Tasked with establishing specifications to promulgate state laws, cannabis regulatory bodies have worked tirelessly to create infrastructures to ensure consumer safety where no such foundation previously existed. Guided by stakeholders and interested parties, many of the regulations were derived with the best of intentions however the direct applicability to the analytical testing laboratory often stimulates the compromise to consumer health and safety. In the case of pesticide residues, when specification limits are too low there is no way to discern their ubiquitous presence in the material from illegal use/deposit onto the material. Further, by definition, the limit of quantitation is the lowest concentration a laboratory can determine with accuracy and precision; reporting a value below this is neither repeatable nor confident. Finally, as we consider the test sample itself, laboratories are instantly burdened by its relatively small quantity, the nature of sampling, and its overall history. This session invites participants to consider the ramifications of regulations that are not founded in applicable science or on the correct implementation of standards and suggest mechanisms to remedy the breakdown of the regulatory pathway. In the end, all parties must get it right all the time.
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