Canuvo, founded by Glenn Peterson, is one of eight licensed medical marijuana dispensaries in the state of Maine. His wife Sage is the company’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are seed-to-sale vertically integrated,” says Sage Peterson. The company was granted a dispensary license in 2010 and officially opened in 2011 with an accompanying cultivation, processing, and extraction facility located in southern Maine.
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The American Nurses Association believes that access to safe medical marijuana should be an option to customers requesting it, and medical marijuana has been proven to be an effective natural treatment for a number of health conditions. This reality is slowly being acknowledged by the medical profession and customers who are increasingly requesting and obtaining medical marijuana cards throughout the United States.

California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana in 1996. Today, over thirty states and Washington, D.C. have legalization with varying stipulations as to what is allowed – home cultivation only, dispensaries only, or a combination of both. Canuvo is one such highly-regulated dispensary with thirty-three employees. “We’re the last of the original operators left in the last eight years,” says Glenn.

“We have experienced significant growth which has enabled us to expand both our dispensary and cultivation locations,” says Sage, adding that the company can grow product for, “an unlimited number of qualified customers.”

Legal medical marijuana dispensaries can be a viable option to abate the opioid crisis, some studies indicate. Managing chronic pain is only one of the myriad of ways that medical marijuana can prove advantageous.

Sage notes that the State of Maine’s medical marijuana program was, “designed with doctors as the gatekeepers,” and that the law stipulated that the doctor-customer relationship had to be a bona fide one before a medical certificate could be written for, “a defined group of specific conditions. The number of certified customers grew slowly as the medical community struggled with this responsibility. We have a respectful relationship with the medical community as they have witnessed good results for their customers.”

The increase in medical card traffic is the result of the medical community becoming, more comfortable with medical marijuana use. “The other thing too is that doctors were supported by groups like Canna Care Docs,” explains Sage, “which are literally contracted doctor offices that do nothing but review peoples’ medical records to see if they qualify for a certificate. And they’re in multiple states. The normalization of cannabis is growing rapidly,” she adds. “The landscape for this new industry is reshaping every day.”

Canuvo delivering the best in medical marijuana products requires knowledgeable staff members who are familiar with the operating procedures they need within the state-of-the-art facility. The company’s cultivation team comprises those with “both academic distinction and practical experience.”

“Cannabis is an expensive and challenging plant to cultivate,” says Sage. “You need people with a horticulture background to better contribute to plant health and science. But it’s really about the SOPs (standard operating procedures) – the processes, the cleanliness that are put into place, in addition to assiduous grow room procedures.”

Aside from these prerequisites, the company’s staff must, “fit into the corporate culture,” and continue to contribute. “This is agriculture,” says Sage. “This has a life to it – it changes. You need to be able to interpret that.”

Canuvo is looking to build a successful team with the right managers. “In agriculture, if one thing changes, you can change the whole outcome,” she continues. “That’s why the documented procedures become so important. That has been created over the last eight years that we’ve been in business.”

Although Maine does not have mandatory testing for the medical cannabis program, it does have, “the strictest rules in the country in regard to not using anything on the plants,” says Sage. In December 2018, two bills – LD 1539 and LD 1719 – were enacted, changing testing regulations. This will ensure that products sold to the Adult Use market will be free from pesticides, mold, E. coli, toxins, and heavy metals, for example. It is unfortunate that rules regarding testing were not in place for the medical market as these are the individuals who need the most protection.

Although testing is currently voluntary, and Canuvo does testing via an ISO-qualified laboratory. “It will be mandatory by the time adult use is allowed,” says Sage. “If clean practices have not been performed, it will be difficult and unrealistic to expect that traces of any chemicals used prior in a grow room will not be apparent in a lab test for future harvests.”

Laboratory results for a ‘clean’ product “will follow all the way to the consumer,” she says. “If cultivators right now aren’t following the protocol, which is incredibly important for consumer safety, they’re going to be at a loss. I think it’s going to really level out the playing field when people growing cannabis are going to have mandatory testing.”

Canuvo’s products include ten to twenty strains of cannabis along with a huge selection of edibles, tinctures, topicals, and vaporizer pens, depending on customer preference and what proves to be most effective for each person. “People are quite amazed when they come in to see how many different products we have,” says Sage. “We continue to design more products. In 2019, we will probably add a dozen more products to that list.”

