California regulators have begun a new push to standardize cannabis testing with the aim of eliminating inconsistencies among the state’s 41 operational marijuana labs. Advocates say the effort – mandated by new state law – will improve quality and reliability while discouraging lab shopping and other practices that produce bogus test results. Industry officials across the country, for example, allege that some marijuana businesses – think growers, processors, manufacturers, or distributors – shop for labs that will give them the results they want to see in the way of THC potency and contaminants. Critics also say a lack of standards is among the factors plaguing the cannabis testing industry, threatening to undermine consumer confidence in marijuana products and making it harder for some labs to operate. “This will bring additional consistency and accountability among licensed cannabis testing laboratories,” Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) spokeswoman Christina Dempsey said of the agency’s testing initiative. “With a standardized method, laboratories can more easily identify and correct problems, and it will serve as an additional mechanism to ensure integrity.”

Cannabis Law Report, 11/29/2021 21:03:00

Open article: https://cannabislaw.report/california-rolls-out-plans-to-standardize-cannabis-testing-statewide/

New York’s upcoming adult-use cannabis industry could become a model of sustainable packaging under a bill that would make hemp the primary source of materials used to package regulated marijuana products. Under the bill from state Sen. Michelle Hinchey, the New York Cannabis Control Board would be directed to develop a plan to designate industrial hemp as the primary source of packaging materials for all cannabis products manufactured in the state. “There is no other natural resource that offers the same environmental, agricultural, and economic potential as hemp. My bill will create a market, kickstarting the industry and moving New York State to the forefront in a way that will help us tackle the climate crisis, give our small farmers a competitive edge, and boost upstate economic development,” Hinchey, the chair of New York’s Senate Agriculture Committee, said in a statement. Hinchey drafted the bill to support the creation of a sustainable industrial hemp industry that provides economic opportunity for the state’s independent farmers and small businesses. The measure also directs the state’s Office of Cannabis Management and the Empire State Development to establish a Sustainable Cannabis Packaging Incubator Program to offer financial incentives to farmers and entrepreneurs who contribute to the development and use of environmentally friendly, hemp-based packaging materials. “What we have done is directed the state’s new cannabis control board to develop a plan so that industrialized hemp can be used as a packaging material,” Hinchey told reporters after introducing the bill. 

Cannabis Now, Cannabis Now, 12/01/2021 09:00:00

Open article: https://cannabisnow.com/new-york-bill-pushes-hemp-packaging-for-cannabis-products/

In the 1977 classic car chase movie “Smokey and the Bandit,” a pair of outlaws across state lines to deliver Coors beer to Atlanta from Texarkana, Texas. That’s because, back in the 1970s, people couldn’t ship Coors east of the Mississippi. That law seems strange to people today. It’s likely the way people of the future will see the current state of marijuana legalization in America. It’s led to law-abiding citizens having to cross state lines to buy cannabis. While 19 states have legalized cannabis for recreational use and 36 have done so for medical use, many states have done neither. So while about a third of the country now lives where adult-use marijuana is legal, millions more do not. Americans have decided to take the issue into their own hands. The latest example comes from Michigan, which has legalized recreational and medical marijuana. Just down the interstate in Indiana, possession of any amount of marijuana remains legal. But that’s not stopping Indiana residents from taking a road trip.

Cannabis Law Report, 12/01/2021 13:29:00

Open article: https://cannabislaw.report/americans-continue-to-cross-state-lines-to-buy-cannabis/