Over 600 At ASTM International’s Standards Meeting In Rome Technical Committee D37 On Cannabis.

Gisbourne Herald NZ Reports……….ASTM International, a global industry standards body with 30,000 members worldwide representing more than 20 industry sectors, held a workshop in Rome under its technical committee D37 on Cannabis.

The group of 600 industry experts are working to develop standards for cannabis products testing and production processes across the globe.

The group aims to meet the needs of the legal cannabis industry by addressing quality and safety issues through the development of classifications, specifications, test methods, practices, and guides for cultivation, manufacturing, quality assurance, laboratory considerations, packaging and security.

“The meeting revealed how much work there is to do within particular areas of the industry and that there is real commitment from around the world to build common standards that are meaningful and achievable for the industry and regulators” said Hikurangi chief executive Manu Caddie.

The objective of D37’s Workshop on Advancing the Field of Cannabis through Standardisation was to explore creation of new, fit-for-purpose industry standards.

International liaisons responsible for updating the D37 Committee on developments in their regions were appointed during the workshop.

Mr Caddie was invited to talk on the New Zealand regulatory situation and was appointed to provide ongoing liaison between the committee and New Zealand members.

Hikurangi plant scientists Dr Alvaro Vidiella and Irene Lopez-Ubiria prepared a presentation for the workshop to propose a methodology for characterising cannabis varieties.

No global standard exists for the classification of cannabis plants and this is a critical requirement for Hikurangi as the company builds a genetics databank over coming years of plant varieties from global and local sources.

“A number of organisations use their own ‘standards’ to characterise the cannabis material they are working with,” said Mr Caddie. “Some of them are probably doing a very good job creating really good standards.

“Unfortunately it is unlikely that many of these standards become public and keeping them secret doesn’t engender confidence in the process or products.

“Even if these processes became public, the quality would be unlikely to be as good as if the whole industry works together to create standards that would be useful for everyone, and at the same time it would make life better for patients/consumers and the regulators.”

Mr Caddie said one of the most useful and provocative presentations proposed a new set of legal classifications for cannabis.

“We all got quite animated in the last session of the workshop led by Darwin Millard, an extraction expert from New York, who presented a proposal for doing away with ‘hemp’ as a legal term for low-THC cannabis,” he said.

Source: http://gisborneherald.co.nz/localnews/3968682-135/talking-cannabis-in-rome

Committee D37 on Cannabis

Staff Manager: Robert Morgan 610-832-9732

ASTM Committee D37 on Cannabis was formed in 2017 to develop standards for cannabis, its products and processes. The activities are focused on meeting the needs of the cannabis industry addressing quality and safety through the development of voluntary consensus standards. Subcommittees will focus on the development of test methods, practices and guides for cultivation, quality assurance, laboratory considerations, packaging and security. The Committee meets two times a year, with about 80 members attending 2 days of technical meetings in January and June. D37 has 6 technical subcommittees to develop and maintain standards. The Committee, with a membership of approximately 100, has its standards published in the Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Volume 15.10. Information on this subcommittee structure and D37’s portfolio of approved standards and Work Items under construction are available from the List of Subcommittees, Standards and Work Items below.

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