skip to Main Content
APHL Guidance for State Medical Cannabis Testing Programs

Although more than half of the states currently permit cannabis for medical use, it still remains illegal at the federal level.

This regulatory contradiction has created a significant problem – inconsistent and disjointed cannabis regulations that severely increase the risk to public health and safety. The absence of federal guidance regarding marijuana has led states to develop their own approach to regulations, quality management, and testing.

As new state cannabis programs continue to develop throughout the United States, concerns about quality, consistency and safety continue to grow. Public health agencies, physicians, patients, and the public have real concerns about the quality, therapeutic benefit, and possible side effects of the products they are using.

In 2014, the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) convened a monthly community-of-practice call so member laboratories could share questions, advice, lessons learned and resources. During these calls, a theme emerged surrounding cannabis – every new participant asked the same questions.

As a result, the APHL Board commissioned a work group to collect the shared knowledge and develop guidance for laboratories and states to use when implementing cannabis programs. The project was 100 percent federally funded and is also supported by a cooperative agreement funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Foundation of Cannabis Unified Standards (FOCUS) is honored to have been included in this workgroup

In May 2016, the APHL Work Group published Guidance for State Medical Cannabis Testing Programs. The report provides specific guidance on analytes and action levels, sampling, testing protocols, test analysis and lab accreditation. The report builds on the monograph established by the US Pharmacopeia and includes recent experience and data from cannabis programs in a variety of U.S. states with active cannabis programs.

The report serves as an excellent resource for cannabis testing specifications with extensive lists of solvents, pesticides, metals and other chemicals and their action levels. The introduction and supporting sections of the report offer valuable insights into the importance of testing, when testing is not required, and how to use the process to continually improve product quality and safety.

The APHL specifications align with the FOCUS international, voluntary-consensus cannabis standards set for release in June. FOCUS, a non-profit standards development organization, has spent two+ years developing cannabis specific standards in the form of Good Manufacturing Guidelines for cultivation, retail, extraction, infused products, security, sustainability, packaging and labeling, and testing labs.

The APHL Guidance was created to facilitate the development of state labs for new cannabis programs, help existing labs assess their programs, and to assist public agencies, legislators and the industry by creating more uniformity and consistency in the industry. In combination with the FOCUS standards, cannabis testing laboratories, state and federal regulators, as well as business owners now have multiple, valid sources for accurate, unbiased, cannabis information.

The Association of Public Health Laboratories(APHL) represents state and local governmental health laboratories in the United States to protect the health and safety of Americans. APHL brings together multiple disciplines, including public health, environmental, agricultural and food safety to collaborate with laboratory and public health partners to assure effective surveillance, detection and response to health threats. APHL also works closely with federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, to develop and execute national health initiatives. To learn more visit www.aphl.org.

The Foundation of Cannabis Unified Standards (FOCUS) is an independent, third-party, non-profit, international cannabis standards development organization created to protect public health, promote consumer safety and safeguard the environment. FOCUS is the only organization to create voluntary-consensus standards suitable for accreditation and adoption into regulations by assuring impartiality, balance and transparency in the development process. FOCUS provides detailed standards and current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) guidelines for all key areas of the cannabis industry: cultivation, extraction, infusion, retail/dispensary, laboratory, security, packaging/labeling and sustainability. FOCUS is not a trade association, a cannabis company, government agency or a member based organization. To learn more visit www.focusstandards.org.

Lezli Engelking

Lezli Engelking

Lezli Engelking
Founder | Foundation of Cannabis Unified Standards (FOCUS)

FOCUS is the only international, third party, non-profit, cannabis standards development organization created to protect public health, consumer safety, and safeguard the environment.

Through two-decades of professional experience across pharmaceuticals, mental health, non-profit and cannabis industries, Lezli realized the only way to build a truly sustainable, legal, cannabis marketplace – not just on a national level- but globally – was to develop international, voluntary-conformance cannabis standards suitable for adoption into regulation that would serve as the common language necessary to ensure the quality and safety guidelines required for international commerce.

Lezli’s ability to envision simplified solutions to complicated situations make her the perfect candidate to lead FOCUS and work in the formulation of international public policy to ensure the highest standards that protect public health and safety are met and maintained. www.focusstandards.org

This Post Has 2 Comments
  1. Thank you. Helpful article! Many of the people I know, myself included, are unwilling to purchase cannabis for medical or recreational use without some standards in place. It is impossible to know at this point what you are actually getting and that’s dangerous. Make FOCUS standards mandatory!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Stories

Dug In: Big Island Grown’s Deep Cannabis Roots

Big Island Grown (BIG) is a vertically integrated cannabis company based in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii County, on the Big Island of Hawaii, whose reach now extends to several islands in the…

Unlock the Secrets of Social Media for Cannabis Brands

There are three primary ways that brands can use social media platforms for marketing: organic posts, shared posts, and paid posts. With paid posts still off limits to most businesses…

California’s Cannabis Industry Conundrum and the Road Ahead

By Aaron Pelley, Attorney at Harris Sliwoski Despite continuously surpassing every other state with recreational cannabis in terms of total retail sales, California’s cannabis industry has faced continuous and far-reaching…

The High Rate of Dependence Among Medical Cannabis Users

The difference between medicinal and recreational marijuana has always been arbitrary. For example, after legalizing recreational cannabis, California initially required each cultivated seedling to be designated by growers as either…

More Categories

Back To Top
×Close search
Search