The Good Cannabis Life Q & A Blog, Part 2
We’re continuing our chat with Georges Brandan, founder of The Good Cannabis Life. In part 1, we talked about Georges’ background, as well as regulations and product legalities. In this part, we’re talking about the science of The Good Cannabis Life products and what makes them different that others in the marketplace. Let’s continue:
Georges, there’s a LOT of specific science behind what you do, between plant growth and production, harvesting procedures, cultivators and extractors, temperatures…how do all these procedures and factors make a difference in your end product?
The science behind cannabis is interesting and always improving. It doesn’t help that there have been laws and regulations in place for such a long time that doing true scientific research in cannabis was illegal for decades. These days, there are mega-corporations in recreational states that can float and fund that research, but it is still a quickly evolving field. In just the past 10 years, the extraction technology has seen some major improvements, allowing for a more precise extraction. It is much better to work through isolation chemistry rather than exclusion chemistry. (In isolation chemistry, I design the system to isolate and remove a single compound from the plant. In exclusion chemistry, I remove groups of compounds through different processes until I am left with the desired product.)
Many years ago, while I was working for Columbia Care, I even tried to patent a new form of concentrate using subcritical CO2, I was calling it “Sub-Crit- Crumble”. When I was talking to the lawyers, they informed me that the government would not accept patents on products they still consider illegal (It would be like Walter White trying to patent his blue meth in Breaking Bad.) I keep up with current new trends in cannabis, but I also knew that some new discoveries were and are just fads compared to some trusted methods. And because not every batch of flower is the same, there are some minor differences between extraction parameters from batch to batch which are adjusted to accommodate the change in the flower as well as any changes in the environmental parameters. Many of these new discoveries are made by clandestine chemists out of their garages, then properly refined and replicated by bigger chemists working for large cannabis companies. Sometimes we learn something new by seeing something new online by some random small grower out of California, where they did something but didn’t understand the science behind what they did. We then break down the process of what they did, cut out the ‘dumb’ and learn a new process.
How and why are The Good Cannabis Life products better than other similar products on the market?
What makes TGCL’s products superior to others on the market right now is that these are scientifically lab-produced, but still have the care and heart you would expect from a small company. Big companies have the expensive equipment to make really nice products, but they have no heart and don’t care if a batch isn’t perfect. Small guys have all heart and want every batch to be perfect, but don’t have nice equipment to take it to that next level. I put a lot of time and effort to make sure my reactions are as smooth and clean as possible; I double check my math and formulate to the exact point. I feel that my nano solution is the best in the industry. I have been working on this particular solution for more than 4 years to find the exact formulation to make the smallest THC delta-9 molecule size. The small partial size means that the cannabinoids can transverse the cell membranes and hit the consumer much more quickly. I use natural sugar as a carrier molecule because it is a very biologically active molecule that can quickly be dispersed in the body after consumption.
My concentrates are the best on the market in Tennessee because I do “Live” extractions. This is what I believe makes my products stand out the most: It is a newer extraction process that uses fresh cannabis plants rather than dried flower for the biomass. I harvest the plant while it is at peak ripeness and immediately cryo-freeze the plant at -80 degrees C. This is to lock in every living compound the plant produces. There are hundreds of lovely compounds that begin to disappear as soon as the plant is cut that I want to preserve. I like to think of these compounds as the plant’s ‘soul’, because these are extremely volatile compounds that basically only exist while the plant is alive and can actively use energy to hold them in. The moment the plant has been cut, these sweet-smelling terpenes and flavonoids begin to evaporate into the air…doing the cryo-freeze prevents them from leaving the plant. I then run my multi-hydrocarbon extraction at -40 degrees C slowly to do a full capture of all those amazing compounds. I then do several steps of filtering, refinement and solvent purging, all at cold temperatures, to produce a product that is so next level, there in nothing comparable in Tennessee. There just isn’t a market for super high-end concentrates here in Tennessee yet like there is on the west coast and in Florida.
What should people consider and be aware of when shopping for concentrates, edibles and organic cannabis cigars? What are the red flags? When/how do you know it’s ‘good’, and what are the properties/characteristics of when something is bad consumers should be aware of?
I don’t want to go so far as to say there are ‘bad’ concentrates on the market, but there is the possibility for that. Since Tennessee is not regulated in the cannabis market, there is not an overseeing body that requires testing before sale like they do in other states. This means than anybody can produce and sell cannabis products with no knowledge of what they are doing. So, you could potentially end up with concentrates that haven’t been purged right or contain containments with no one saying that it can’t be sold. I advise people to do their research.
If you are into concentrates, stay away from anything that smells like alcohol (could be residual solvents that haven’t been properly purged).
For flower, if it looks like it has any mold, spiderwebbing, or brown spots, then don’t touch it.
Edibles are all about what you want…there are some edibles with very long shelf life and have lots of preservatives in them, and there are some that don’t last as long but are more natural. My rule for edibles is to go with what has the least amount of ingredients…you want simple over complex as they are easier to digest and easier on your body.
In Part 3 of this Q & A blog with Georges, we’ll find out about what he recommends to customers of various levels of experience with cannabis-based products, talk about the effects of their use and more.
