At the very start of our conversation, Adeola Odusanya explains that she prefers to say “working in cannatech” [a contraction of cannabis and technology] rather than “working in weedtech” [a contraction of weed and technology]. It sounds less buddy-buddy,” she adds.
Bluhen Solutions is the name of the start-up created by the young engineer. It is currently incubated at the Centre d’entrepreneurship technologique, in Montreal, for a period of two years. The start-up is working on the design of an electronic device to prepare the exact dose of cannabis to be ingested under the tongue by patients, as well as software to track consumption and dosage. A mini-survey will record the patient’s comments on his or her condition.
The founder of Bluhen Solutions wants to collect and analyze this data to help healthcare professionals prescribe the right doses. For example, it could be deduced that a woman aged between 20 and 30, weighing such and such and suffering from such and such an illness needs a dose of between X and Y grams.
At present, there is very little data on cannabis dosage. This lack of data hinders the industry’s progress. “Unlike other medicines, cannabis doesn’t have 20 or 30 years of research behind it, while medical cannabis has only been legal in Canada since 2001,” says the engineer.
Because there’s so little research, doctors don’t know how much cannabis to prescribe a patient,” says Adeola. As a result, patients may be refused a prescription or given too little or too much.
Half of Adeola Odusanya’s days are spent explaining the benefits of cannabis, rather than explaining what she’s trying to achieve with her start-up. “A lot of people still haven’t understood the medical benefits and possibilities,” she says. It’s so much more than a recreational drug. It’s a real health tool!”
She hopes that perception will change once cannabis legalization legislation comes into effect. “The cannabis industry is probably one of the few industries where the law is ahead of society,” Adeola Odusanya drops.
“The cannabis industry is clearly not like artificial intelligence (AI), which everyone wants to work in. There’s no legal framework for AI whereas there is for cannabis, but people are reluctant.” – Adeola Odusanya, founder of start-up Bluehen Solutions.
The young woman came up with the idea of creating Bluhen Solutions while she was a student at McGill University. “We were starting to talk about the legal framework for cannabis in Canada, and I was looking for a business project,” she says. After talking about it around me, I realized how difficult it was to know exactly how much cannabis was in consumer products like cookies. Thinking further, I realized that the problem wasn’t just how much cannabis was in a cookie, but how much cannabis I would need to ingest to get the desired effect.”
Entrepreneurship is said to be about solving problems, and Adeola’s has only just emerged.
Entrepreneurship is highly motivating, but it’s also made up of difficult passages.
“You have to know how to ask for help, and that starts with recognizing that you don’t know everything. Most of the time, I put on a shell and pretend I know how to do everything, but there are also other times when I have no idea.”
Being a woman doesn’t make the task any easier. On the contrary. “As a woman, I have to prove to everyone that I belong here,” Adeola says.
