feature
Given that almost 20 million Americans aged 12 and up reported marijuana
use in 2013 (7.5% of this population group)—and that one in five Americans
now lives in a state that has legalized recreational cannabis—it seems likely
that more state and local laboratories will be tasked with some form of
cannabis oversight and will need supplemental funding to accommodate
this work.
Jahan Marcu, PhD, chief science officer for Americans for Safe Access—an
advocacy group pushing for greater availability of cannabis for therapeutic use
and research—said, “Patients have a right to have medicine of known purity
and quality.”
Marcu, who is also chief auditor for a nonprofit, third party certification
program for the medical cannabis industry, said, “It is time for us to look at
all available research and to have an adult conversation about cannabis as
a medicine. We have the standards documents and we have the ability to
regulate this product.”
In 2014, the American Herbal Products Association published its own standards
for cannabis business operations. And in February, the American Society
for Testing and Materials (ASTM) announced that it would be developing
voluntary, international standards for cannabis farming, quality management
systems, laboratory testing, processing, security and personnel practices.
Already, many accrediting groups, including A2LA and the ANSI-ASQ National
Accreditation Board, offer external assessments of medical marijuana-testing
laboratories to ISO/IEC 17025 standards.
Jeremy Applen, vice chair of the ASTM Cannabis Standards Committee, said,
“I think it would be very difficult for the US to try to take away this industry.”
He noted that Israel is already a global leader in medical cannabis research
and that Canada, Germany, Uruguay, Australia and Chile either have a
cannabis program or are in the process of developing one.
Applen said, “I think the future is looking really good for the cannabis industry,
and as that growth occurs, I think there will be big changes around cannabis
testing. ... Labs providing testing for pharmaceutical or dietary supplement
companies will start to bring cannabis testing on-line as well. That speaks to
the need for standardization across the industry.”
Last August, the DEA denied a petition to remove cannabis from the list of
Schedule I drugs. It was the fourth denial.
PublicHealthLabs
@APHL
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Spring 2017 LAB MATTERS
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