This story is part of our coverage on the future of cannabis in L.A. See the full package here.
A future where the human being behind the counter at your neighborhood dispensary has been replaced by a deep-machine-learning algorithm that uses a sample of your DNA to help you dial in the perfect cannabis high may sound like a far-off pipe dream, but it’s what a handful of biotechnology research companies, including Santa Monica-based Strain Genie and Burbank-based Endocanna Health, are promising in the here and now.
Although both companies have been offering DNA-based cannabis compatibility analysis since 2016 and 2017, respectively, Endocanna Health cofounder and Chief Executive Len May said demand for his firm’s services have spiked in the last year for two reasons. “As more states become legal, more boomers and other people who stopped [consuming cannabis] and want to get back into it, want to avoid having a negative experience,” he said. “In addition to that, the healthcare system’s focus on COVID has made more people turn to bio-hacking to improve their quality of life.”
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To see exactly how the process works — and if artificial intelligence can really help humans build a better buzz — I uploaded my genes into the Matrix. Since I’d uploaded a pre-existing DNA data file (thanks, Ancestry.com!), the results came back almost instantaneously and were a little bit more nuanced and a whole lot more insightful than I’d imagined. You probably have questions — I certainly did — so join me on a double helix adventure and we’ll get some answers.
The process starts by ordering a DNA collection kit (Endocanna and Strain Genie both charge $199; others are similarly priced). Once it arrives, swab the inside of your cheek and send it off in the mail.
If you have access to your raw DNA data report (from a service such as Ancestry.com or 23andMe, for example) and upload that instead, the price drops significantly, to $49.95 for Endocanna and $29.95 for Strain Genie. Once the proprietary algorithms do their thing and generate a report, you’ll be notified through email. My Endocanna report came back less than a minute after upload, and Strain Genie’s results rolled in at about the two-hour mark.
The information in each report and how it’s presented varies from service to service. However, the idea behind all of them is the same: Variations in your genetic makeup can affect how your body interacts with the two most abundant cannabinoids in the cannabis plant THC (responsible for the psychoactive high) and CBD (which isn’t mind-altering but prized for health and wellness benefits). By highlighting these genetic markers and explaining the potential effects, the reports empower clients to make more informed decisions about what they consume, how much they consume and how they consume it.
May stresses that those genetic variations can affect — not necessarily will affect — your body’s reaction because factors such as lifestyle and nutrition also play a role. “Think of this as your genetic blueprint,” May said. “The things that are fixed, like the skin color you’re born with, how tall you’re going to be or male pattern baldness, you can’t change. The other factors are like on-off switches. Your particular lifestyle — what you do — can turn on or turn off those switches.”
Both services try to fill in some of these blanks by encouraging users to fill out optional health surveys. “It’s not critical,” May said about completing the survey, “but it is a pretty important thing.”
After chewing through your genetic predispositions, the budtender bot algorithm spits out information aimed at helping you maximize the cannabis-consumption experience based on whether your goal is alleviating pain, getting geared up for a busy day or drifting off to sleep. Each of the two services I tried served up at least half a dozen options.
When I spoke with May, I mentioned that I’d expected the result to be one option — a single perfect strain that would tick all the boxes — instead of half a dozen. He responded with a knowing chuckle.
“Cannabis is the only industry [where people] say, ‘Tell me what I should take,’ like it’s a magic pill,” he said. “What I would say is: ‘What are you trying to address?’ If you’re not sleeping very well, there’s a formulation for that. If your challenge is [not being able to] focus, there’s a formulation for that. Look at it like NyQuil and DayQuil; you have a nighttime formulation and a daytime formulation.”
Both services frame their suggestions in similar ways. The results from Endocanna Health focus on two characteristics: the ratio of THC to CBD and the terpene profile (terpenes are the aromatic oils that give cannabis strains their distinct flavors) to look for in a product at any dispensary. There’s also an option to click through and purchase specific products that match that criteria.
Here’s what I learned based on my results from Endocanna Health. If my goal is to use cannabis to get a better night’s sleep, I should be on the hunt for a THC-to-CBD ratio that ranges from 1-1 to 5-1 and that has earthy, peppery myrcene as a dominant terpene and linalool as a secondary terpene. (California law requires cannabis packaging to list the amounts of THC and CBD contained in a product. Most brands also include a list of dominant terpenes, so shopping a dispensary should be fairly straightforward. But you can also enlist the aid of a budtender.)
In the Strain Genie report, an overall ratio and terpene profile is suggested based on genotype (mine is a 2-5 ratio with beta-caryophyllene or alpha-humulene as primary terpenes and limonene or alpha-pinene as secondary terpenes), with specific strains or products served up for each activity category. If I turned to Strain Genie to help me get a better night’s sleep, the strain that tops the list of suggestions is the myrcene-dominant Kosher Kush.
Getting a good night’s sleep is all well and good, but how does wading into your own gene pool help you maximize your marijuana moments, specifically? The short answer is by looking at the genes responsible for metabolizing. Some insight can be gleaned in the reports’ drug-metabolism analysis, which looks at variants in some of the genes responsible for metabolizing THC and CBD.
