Shawna Vreeke, PhD is Head of Research at True Terpenes, where she is instrumental in developing and maintaining the rigorous safety and quality protocols the brand is known for. Shawna is an active advocate for science-based safety parameters to protect consumer health and has worked with policymakers to implement sensible regulations to protect public health and maintain access to regulated cannabis products. She has multiple peer-reviewed papers on vape safety, and most recently, her work has been adopted into two ASTM global standards.



At CannMed 25 Shawna will present Toxicological Risk in Cannabis Vapes: Exogenous Additives and Their Implications for Consumer Safety. It will highlight specific higher-risk ingredients and identify how prevalent they are in vaporization products currently in the cannabis market. 



During our conversation we discussed: 




The main components of cannabis vape products 



How and why exogenous ingredients are added to vape products



How toxicological risks are evaluated based on hazard and exposure level 



Why one can’t assume that safe food ingredients are also safe for inhalation 



Why risk-assessment based regulations are a better approach to outright bans on flavors



and more 




Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: McKinney RSA 



McKinney is made up of regulatory science veterans who apply lessons learned in the nicotine space to help cannabis manufacturers better understand the toxicological and societal implications of their product.  They do that by Identifying base compounds, extracts, flavors and terpenes, understanding how they interact, and ensuring effectiveness for the intended use. They also provide dosing recommendations and establish guidelines for product consistency. 



Learn more at mckinneyrsa.com 



Additional Resources




True Terpenes website



Connect with Shawna



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Meet the CannMed 25 Speakers and Poster Presenters



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CannMed Archive