Officials from the federal, state, and local levels have approved two new marijuana items that will be added to a federal guidebook. These are intended to serve as model standards in terms of cannabis definitions, packaging, labeling, and best practices for storing marijuana flower to prevent moisture loss.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives and House of Delegates of the National Conference on Weights and Measures’ (NCWM) bicameral Conference passed the marijuana propositions that were proposed by the Laws and Regulations Committee (L&R). The package required 27 votes to pass, and it received 33.
NCWM previously approved several cannabis-related amendments to federal guidelines by the National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST) as part of its annual meeting last year. Some items, such as those discussed at this week’s conference, were left for further consideration.
Michael Bronstein said that in a Wednesday statement, the American Trade Association of Cannabis and Hemp’s (ATACH) president had stated in the past “that the vote is the most historic in terms of cannabis standards and the culmination of ATACH’s pioneering calls in 2014 for industry-wide standards.”
He said: “This means that state and federal regulators are going to use the material that ATACH members developed through the ASTM International standard process as universal cannabis standards, which will be referenced by the NIST Handbook.” It is almost certain that the standards developed by ATACH through this pipeline will be used by state regulators, and ultimately by the federal government. Standards are essential to the legitimate cannabis trade, uniformity of regulations across jurisdictions and maintaining public health and safety for consumers. Today is monumental.”
A measure adopted would define cannabis as:
” Cannabis, is a genus, which includes Cannabis indica, ruderalis, as well as any hybridization. This definition includes products containing 0.3 percent or less Total Delta-9 Tetrahydrocannabinol THC (also called Hemp), and products containing more than 0.3 % Total Delta-9 THC.
The guideline also proposes basic requirements for labeling cannabis products. Under the guideline, such items must capitalize and italicize ” Cannabis ” as well as indicate that the product “Contains 0.3% or more Total Delta-9-THC” or “Contains greater than 0.3% Total.”
It also states that the side or back panel of cannabis packaging should include “a statement of the labeled amount per serving or application.” With a specific that “the cannabinoid volume declaration shall be expressed in milligrams.” This policy will go into effect on January 1, 2025.
Charlie Rutherford is co-chairman of the NCWM Cannabis Task Group. He told Marijuana Moment that “the reason behind it all is to allow consumers to understand what they’re purchasing–clearly stated what’s inside and how much,” he said. “That’s obvious fairness.”
The NIST Handbook also adopted a change that would require water activity rules to be followed for bulk cannabis sales.
states that “when unprocessed Cannabis is kept, exposed, or offered for sale or sold, bartered or exchanged, ownership transfers or water activity shall equal 0.60 (+/- 0.05)”.
It says that for bulk sales of liquid cannabis, the “reference temperature for measurement” is 33 degC. The temperature of the product must be within +/- 2 degC (or 5 degF) It is illegal to artificially heat liquids above the limits specified.
Rutherford stated, “I am thrilled that NCWM was able to have the vision five year ago to explore the harmonization of cannabis methods of sales and packaging and labeling laws. This has resulted into the first national recognized regulations ensuring fairness for every transaction.” “I am grateful that NIST is willing to publish the NCWM standards within their handbooks.”
The two earlier proposals were defeated by only two votes at the NCWM’s annual meeting last year. Rutherford stated that the cannabis taskforce spent this round “helping [them] understand what it meant and what it didn’t.”
He said that the fact that more states have medical or recreational programs is part of the success of this year. “But I think it could also be because of a little more comfort with the topic,” he added.
Rutherford explained that even states without adult or medical hemp programs are acknowledging that they have a program and that it is applicable there. They also want them to pass, so that other states and their friends can use these as models.
The interim meeting of the conference in January did not grant voting rights to another proposed cannabis change that was made by the Specifications and Tolerances Committee. The item under development would set “uniform scale suitability standards” for cannabis, which could be used “to strengthen each jurisdiction’s capability to regulate the industry effectively and in an equitable manner.”
The Conference approved the other two cannabis measures, despite initial pushback by NIST’s Office of Weights and Measures. In an Analysis it stated that it “recognizes this work and progress made so far by the [taskforce]” but that “there are still some significant issues to be addressed before the adoption of this block of items.”
NIST’s OWM expressed concerns over the proposed date of implementation, questioned whether a definition for cannabis was necessary, and suggested, for instance, an expansion of scope for the water activity requirement measure.
The NIST has investigated marijuana-related issues separately and developed testing standards .
In 2020, the federal institute announced that it would launch a cannabis-testing program in order to ensure that products purchased from retailers and dispensaries were accurately labeled.
In 2021 the agency will also invite labs to take part in a large scale study, to evaluate their ability to accurately analyse marijuana and hemp samples to determine their cannabinoid profiles and any contaminants.
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Photo by Brian Shamblen.
The post Federal Standards Handbook Gets New Sections on Cannabis Packaging, Labeling And Storage first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
