Releaf, The Medical Cannabis App That’s Out To Change The World

Releaf is a brand new app that’s setting its sights on changing everything about the world of medical cannabis.

The app was invented by a group of successful software developers who saw a way to use their expertise to revolutionize how patients use their medicine.

Releaf co-founders Franco Brockelman, Branden Hall, and Keenan Keeling ran a software consultancy for ten years before taking their skills into the cannabis industry.

“I have the fervor of a convert,” said Hall. “The more I talk to people at dispensaries, the more I speak to our users, the more I realize that what I was taught about cannabis was wrong.”

“Cannabis is powerful medicine. And we want to help get it to more people.”

That passion drives everything about Releaf, from the kinds of things it’s capable of doing to its super sleek user interface.

Here’s how the Releaf app works

A medical marijuana patient just downloads the app and each time they medicate they record what Releaf calls “feels.” 

“Feels” are a way of tracking all aspects of a cannabis user’s experience. They include everything from pain relief to the intensity of a high to whether a strain energizes them or makes them feel couch locked to the munchies and everything in between.

With each and every puff a patient takes, they select from some Emoji-looking icons to track their reaction to the cannabis.

The app then rolls this data up into highly personalized reports. This information can help a patient figure out which strains are the most effective and what types of experiences they can expect when they medicate.

Patients can use this data to help them pinpoint precise doses. They can also use it when they talk to their doctors.

“What we have right now in medical cannabis is a lot of anecdotes but little data,” said Hall.

“We’re trying to get data; we want numbers. The whole idea of Releaf is to allow people to explore cannabis and to find out what works for their particular needs. The app lets patients track their experiences and then turn it into actionable data.”

But the app doesn’t just let individual patients monitor and fine tune their medication experiences.

It goes one step further by combining information from all app users to start building up detailed data about medical cannabis as a whole.

But don’t worry, the guys at Releaf have made the app with security in mind. The program is highly encrypted, and all data is thoroughly anonymized.

According to Brockelman, Hall, and Keeling, the aggregated data compiled by Releaf could be one of the most compelling aspects of the new program.

That’s because research into medical cannabis has been very slow. Even today there’s just not a lot of large-scale data or sustained efforts to look at the ways marijuana is used by actual patients.

The Releaf crew thinks their app can help address those gaps.

“Aggregated data is the most valuable part of this because it’s going to be useful to growers, to dispensaries, and hopefully, it’s helpful to doctors and scientists,” said Brockelman.

“For decades we haven’t been able to learn anything about this plant, and it’s a crime. We want to help bootstrap what the world can learn about this.”

Releaf is about to launch the test run of its beta version. Anyone who wants to check it out can sign up at Releaf’s website.

After the beta trial run, the developers plan to make the full app available for free download later this summer.