Navigating The State of The Industry

Navigating The Current State of The Industry

What Are Some Common Bad Practices?

Fake COAs, especially when it comes to the stronger and more expensive cannabinoids.
Lies about sprayed flower
Deleting or not displaying negative reviews
Fake positive reviews
Downvote botting on negative Reddit posts
Shilling on Reddit
Making up cannabinoids
Underdosing edibles
Poor lab cleanliness
Lies about blend percentage

What Are Some Red Flags To Look Out For?

These are not absolute tells that a company is bad, but if you see one of these things, get some confirmation from people more in the know, like those in the Alt Cannabinoids Discord server.

Horrible web design
You are unable to find a single critical review on their site
No product photos
Brands with especially aggressive branding. “This will melt your nuts off” type thing.
Very unknown lab doing the lab testing
Unknown or not real cannabinoids listed on the box

How Do I Figure Out What Info To Trust?

When it comes to educational materials, the unfortunate truth is there are not a whole lot of good resources out there. One place I’d NEVER take advice from is a website selling cannabinoids. Plenty of companies have set up pages that just so happen to praise their product and fudge the truth a little - or a lot. I’ve seen plenty of pages saying how the fake cannabinoid they made up is actually the best thing since sliced bread. So much of the “information” out there is simply marketing material written by some SEO company who haven’t smoked a damn thing in their lives.

Wikipedia is one place where you can get some more technical answers quickly, but there are obvious hang-ups with Wikipedia, so make sure to check out the cited sources on any info there.

Searching for studies will yield you some results, but parsing through the jargon can be a headache and a half for the uninitiated. I hope to do some “book report” style posts sometime in the future.

My website can help you out on the more subjective side of things. When it comes to what effects a cannabinoid has, how strong it feels, how well it blends, etc. I am not the most scientific fella that ever lived, but when it comes to practical advice about cannabinoids, my site is the place to be.

Finally for all other info, or to ask “hey can I trust this info” the /r/altcannabinoids discord server has your back. There are a bunch of folks in there who are very excited and happy to help new people through their cannabinoid journey - myself included. I’ve learned the majority of what I know about cannabinoids by just hanging out in there all the time.

Should I trust AI answers about cannabinoids?

No. Something to remember about AI is the less you know about a topic the more likely you are to believe bad info it gives you. AI speaks with a lot of confidence that can trick someone who doesn’t know whats what.

If you try it out, it quickly becomes painfully obvious that the AI was trained on the same shitty data thats plaugeing our search engines - most of the info out there about these cannabinoids is from companies trying to sling their product while disgising it as information. This makes the AI practically worthless, as it knows a lot of the jargon but all of the facts are wrong. Maybe this will change in the future, but for now you are stuck with your meaty counterparts, as AI will just feed you bad info that will confuse you more.

Can I use AI for cannabinoid info at all?

Yes! AI, while not at all good for giving you actual answers, works as an amazing tool to search through papers to figure out which one you should read.

You can write a prompt like - “I am trying to learn about how temperature effects THC degradation rates, can you tell me what papers I should read to learn about this?”

Then, you do indeed need to read the paper. Don’t just take the summary the AI gives you. Go in there and find the answer for yourself - you’ll probably learn a thing or two along the way.

Don’t forget to reach out to the folks over at the /r/altcannabinoids discord server as well. Most of us are just sitting around waiting to share knowledge with you.