With cannabis legalization just around the corner, one Canadian company is calling for the inclusion of cannabis concentrates in Bill C-45, the so-called “Cannabis Act.”

Josh Campbell, president of cannabis company Dosist Canada, says in omitting concentrates from legalization, consumers are being denied a method for consistent delivery of THC and CBD — the two most commonly sought-after drugs contained in the cannabis plant.

“When we talk about dose, we’re talking about a controlled, repeatable experience,” Campbell told StarMetro in an email. “Without that. you lose predictability and control – the cornerstones of a safe and therapeutic experience. Dose control is critical for responsible use.”

Campbell and Dosist recently began a campaign — called “Not Available in Canada” — to encourage Canadians to apply political pressure in favour of expediting legalization of dose-controlled products like concentrates.

Cannabis edibles, another class of products for which dose-control is easier to achieve, will also remain illegal after Oct. 17 — the date recreational cannabis is set to become legal.

Cannabis, like any plant, may express its chemical properties in unpredictable ways even when grown under consistent conditions, said Campbell. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) content can vary between plants, or between generations of plants. A consumer who has one experience with a particular cannabis strain may find she has a different experience with that same strain at a later date.

“You need to process the plant to consistently get the same amount of active ingredients,” he said. “By not allowing concentrates you’re denying consumers a chance to have a controlled experience.”

M-J Milloy, a research scientist with the BC Centre on Substance Use, studies the effects of cannabis on people living with HIV/AIDS or addiction.

“The dose makes the poison,” he said, referring to an old maxim expressing the idea that any substance can overwhelm a biological system in high-enough concentrations.

Milloy agreed that the cannabis plant can be tough to pin down.

While cannabis contains many compounds, he said, research done to date has tended to focus on THC, the dominant, psychoactive chemical the plant expresses. This has led to some conflation of the plant with that particular substance. From the perspective of pharmacology and epidemiology, he says, “there’s no such thing as cannabis.”

And cannabis research in general is still in its infancy, he said. Scientists have long struggled with federal red tape that makes it hard to access to the plant for research. For example, a researcher who wants to obtain cannabis for human trials must obtain a section 56 exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act — the same exemption permitting possession of heroin and cocaine for research purposes.

This has meant that data on the effects of cannabis has been largely anecdotal until recently, when the legal cannabis industry began pouring funding and other resources into research projects.

So while Milloy feels monitoring dosage of cannabis-related drugs is important, he urged caution in imagining particular dosages can provide particular effects.

“People should tread carefully,” he said.

On the flip side, he said, none of the active substances in cannabis is thought to produce fatal overdose, and any of the undesirable effects that might occur from taking too much tend not to last all that long.

And Milloy said that, as the science behind cannabis becomes deeper and more broad, technologies which allow for selection and delivery of specific types of cannabis and their substances will ultimately benefit users.

“The conversation a lot of us (researchers) come back to … as we do clinical trials to assess the utility of cannabis is the question of dose,” he said.