Steep Hill Lab Launches New Cannabis Testing Technology

By Adam Mintz | Steep Hill Lab

Company CEO, AnnaRae Grabstein, “Steep Hill Lab loves to solve problems. Utilizing available science and technology, with collaborations from the industry, we have created a great solution to the inherent obstacles of cannabis testing and made it readily available to everyone in all compassionate states.”

Steep Hill Lab became the nation’s first medical cannabis screening facility in collaboration with some of the industries stakeholders, when it opened for business in Oakland four years ago.

Now, by utilizing their industry experience and developing innovative software and scientific instrumentation, Steep Hill has significantly improved the ease by which cannabis can be tested for medical use on site.

The QuantaCann System delivers critical information thru scientific analysis and ground-breaking software for cultivators, vendors, and dispensary owners and is now available for all medical cannabis compassionate use states.

Product testing is rapidly becoming a demand by educated patients seeking to understand the strength of a particular product and find the best strains to alleviate their particular medical conditions. Currently, 17 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws to legalize medical marijuana but federal laws prohibit the interstate transportation of the drug even for medical testing.

Faced with these concerns, Steep Hill’s President, co-founder, engineer David Lampach set out to create a solution. After working with a team of national experts in the field, chemists, engineers and programmers for 18 months, Lampach and the Steep Hill Lab team developed QuantaCann, an innovative new approach to cannabis analysis.

QuantaCann combines Near-Infrared Reflective (NIR) spectroscopy and thousands of calibration samples from Steep Hill’s vast database to deliver test results in seconds directly to the provider. The system empowers clients to carry out the analysis themselves. Results are analyzed instantly and remotely using Steep Hill’s powerful centralized computer, solving the challenges of sample transport and turnaround time.

As an added benefit, QuantaCann can post real time strain test results to a provider’sFacebook, Twitter, Sticky Guide or Leafly social media sites and will soon be integrated into various Point of Sale systems including MJFreeway.

Medical cannabis testing with QuantaCann is now available in 3 states. In collaboration with the 2 Beta testing facilities for the past few months including Harborside Health Center in Oakland, CA and Magnolia Wellness in Sacramento, CA, Vice President and Co-Founder Addison DeMoura reports 4 more systems are now in place including iTest in Seattle, WA; Conscious Collective Apothecary in Hopland, CA, the Vapor Room Cooperative in San Francisco, Harborside Health Center San Jose, CA, Elemental Wellness San Jose, CA and Arborside in Ann Arbor, MI.

The experience of the new system is overwhelmingly positive. “We were thrilled to find that we were able to leverage Steep Hill Lab’s experience and time in the industry. Since installing QuantaCann we have received great feedback from the cannabis community on the near instant results. The standard has been raised and we are pleased to be part of it,” said Greta Carter of iTest in Seattle, WA.

One major benefit for medical cannabis providers and patients is being able to instantly identify strains rich in cannabidiol (CBD). CBD is a compound in marijuana that has many beneficial medical effects and counters some of the psychoactive effects caused by tetrahydrocannabidiol (THC).

New CBD strains have already been discovered at beta testing facility Harborside Health Center. (Executive Director Steve DeAngelo is a founding member of Steep Hill Lab.) Strains with high CBD content are preferred by many medical cannabis users as it does not promote the sometimes disconcerting euphoria often associated with marijuana.

The application of NIR technology to medical cannabis testing has never been done before and exemplifies the technological innovation emanating from the industry in this rapidly growing sector. NIR has a long history and is widely used as an analytical tool in the pharmaceutical, food and agricultural industries so it is a logical step for Steep Hill to adapt it specifically for cannabis. Because of QuantaCann it is now possible for providers throughout the nation to provide precise cannabis potency analysis to their patients within seconds.

The QuantaCann software can also generate custom compliance reports which illustrate that regulating the industry or providing oversight is possible. This is exactly the kind of technology that will assist local governments as they move forward in their efforts to oversee the medical cannabis business.