Anytime someone is prescribed a medication, they expect to see details for use on the medicine’s label, including the expected shelf life and the recommended storage conditions. This should be no different when they receive their medical marijuana products. With stability testing provided by Modern Canna, you can provide this data and more.
What is Stability Testing?
A stability test is a scientific analysis of a therapeutic drug’s longevity and chemical integrity through a series of research trials, exposing it to various environmental conditions and packaging types. These tests can be applied to cannabis edibles, extracts, capsules, or other forms of this medication.
While Modern Canna researchers still abide by federal laws related to these methods, the federal government has not yet provided any concrete standards on medical marijuana’s required shelf life and chemical stability.
On the other hand, hemp is now legal on the federal level, allowing our analysts to meet nationally enforced medical marijuana testing standards. On the state level, Florida requires that all medical marijuana edibles’ labels clearly display the product’s expiration date and appropriate storage methods, among other information. The only way to gather such data is to enlist the help of a qualified lab to conduct a stability test.
Why Cannabis Cultivators Need Stability Tests
Few people know that cannabis can lose its potency over time. More specifically, exposure to various environmental conditions (light, extreme temperatures, and air, primarily) leads to the general degradation of the cannabis product due to the loss of cannabinoids, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD), and cannabinol (CBN) being of the greatest concern.
This chemical breakdown can happen in virtually any pure cannabis-derived product, may it be flower or oil. Unfortunately, this issue is more than an inconvenient expiration but a medical mishap that can lead to devastating consequences for consumers relying on your product for daily relief.
More people than ever rely on medical marijuana to manage their health problems like chronic pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and more. The increasingly widespread acceptance of medical cannabis as a primary medication furthers the need for objective drug stability testing required for all other therapeutic substances by the Food and Drug Administration.
Drug stability studies provide insight into the projected shelf life of your product. For example, a thorough drug stability test protocol is characterized by the following components, by law:
- Gradually lengthening testing intervals:
- Every three months for the product’s first year
- Every six months for the product’s second year
- Annually, after those initial periods
- Testing under various temperatures, humidity levels, lighting, or controlled conditions
- A variety of meaningful, reliable testing methods to provide a comprehensive perspective of your medical marijuana’s shelf-life (this includes testing in various containers)
- Testing the longevity and safety (i.e., ability to prevent microbial growth) of any preservatives, if present
- Verifying the product’s ability to remain sterile in its appropriate packaging
All these steps ensure that the patient’s prescribed medical marijuana does not lose its effectiveness over time. Without this testing, you risk the drug’s inability to manage your consumers’ medical conditions since, as mentioned previously, the cannabinoids’ individual concentrations will fall over time.
This leaves patients vulnerable to persistent or worsening symptoms of their preexisting conditions due to the various chemical changes that arise with the product’s breakdown. Not only does it lose its potency, but the following problems emerge as well:
- The drug uptake route may change, which affects its proficiency at eliminating or soothing particular symptoms
- Onset time may be extending, leading to delayed relief
- Increases risk of overdosing due to the patients’ overcompensating due to weaker or delayed effects
For these reasons, stability testing of drug products is non-negotiable, as it directly impacts your customers’ health and wellbeing.
Choose Modern Canna for Your Cannabis Stability Testing
Stability testing is a must-have for anyone who cultivates, processes, or distributes medical marijuana. Access to such in-depth technical research is crucial, as it directly impacts your cannabis’s viability and your customers’ health.
Contact Modern Canna to test your medical marijuana and be confident in the assurance of your products’ reliability and compliance with legal cannabis laws.