By Jon Hiltz

 

With the birth of a new and thriving cannabis industry comes the technology to help make it all a reality.

In Israel, arguably home to the leading medical marijuana researchers in the world, Hebrew University is investing in the development of a new technological advancement — an effortless and cost-effective device that automatically sorts and analyzes individual cannabis flowers.  It uses cutting edge technology and imaging equipment to detect all the active compounds of the crop.  And crop is the operative word in this case as the instrument in question is designed for the mass production of marijuana.

Hebrew University is an ideal investment partner, as they are the pioneers of cannabis research in Israel and around the world.  It was Dr. Raphael Mechoulam of Hebrew University’s Faculty of Medicine who originally studied cannabis and isolated THC as the psychoactive compound.

The institution invested capital through its Agri Innovation Fund, which was set up in 2015 to develop major advancements in agricultural technology.  The medical cannabis firm receiving the monetary high-five is the Israel-based company Cannabi-Tech.

“The minute we started analyzing the cannabis market, one of the main challenges we identified was that there was an issue with lack of standardization,” said Dr. Guy Setton, CEO, and Co-Founder of Cannabi-Tech.

In a discussion with Marijuana.com, Dr. Setton went on to add that the cannabis patients interviewed in Israel complained that the potency of their medicine would change every few days. Sometimes they needed to take more because it was not powerful enough, and other times it had the adverse effect of being too powerful.

“The problem, if you want to say it, is in nature itself.  The cannabis flower is a heterogeneous flower, and the potency varies between each and every flower bud even on the same plant.”  One of the issues that comes along with the changing potency of marijuana, is that doctors are less likely to prescribe it if the effects vary in strength.

Further to that, Dr. Setton pointed out that currently, cultivators test their cannabis by taking a small percentage of the crop and sending it to a third-party lab to determine the quality of the entire batch, based on a sliver of a percentage.  “That’s basically like saying the average depth of the Pacific Ocean is 100 feet.”

The interim name for this device is Cannabi-Tech Assure, and some of the added accouterment include an optional label generator and an automated packaging unit.

At the moment, Cannabi-Tech is developing prototypes which will be installed in various testing sites in Israel and abroad. Their ultimate goal is a to provide a commercialized system available for cultivators and labs around the world.  For its contribution, Hebrew University gets a portion of the sales as part of their standard innovation agreement

“The beta testing will start halfway through 2017, and those units, if they are in perfect working order may be commercialized.”  Dr. Setton expects to have larger numbers of commercialized units sometime in 2018.

This device could mean big things for cultivators to help them create a product that has a guaranteed bang for every buck, and it will also help patients receive the same dosage each and every time.  Clearly, this is High Tech at its finest.