How this one App could provide a wealth of data on cannabis consumption
How much cannabis do you really smoke per week? How much per month? What is the total cost of your cannabis consumption? How effective was a strain for a specific symptom? All of these questions are incredibly valuable for consumers and cannabis companies alike.
While we have more research on cannabis than ever before, there is still one particular area of knowledge we don’t have a lot of information on – consumption habits. We always refer to generalized data points based on surveys but surveys aren’t that reliable.
A survey can change based merely on how much sleep a person had the day before, the event that occurred immediately before the survey was taking, the type of language used within the questionnaire and so forth. It gives us a pretty good “ballpark estimation” but it does not provide accurate data.
One cannabis entrepreneur, Stephanie Karasick, aims to solve this problem. Her app, “Strainprint App” sets out to create a personalized consumption journal to track not only the type of strain you consume but also how it makes you feel after consuming and many more data points.
How Stephanie came up with the app
Stephanie lost her brother in 1978 and as a result, suffered from severe depression and anxiety. After seeking professional help, she was introduced to the “pharmaceutical relief” via anti-anxiety medication and anti-depressives. As with many, the pills didn’t sit well with Stephanie, who after many different attempts, was recommended cannabis by her psychiatrist.
She was inspired to record her progress and did so in a small journal. She would write down as many data points she could that was relevant to her, such as strain and product. After using her Fitbit, she realized that there was not really a software solution to tracking this kind of data.
She started creating a prototype which was very well-received, and sub-sequentially developed the app that you can download today. The finalized version of the app did not just track your consumption, but also provides information as well as insight to the community consumption habits. All of the data is encrypted when stored, ensuring that the personalized information of the users is kept safe.
One of the biggest features of the app is the Session Tracker section. This element essentially will allow you to select the “reason” why you are consuming cannabis, the strain and your condition (for medical purposes). After a while, the app will send you a notification to ask how you feel “Post session” and record this data. This allows patients to see the history of their consumption as well as how effective each strain was in treating specific symptoms.
What the app does in a nutshell
The app comes with several different features you can use including;
Session Tracker – This will create a profile based on all of your old sessions and will show which strains and products were most effective based on the history of sessions.
Session History – You can have a quick overview of all your past sessions and a neatly compiled view of the data you have generated.
Personal Log – Your personal logbook can be shared with your physician, healthcare provider, and therapist, to help create a clear path to how effective the treatment is.
Learn and Compare – You can use your personal data to see which strains and sessions were most effective, allowing you to make easier decisions based on actionable data.
Strainpoints – You accumulate these to be able to use them for products and other features on the app.
Community and Resources – Gain access to the entire community and compare your performance history with others willing to share. You can also find groups and resources to expand your knowledge or find support.
What these types of apps can do for the industry
While there are certainly many medical benefits to these types of apps, the data on consumer behavior is also incredibly important. Understanding exactly how much the average cannabis consumer smokes on a daily, weekly or monthly time frame is gold in the hands of producers. Knowing which strains are preferable, which ones are more effective for which conditions also creates an environment where specialized growers can focus their crops.
While humanity might have been consuming cannabis since the dawn of civilization, we haven’t kept track of our consumption habits. Not to mention that cannabis affects people differently. These kinds of apps allow us to take a peek under the hood and understand the relationship between human and plant on a deeper level.
While Strainprint isn’t the only app of its kind on the market, Marijuana Doctors created something similar, it does involve the consumer within the market in a way that makes the experience personal. Over time, these kinds of apps will help create new strains based on actual data generated by real consumers in real-time – that is an exciting reality.
BEST WEED APPS, READ THESE...
BEST WEED APPS AND HANGOUTS FOR CANNABIS FANS
OR..
