, MD: “Thanks. I really enjoy the opportunity to speak with you, Curt, and help your students and readers better understand the human endocannabinoid system and how they might benefit from cannabis and cannabisderived products.”

CR: “Some cannabinoids feature biphasic response curves involving one efficacy at a relatively low dose and another— and sometimes polar opposite—effect at stronger doses. As a practicing clinician, how does the issue of response curves affect your job?"

SP: “The dose response curve is an important element of using cannabinoids from cannabis or hemp. It is often misunderstood or ignored by those who lack a clinical comprehension of how it functions and how cannabinoids such as CBD should be titrated (dosed). For example, when treating pain with prescription medications, more medication is required as the pain level worsens. This is a simple model involving increases in dose that are proportional to pain or dysfunction level. more medication to obtain an adequate response. For many prescription medications, this approach is correct. However, when it comes to the ECS and how CBD, THC, and other cannabinoids interact with receptors in the body–the dose response curve is completely different. It instead resembles a bell curve. When dosage is increased, an improved response is experienced—but only to a certain point. Improvement reaches a peak and then diminishes as dose is increased.

“As a clinician treating patients daily, one of my greatest challenges is educating them about proper dosing. They are habituated to taking large doses at the beginning of their treatment and, if they do not experience an adequate response, increasing their dose. When I get new patients that exhibit no response who are currently taking strong doses, I have them restart with relatively low doses. We increase dosing slowly over time, but only until the patient feels the intended benefits. This is, without question, the best approach.

“Most companies that sell cannabis and hemp do not like this approach because they make more money selling greater volumes of their products. Many companies advertise that their customers should consume hundreds of milligrams or even multiple grams per day. This is incorrect and misleading!

“Products from companies and influencers that do not address the need to ‘start low and go slow,’ instead recommending unnecessarily huge doses, are a good example of ignorant marketers who lack a true understanding of the healing mechanisms of the human body. They seem to not possess the basic knowledge of how the products they sell actually work.”

CR: “You published Inflammation Nation in 2016. Among the most common efficacies demonstrated by the cannabinoids and terpenes produced by cannabis are anti-inflammatory benefits. How does inflammation play a role in disease and what mechanisms are involved when phytomolecules from plants such as hemp decrease inflammation?”

SP: “Inflammation is the triggering mechanism of almost all diseases. The root term ‘itis’ means inflammation. The term placed before it indicates inflammation of that particular area or organ. Examples include arthritis, dermatitis,

thyroiditis, gastritis, colitis, vaginitis, prostatitis, and many others. In fact, there are more than 200 different ‘itis’ medical conditions!

“Identification of inflammation trigger mechanisms is of utmost importance when pursuing optimum health. My book covers the epigenetic factors of diet, lifestyle, and environment.

“In it, I describe how the ECS is involved with pain and repair mechanisms for tissue via the immune system...improvements that occur with using cannabis and hemp products. Cannabinoids and terpenes can lower inflammation naturally by activating particular receptors within a variety of organs and tissues to repair themselves from damage or injury (regardless of the cause) and, thus, lower inflammation via both direct and indirect mechanisms.

“In addition to decreasing inflammation, cannabinoids and terpenes often provide the body with a healing response via the immune system. This can lead to overall improvement of a chronic inflammatory condition, not just temporary relief from dysfunction. In future discussions, I’ll explain some of the types of cannabinoids and terpenes that are more important for inflammatory conditions such as pain and arthritis.”

CR: “We’ve talked briefly in past interviews about active and passive states for ECS receptors such as CB1 and CB2. Let’s discuss the different states of ECS receptors and the overall topic of binding affinity and how it affects potency and outcomes for patients.”

SP: “The state of health of the organs and tissues populated by CB1 and CB2 receptors determines their active or passive state. The healthier the tissue, the more passive (resting) the receptors. In a healthy state, one’s body requires little active repair from the immune system. However, when a disease condition is present, organs and tissues that feature CB1 and CB2 receptors become more active, or ‘turn on.’ This is due to the role of the immune system in actively repairing damage from inflammatory triggers and defending the body from foreign invaders such as infections.

“When one has a serious health condition, smaller doses of cannabinoids in more frequent administrations are needed to stimulate a positive response from the ECS that enables healing. This is because the CB1 and CB2 receptors are very active and their binding affinity is significantly higher. In this active state, the ECS requires only small doses of CBD to initiate the signals for immune system repair.

“This is a great approach for patients with chronic conditions. Often, we need to deliver only 10-25 mg per dose, three to four times per day, to achieve optimal results. This form of dosing provides significantly better results and also offers the benefit of being more cost effective for patients.

“An opposite mechanism applies to those who lack disease. Healthy patients feature ECS receptors in a resting state, with a binding affinity that is considerably lower. Such healthy patients require greater amounts of cannabinoids to stimulate a response. This explains why people with chronic conditions typically display a more pronounced response when consuming cannabinoids than those who are healthier. In fact, healthy subjects sometimes report no perception of effect whatsoever due to the resting state of their ECS receptors.”