Challenges in Cannabis Labeling: Interview with Anna Schwabe, PhD

In our Women in Grow: Leadership in Cannabis Genetics and Cultivation supplement, Cannabis Science and Technology interviewed researcher and educator Anna Schwabe, PhD, Associate Lecture Professor at the University of Colorado and Chief Operating Officer of CannaGen, an online cannabis genetic marketplace for licensed breeders, nurseries, and cultivators.

In this video clip, Dr. Schwabe shares insights into complications to accurate labeling of cannabis strains in the industry, comparing it with other industries, and explaining the role of genotyping in the solution of this issue.

Check out our interactive supplement to read the full expert interviews, including an interview with hemp specialist Daniela Vergara, PhD.

Transcription

Sebastian Krawiec: That's fascinating. Yeah, the lab shopping, for sure, definitely has incredible implications for industry. But I wonder if you can elaborate a bit about the genetic variation between, specific branded products – what are the implications there for the industry? What do you hope your research will do for growers and manufacturers?

Anna Schwabe: So this not a problem that's unique to the cannabis industry. People are all up in arms, and maybe it's just because I'm in this industry, we don't notice, but you may have seen other headlines where fish at the supermarket is not as labeled. So there was a fish study, and they found something like 30% of the fish in the grocery store is not the fish it is. And the thing about it is, when you buy fish, you don't buy a whole fish. You don't see the whole fish usually. It's already fileted, you just see the flesh. So if it says tilapia, or if it says, I don't know, another fish, white fish, or something, you just assume, unless you're a fish expert, that it is what it says on the label, right? Same thing with cannabis, right? You assume that what you're purchasing is as it's labeled. But that's not always the case. With fish, I think it's something more nefarious. Somebody caught that fish, somebody knew what that fish was, and somebody made a conscious decision to relabel it.

With cannabis, I think it's a little bit of a different situation, because unlike other plants that are legal, we don't have a way to really register cultivars when they're developed. We don't really have a whole lot of record keeping, at least going back in the past, before it became legal. So I think this problem was established a while back, and it could be poor record keeping. Everyone was doing it under the radar. So, you get a cutting from a friend, you don't remember what they said it was called, so you just go with what you think you remember, or you rename it. And this used to happen with things like grapes and olives. The grape industry was all over the place, until they brought in genetic testing to say, Okay, this grape is the same as this one, and we're going to call it this one, because we've got better records or whatever. Or actually, your grapes are named the same thing, but they're completely different, so go ahead and name this grape because it's different and we don't know what it is.

So genetic testing has really helped to iron out some of those wrinkles in other industries, and I think that's where we're at with cannabis. So I don't think people are doing it on purpose, although there are probably cases where people are re-labeling things to get it off the shelves quicker. But I think most of the time misspelling, just inputting records wrong, writing things down wrong, you know, humans are good at or not good at these things sometimes. So I don't think it's anything that we can point fingers at, to anybody for. But when you expect when you order seeds, if you order Chem Dog seeds, you're expecting to get those Chem Dog seeds, you're going to call it Chem Dog, you're going to sell it as Chem Dog. Is it Chem Dog? Well, I don't know. Where did that seed producer get their Chem Dog from? Was it Chem Dog when they got it? So I think at multiple points in the supply chain, going back years, decades, there could have been mistakes that were made, and it's now showing up. But there's definitely a way to figure it all out, and it can start with genotyping and making genotyping affordable so that people can verify what they have and say, Okay, I've had this genotyped. It does look like the vast majority of Durban Poisons out there. So yes, we can go ahead and say that we are selling Durbin Poison and have it verified through a genetic test.