Lift, CCIC to Develop Scientifically Valid, Independent Training for Cannabis Retailers

Lift is pleased to announce a partnership with the non-profit Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids (CCIC) for Canada’s first nonpartisan cannabis retail training certification program, Lift Certification. This new agreement will see the CCIC developing several of the program’s exclusive education modules, which are intended to equip frontline retail staff with the neutral and necessary knowledge to effectively and safely sell cannabis and related derivatives once federal legalization is adopted later this year.
Lift Certification was born out of Lift’s extensive operational experience in the cannabis industry and unique access to comparative product-level data. Leveraging its expertise, Lift is developing a modular training program that will be fully customizable to the needs of each province’s cannabis retail distribution model. Lift Certification was first announced in November 2017 in partnership with MADD Canada, whereby the national advocacy group would develop and administer exclusive modules of the Lift curriculum.
“The CCIC is committed to ensuring scientific accuracy of educational content and has been involved in medical cannabinoid educational activities for over 10 years,” says Dr. Mark Ware, Executive Director of the CCIC. “We welcome this partnership with Lift to develop the necessary training materials around cannabis to ensure that Canadian cannabis consumers are informed by accurate and up to date scientific information.”
The CCIC will review, research, produce and/or administer key Lift Certification materials for a range of topics, such as: cannabis testing; endocannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system; uses and research of cannabis; applicable policy and marketing considerations; and public health and harm reduction.
“The CCIC and its world-renowned medical and scientific experts will lead the development of specific modules within the Lift Certification program,” says Matei Olaru, CEO of Lift. “Working alongside the CCIC ensures we are able to provide the most authoritative and objective educational content.”
With 10 cannabis education centers across the country already, as well as its Lift.co product marketplace – the world’s only database of federally-legal cannabis products and their consumer-reported effects and usages – Lift is the nation’s leader in cannabis information.
"Beyond authoritative and nonpartisan information, retailers and regulators want to ensure that retail staff are trained in comparative product-specific knowledge about effects and durations in a standardized way across all locations. The standardization of such novel knowledge, expanding at this rate and at this scale, is impossible without a proven solution like Lift’s, which has already been subscribed to by several private cannabis retail RFP applicants,” says Lift CEO Matei Olaru.
The Lift Certification is a highly-customizable turnkey solution and gives each subscribing retailer access to Lift’s proprietary product-level data during training and at the point of sale. With training set to deploy Spring 2018, Lift is currently taking customization requests from retailers looking to be fully prepared come recreational cannabis legalization later this year. Interested parties are asked to contact Lift directly for more information.