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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Partners to Sell Pot Sensors

Bill Wittmeyer at Electronic Sensor Technology Inc. is gearing up to get back into the cannabis game. The Newbury Park company tried to break into the medical marijuana industry a few years ago by selling its chemical sensors for testing on plants, but the products failed to get any traction. What’s different this time around? For one, the number of potential customers has expanded with the legalization of recreational marijuana in California, arguably the country’s largest market for pot. Better yet, the company brought aboard US Nuclear Corp. in Canoga Park, which has created a whole new sales division to get Electronic Sensor’s equipment into the hands of cannabis companies and others who need chemical testing. In May, US Nuclear signed an agreement with Electronic Sensor to sell the chemical sniffers known as zNose on a non-exclusive basis worldwide. Both companies cater to homeland security, worker safety and environmental monitoring clients. “They have some reach into a number of places that we have not been to,” said Wittmeyer, Electronic Sensor’s chief executive. “It has the potential to be a very complementary relationship.” Testing for what? Robert Goldstein, chief executive of US Nuclear, said that so far, the company has not sold any of the zNose detectors to cannabis growers or dispensaries. Later this month, the company will exhibit at its first trade show, the Cannabis World Congress and Business Exhibition at the Los Angeles Convention Center. In creating the new sales division, Goldstein hired Chief Chemist Detwan Robinson. While hiring more sales staff may happen in the future, as of now the company is using its current salesforce to get the zNose out to customers, Goldstein said, adding, “(Robinson) is also out on the streets selling it.” US Nuclear has three subsidiaries: Technical Associates in Canoga Park, which makes radiation detection equipment; Overhoff Technologies in Milford, Ohio, which specializes in tritium detection equipment; and Electronic Control Concepts, also in Milford, which makes voltmeters to check industrial and medical X-ray machines. US Nuclear is a publicly traded company on the over-the-counter market. Goldstein is the majority shareholder in the company. Electronic Sensor Technology, on the other hand, is a private company. It puts out four models of its zNose detection instrument capable of analyzing an odor or vapor in seconds. The machines cost between $25,000 and $46,500, depending on features. Wittmeyer said that Electronic Sensor will produce about 40 zNose this year. Next year, that number could triple. The zNose uses gas chromatography, in which a gas moves the sample tested through a metal or glass column and breaks it down into component compounds. Gas chromatography has been found to be among the most reliable methods to determine cannabis potency, according to a 2011 study by California NORML, a San Francisco nonprofit dedicated to lobbying for marijuana legalization. But Dale Gieringer, state coordinator for California NORML, said that gas chromatography equipment is not easy to use. “You really need professional training in chemistry to operate them,” Gieringer said. “You can hire a technician to do it.” Cannabis is tested for herbicides, pesticides, molds, heavy metals and other toxic substances. Wittmeyer said that testing THC levels to determine the potency of the pot is not as important as it used to be. The market now has shifted to wanting to test the terpene profile of cannabis. Terpenes are the compound that gives cannabis its scent and are also found in oils derived from it. “We do a very good job of detecting and measuring and quantifying the patterns of terpenes,” Wittmeyer said. Complementary customers When Goldstein approached Wittmeyer about selling the zNose to the cannabis market as well as to defense and homeland security agencies, Wittmeyer said he was open to it. “If you have the access to these customers and we tie in with your distribution channel into the defense work for homeland security applications, good, let’s work it out,” Wittmeyer recalled saying to Goldstein. The cannabis market is one of significant value for US Nuclear and Electronic Sensor, especially since starting in January the state began to phase in a testing regiment for all cannabis sold in California – both medicinal and recreational. That has led to a shortage of testing companies in the state, said CalNORML’s Gieringer. It is causing a bottleneck in the supply chain, he added. “There are a lot of questions about the reliability of various kinds of tests because this kind of testing is not something the government could validate or authenticate for all these years because of the government’s own rules handcuffing people who wanted to actually do tests on marijuana,” Gieringer said. Nicole Laggner, an attorney in the Santa Cruz office of cannabis law firm Clark & Neubert, said that the going rate for full testing is about $1,500 per sample. That makes it an expensive proposition, she added. “If you are a small business, a cultivator say that has a lot of different strains, it can be difficult because you need to have each strain tested,” Laggner said. But some retailers and manufacturers of cannabis products such as edibles and oils can get around that by doing what is known as an R&D test. While not required, it allows those businesses to know the quality of the products early in the process. “The manufacturers want to see an R&D test before they purchase the flower or cannabis product that they are going to turn into another product,” she said. Electronic Sensor is completely relying on US Nuclear for marketing zNose to the cannabis industry. It plans to support the sales process by making detectors available for trade shows and its people available to answer questions for potential customers. “We will reach out through Bob and see if the market opportunity is real, if people are going to invest or if they are just (all talk),” Wittmeyer said. Wittmeyer said Electronic Sensor’s main focus is getting the zNose into the market for breath analysis to screen for cancer and other diseases. “We are directing our energy in that area,” he added. “That precludes having energy to direct into the marijuana field to the level that we did about four years ago.” Using breath analysis can eliminate unnecessary mammograms and the uncomfortable process that they involve as well as not exposing women to ionized radiation, Wittmeyer said. “You have to be as accurate or even more accurate than the mammogram,” Wittmeyer said.

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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