Based on the state of my CYP2C9 and CYP3A4 genes, for example, Endocanna considers me a normal metabolizer of THC. What this means (beyond making my mom proud, I suppose) is that I’m not as genetically prone as a poor metabolizer might be to getting uncomfortably out-of-control high while ingesting THC. However, Endocanna’s algorithm flagged that I have at least one genetic marker associated with being a poor metabolizer of the cannabinoid CBD, resulting in a suggestion to steer clear of CBD-only products.
In addition, the report generated by Strain Genie, which highlighted the same genetic variant, suggested limiting my edibles intake for this reason. (These genetic differences, which can affect how the liver metabolizes THC, are one of the reasons some people do OK with THC edibles and others don’t.)
Anyone turning to these services just to hone their high will likely be surprised at how much additional health and wellness information is packed in.
Through Endocanna’s analysis, I now know that I’ve got genetic variants associated with an increased risk of developing a vitamin D deficiency, sleep deficiency, seasonal mood problems and (gulp) schizophrenia after chronic THC use. Some of these genetic predispositions (like the potential for iron deficiency, for example) are highlighted for informational purposes, while others, like potential opioid sensitivity or bruxism, the grinding or clenching of teeth, come with cannabis-related suggestions. Although there’s a big difference between simply having the genetic markers and expressing the traits (a fact the Endocanna Health report reiterates throughout its reports), having it all framed in an easy-to-read, color-coded chart (green means no genetic variant, yellow means one and red means more than one genetic variant present) means you’ll definitely be approaching your next encounter with cannabis in a whole new light.
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Each entry in the Endocanna Health report (whether a genetic variant is detected or not) includes a link to at least one published scientific study (the section on THC dosing links to a study published in 2019 titled “The Potential for Pharmacokinetic Interactions Between Cannabis Products and Conventional Medications,” for example). “We made a rule early on that each [entry] must have a peer-reviewed reference,” May said. “And the deep-learning AI algorithms we built go out [on the internet] and look for studies, pull them into our system, and then our science team determines if it should be added” as a reference. The result is that even if people who have had their DNA analyzed can’t parse the dense language of the linked references, they get the distinct impression it’s backed by science. But is it?
“It absolutely is,” said Dr. Uma Dhanabalan, a Cambridge, Mass.-based physician who serves as the medical director of the American Journal of Endocannabinoid Medicine , a publication that focuses on the scientific study of how cannabis interacts with the human body. “But genetic testing is just the starting point. It’s just one piece of it. What are you going to do with that information? This is just one piece of the puzzle.” Dhanabalan added that such reports’ wider focus on cannabis in the health and wellness space has the added benefit of further destigmatizing its use.
“You don’t need to use this as medicine,” she said, “but you probably know somebody who will be able to benefit from it. ... Ultimately, this will open doors for a better doctor-patient relationship.”
If the idea of uploading your DNA to the cloud gives you pause, May said you’re not alone. “I want to be really clear about this, because it’s a huge, huge question,” he said. “We collect data — we absolutely collect data — but the data is fully anonymized, and you’re given an encryption key that we don’t know so we can’t correlate that data with a specific person. We’re fully HIPAA complaint.” Also, data aren’t used for any other purposes or sold or shared elsewhere, he added.
Strain Genie similarly addresses the privacy issue upfront. “Your raw data is uploaded to your secure servers and used only once to generate your report before it is archived,” reads the privacy notice on its website. “We do not sell your data and do not submit your genetic information to any databases.”
Given that the resulting reports are, as Dhanabalan and Endocanna’s May point out, simply the first step in fine-tuning the cannabis consumption experience and that any suggestions will only cut down on but not replace old-school trial-and-error toking, is it worth it? While the price tag is certainly much lower — and therefore, the justification much easier — if you are able to upload your raw DNA data, even the $199 cost seems like a good investment for anyone hoping to responsibly integrate cannabis into their greater health-and-wellness regimen and willing to put in the effort. However, if the goal is purely recreational in nature — as in trying to find one mythical unicorn strain to ride off into the sunset with — the money would probably be better spent on buying as many different cannabis strains and products as possible (and taking lots of notes along the way).
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In addition to highlighting already existing products that match Endocanna’s ratio-terpene pairings, May said the biotechnology research company has licensed its formulations to California cannabis-product manufacturer Sunderstorm, which earlier this year launched a line of tinctures based on them — complete with the slogan “tailored to your DNA” printed on the box.
Although he said the true future of the cannabis industry won’t begin to take shape until national prohibition ends (despite being legal in a handful of states, cannabis remains illegal at the federal level), May thinks personalization of products will be a big part of it. “I believe we’re going to have indication-specific products for specific people with [specific] genotypes,” he said. “The same way that I take my personalized vitamins and my personalized nutrients based on my DNA, I’ll take my supplement cannabinoids as well.”
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