SBIR-STTR Award

1.a. The proposed project will address a critical public health challenge: developing technology that can help the cannabis industry, law enforcement, and regulators with addressing the growing black market for cannabis products via online platforms. While many states have now legalized medical and recreational use of cannabis, others continue to strictly regulate or prohibit its use. This has led to confusion and lack of policy coherence, creating opportunities for unscrupulous providers to divert or sell unregulated, adulterated, and otherwise unsafe cannabis products via the Internet. This issue is further complicated by new and emerging cannabis products with unknown and questionable safety that can be marketed and sold directly to consumers on popular online platforms, including social media, e-commerce sites, and the dark web. In response, this project will utilize advances in big data, machine learning, and data visualization to establish a multiplatform detection and compliance system to identify, classify, and report illegal online cannabis sales with the aim of enabling digital prevention and harm reduction. The system will develop a digital database that cross-references state licensure information for compliance checking and identifying specific violating online sellers to prevent customer exposure and associated health harms. This novel approach will enable the development of a robust end-to-end automated cannabis product online monitoring and compliance solution needed to ensure the future viability and integrity of the legitimate U.S. cannabis market. The project has the following project aims: Milestone 1: Establish dedicated data collection protocols for multiple social media channels, major cannabis e-commerce platforms, and dark web marketplaces, filtered for cannabis product and consumption-related keywords (M1: Create a multiplatform data collection system and database for cannabis products and sellers) Milestone 2: Develop sufficient training data and machine learning algorithms to identify and classify illegal cannabis sellers with high precision and efficiency (M2: develop a suite of algorithms and conduct model evaluation) Milestone 3: Build data visualization tools and compliance solutions with specific end user feedback to create a customizable front-end, web hosted data dashboard that enables detection and automated reporting of illegal sellers (M3: Create an MVP based on needs of customer segments and conduct business hypothesis testing) This project will fill existing gaps in illicit cannabis research and innovation through the development of a customizable and cost-efficient tool to improve the identification, detection, and reporting of unregulated and illegal cannabis sales to ensure the integrity of the legal cannabis supply chain and protect consumers.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
1.b. NARRATIVE. Cannabis, i.e., marijuana, is the most used drug substance in the United States, yet the illicit black market for cannabis-derived products continues to dominate sales in states where it is now legalized. Lack of policy coherence on cannabis legalization has led to unregulated new product introduction and illegal sales on the Internet, introducing the potential for consumer harm and threatening the business viability of legitimate and licensed cannabis providers. In response, the proposed project will leverage advanced methods in big data, machine learning, and data visualization to develop a multiplatform compliance solution to detect and report illegal online sellers of cannabis products. Terms: Algorithms; AI system; Computer Reasoning; Machine Intelligence; Artificial Intelligence; Cannabidiol; Cannabinoids; Systematics; Classification; Confusional State; Mental Confusion; Confusion; Dangerousness; Darkness; Data Collection; Dedications; Feedback; Flooding; Floods; Future; Health; Industry; Licensure; Marijuana; marihuana; Marketing; Methods; Public Health; Recreation; Research; Risk; Safety; Sales; Technology; Testing; Tetrahydrocannabinol; 9-ene-Tetrahydrocannabinol; Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol; delta(1)-THC; delta(1)-Tetrahydrocannabinol; delta(9)-THC; delta(9)-Tetrahydrocannabinol; Δ(1)-THC; Δ(1)-tetrahydrocannabinol; Δ(9)-THC; Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol; Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol; Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol; United States; Vendor; Voting; Work; Measures; Police; Businesses; Hemp; Law Enforcement; evaluation/testing; improved; Site; Medical; Ensure; Chemicals; Evaluation; Training; Data Bases; data base; Databases; Licensing; Opiates; Opioid; Policies; drug use; Drug usage; Funding; WWW; web; world wide web; Internet; tool; machine based learning; Machine Learning; Protocol; Protocols documentation; System; Services; American; experience; success; novel; Harm Reduction; Harm Minimization; Prevention; Reporting; Regulation; Modeling; Property; response; Cannabis; Provider; prevent; preventing; Legal; Address; Data; Detection; National Institute of Drug Abuse; NIDA; National Institute on Drug Abuse; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; SBIR; Small Business Innovation Research; Monitor; Development; developmental; virtual; digital; novel strategies; new approaches; novel approaches; novel strategy; Visualization software; visualization tool; cost efficient; Consumption; innovation; innovate; innovative; 12 year old; 12 years of age; age 12 years; twelve year old; twelve years of age; web-enabled; e-commerce; ecommerce; internet commerce; commercialization; Medical Marijuana; Medicinal Marijuana; medical cannabis; medicinal cannabis; therapeutic cannabis; therapeutic marijuana; Big Data; BigData; marijuana legalization; cannabis legalization; legal marijuana; legalized cannabis; legalized marijuana; data visualization; marijuana use; THC co-use; THC use; Tetrahydrocannabinol co-use; Tetrahydrocannabinol use; cannabis use; social media; dashboard; machine learning algorithm; machine learned algorithm; machine learning based algorithm; detection platform; detection system; Cannabis retail; cannabis market; cannabis marketplace; marijuana retail; sell cannabis; sell marijuana; Cannabis policy; Cannabis law; cannabis regulation; cannabis use law; cannabis use policy; marijuana law; marijuana policy; supply chain