Ever wonder if there’s a strain for that? The science behind medical marijuana has been all but blocked by it’s Schedule I status under the Controlled Substances Act, but that can’t stop developers of the Releaf cannabis app from testing their technology on humans.
Their wellness app is still in the testing phase, currently being used by a group of 125 people who signed up on their iOS beta version and have recorded health data from over 450 sessions last week alone.
“We’ve found that we can gather a lot more feedback, quickly, with a hands on approach,” said Franco Brockelman, co-founder of Releaf.
So, in addition to their ongoing beta test that began earlier this month, Releaf wants to test some users in a controlled setting “to better understand usability of the application, how it can be improved, and flush out any edge-case bugs that may still be in the current version,” according to Releaf. Equipment such as water pipes, vaporizers, and organic hemp rolling papers will be provided along with a free gram of lab-tested cannabis.
This cannabis patient focus group is possibly the first of its kind. “This is uncharted territories for commercial entities because of the laws,” said Franco. Based in Washington, D.C. the software company, MoreBetter Ltd., plans to legally conduct human trials, in-line with local D.C. law, by hosting the group of 21+ age users in a private home.
The mission of Releaf is to treat specific ailments and symptoms, or unwanted feelings, the user is experiencing with personalized reports to help the patient figure out which strain is the best medication with aggregate data collected from users of the Releaf software.
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Releaf is encouraging people in the Washington Metro area to apply if they are over the age of 21 and meet these specific criteria:
- Each patient must have an iPhone 4s or later with iOS 9.0 or later installed.
- Each patient must have an identifiable symptom they’d like to treat with cannabis.
- No medicating 24 hours prior to session to lower the patient’s tolerance level and increase potential feedback.
- Patients must sign a medical waiver prior to testing.
- Medicating methods will be limited to smoking & vaping for this group.
The software company behind the Releaf app is cautiously optimistic as they abide by all local laws. “We believe this is the first time ever to do live patient focus group testing with cannabis in a legal state to improve a technology in the industry,” said Franco. It’s uncharted territory – a collaboration of technology, medicine, and cannabis.
The session will be a 2 hours long focus group session at a private location in D.C. with ten patients on May 21, 2016 and will be supervised by a doctor. Applicants from the Washington Metropolitan area can apply for the trial here.