She explains that the dispensary experience differs from purchasing from a drugstore where the buyer is at a counter looking through descriptions of products and purchasing from a retailer that may carry cannabis products from other suppliers. “People don’t know what it’s like to be in a dispensary. I have people that get their certificate and don’t come for six months.”

Canuvo does things a little differently, acknowledging that, for some customers, “Buying cannabis legally, for purpose of wellness, is an entirely new experience,” explains Sage. “We look to build long-term relationships with our customers. Our primary goal is to be empathetic and listen. The second goal is to sell products.”

The company has private dispensing rooms where people can discuss prior experience with medical marijuana and determine individual goals. It is an educational experience that lends itself to better purchasing decisions. Customers are also deterred from purchasing too many products at once. “You’re bound to get confused,” affirms Sage. “I’m offering an experience. I’m offering the opportunity for someone to feel safe, trusted, and listened to as they begin to do something which is very new to them,” she says.

“The cannabis industry is one of the most exciting and fastest growing,” areas of the natural health sector, says Sage. The reasons for this are many. “The compounds in the cannabis plant serve numerous healing purposes,” unlike traditional pharmaceuticals focused on a specific symptom that may be the result of another underlying issue.

“Some customers know that cannabis helps them, and some have no idea if it will,” she continues. “We have found that if people keep track of their progress and make subtle adjustments, they can discover the most appropriate dosing options and dial in the dose that best suits them.”

Some customers wish to avoid getting ‘high,’ and do not know that cannabidiol (CBD), a chemical compound in marijuana, is not the only option. Sage explains that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), another chemical compound in marijuana is, “the only cannabinoid that has psychoactive properties. When cannabis is in its raw acid form (THCA) it’s not intoxicating.”

“THC is a much better pain reliever than just CBD,” Glenn says. “What most people don’t realize is that you have to purposely change the raw plant from THCA to THC to make it an intoxicant. For our clients with nerve pain, THCA is preferred for pain relief with the extra benefit of not being psychoactive. We designed our tincture line so that clients can formulate the best ratio for them by determining exactly how much THC, THCA and CBD they need in a dose.”

The conversion from THCA to THC is achieved through a process called decarboxylation. “THCA can be a very beneficial cannabinoid, and customers have reported relief for nerve pain and inflammation,” Sage says. “With knowledge, the customer can use our tinctures to make combinations of cannabinoids that are helpful for them.”

“Inflammation is the baseline of all diseases … the endocannabinoid system (ECS) system is the key part.” Cannabis mimics an endocannabinoid already produced by the body so, “you’re literally supporting your system … You get a better outcome.”

It is important to find what works best for a customer – finding that balance of cannabinoids, terpenes (aromatic oils that provide specialty tastes), and flavonoids which are, “what makes it work for customers – the whole piece, not isolate pieces,” says Sage. Canuvo’s tincture line enables the mixing of different cannabinoids, “to find your dose – what works best for you.”

A tincture solution is very symptom-specific she says and, “is a natural, plant-based medicine. It doesn’t discriminate. It’s looking to support your body, to find the inflammation and the receptors and try to support it, as opposed to remedying one symptom and creating another. It’s a very complete picture.”

Many customers visiting Canuvo’s dispensary do so to learn about the delivery options available to them: respiratory, sublingual, digestive, or topical. The first meeting in the company’s private room for a confidential discussion sometimes does not offer sufficient time for education as to why cannabis may prove helpful.

For this reason, Canuvo’s sister company, Cannabis Adult Education was created, “to deliver helpful information about using cannabis as medicine,” says Sage. “The format is an interactive, hour-long class where participants learn about the science behind cannabinoids, share their stories, and ask questions.”

Although customers are required to be certified to use the dispensary, “You don’t have to be certified to come in and be educated about medicinal cannabis … We create modules based on what people are interested in.” Many customers are interested in learning about medical marijuana for their pets or issues related to women’s health. Canuvo also takes these classes on the road and offers on-line information. “It’s my way of giving back to the community so that people have solid information so that they can make decisions,” states Sage.

Canuvo’s mission is one, “dedicated to supplying eligible patients in Maine with appropriate medical cannabis strains or products at a reasonable cost,” concludes Sage. And it works to create an environment where “patients feel their best interests are considered by our helpful and knowledgeable staff.”