Canada to use blockchain technology for cannabis research

After the legalization of medical cannabis in 2001, Canada legalized recreational use in October 2018. The country has become a leader in research on the consumption of cannabis. Furthermore, Canada will implement blockchain technology to improve cannabis markets.

The project is the result of a partnership between the American firm Deloitte and the Canadian firm Trutrace, which is responsible for providing all types of logistical solutions with this type of technology.

Blockchain to improve cannabis use

The association emerged as a way to verify the results in patients who use marijuana as an alternative treatment. While for recreational use, this technology maintains the quality of the strain.

According to data from the Canadian Federal Agency, since October 2018, 5.4 million Canadians have bought marijuana. Among them, 600,000 people indicated that they recently tried marijuana for the first time. Therefore, it is important to ensure the quality of the product. An effective way to trace cannabis using technology is through a product called StrainSecure.

The technology works using the blockchain technology so you can monitor cannabis strains, from seed to sale. This is so customers and retailers know the history of the product, to bring transparency to the process. According to Deloitte, this partnership will help the product reach a broader base of interested people by serving 80% of Fortune Global 500 companies through its worldwide network of member firms.

Canada advocates for quality and safety

It’s also predicted that this technology will help the Canadian government to ensure that cannabis crops grow. Also, this levies taxes and blocks black-market sales. Above all, consumers will know the exact origin of the product they are consuming.

It is worth mentioning that this is not the first initiative of its kind. Australian firms intend to patent blockchain systems that manage cannabis supply chains, according to the newspaper Cointelegraph. The Canadian pharmacy chain Shoppers DrugMart partnered with TruTrace last June to launch a pilot program.

The program will track several strains of medical cannabis and allow doctors to issue more effective prescriptions. Furthermore, they can easily provide information on clinical trials as part of an effort to set industry standards. This tracking system will identify the source of the strain and its genetics, in order to know its chemical components and whether or not the patient has obtained results.

Technology spearhead

The pilot project is available next summer. It will be available in Shoppers DrugMart which has 1,300 stores in November 2019.

Shoppers DrugMart hopes that they could make similar arrangements with US chains CVS and Walgreens. They already sell products made from cannabis.

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(Featured Image by Get Budding)

First published in Cannabis Nation, a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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