by NCIA Staff and members of NCIA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
As the nation continues to struggle with the ongoing deaths of people of color at the hands of law enforcement, including recently those of 20-year-old Daunte Wright and 13-year-old Adam Toledo, we are relieved to see that George Floyd – whose killing by police officer Derek Chauvin last year sparked a global reckoning on institutional racism and the urgent need for criminal justice reform – will receive some form of justice with his murderer being held accountable in a court of law.
The fact that the Chauvin defense largely hinged on the presence of drugs in George Floyd’s system at the time of his murder should come as no surprise. Since its inception, prohibition and the accompanying dehumanization of people who use drugs have been used to justify unfairly robbing people of color of life, liberty, and property, with devastating generational effects. This bloody cycle must end.
While many of these deaths are not directly related to cannabis, they take place in the house of horrors that prohibition helped build, and it is our duty to dismantle the walls nearest us through substantive policy reform. Despite yesterday’s guilty verdict in the Chauvin trial, examples of justice like this are still far too rare and do little to ease the pain of those most affected. We acknowledge that there is still much work to do to right the wrongs of the past and ensure they do not continue into the future.
NCIA reaffirms its commitment to helping repair the racially and economically disparate harms caused by prohibition by removing criminal penalties for cannabis-related behavior and promoting a diverse and inclusive cannabis industry. We stand in solidarity with all those fighting against police violence and systemic racism.
SAFE Banking Act Passes House AGAIN
by Madeline Grant, NCIA’s Government Relations Manager
The Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Act, or H.R. 1996, passed the U.S House of Representatives with a final recorded vote of 321-101. This is the first floor action on a cannabis reform bill this Congress. This is not the first time we’ve seen movement on this bipartisan piece of legislation that would protect banks that service state-legal marijuana businesses from being penalized by federal regulators. The bill was reintroduced in March by Reps. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), Steve Stivers (R-OH), Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), and Warren Davidson (R-OH), and had 177 total cosponsors by the time of the vote. The bill was taken up under a process known as suspension of the rules, which requires a 2/3rd supermajority to pass and does not allow for amendments. This is the fourth time that the House has approved the language of the SAFE Banking Act, initially as the first standalone cannabis policy reform bill ever passed by either chamber of Congress in 2019 and two more times last year as part of pandemic relief packages that were not approved in the Senate.
What does the SAFE Banking Act do, exactly?
The SAFE Banking Act would protect financial institutions from federal prosecution for providing banking and other services to cannabis businesses that are in compliance with state law, as well as help address serious public health and safety concerns caused by operating in predominantly cash-only environments. The legislation would improve the operational viability of small businesses by helping them reduce costs associated with lack of access to banking and increasing options for traditional lending that many small businesses in other fields rely upon. It would also mandate a study on diversity in the cannabis industry.The SAFE Banking Act seeks to harmonize federal and state law by prohibiting federal banking regulators from: threatening or limited a depository institutions access to the Deposit Insurance Fund, discouraging, prohibiting, or penalizing depository institutions from dealing with the cannabis industry, taking any action against a loan made to a covered business and forcing a depository institution to halt providing any kind of banking services.
Let’s take a look at the history of SAFE Banking in Congress…
2013-2015
Legislation to provide safe harbor for financial institutions that choose to service the cannabis industry was first introduced in 2013 and was called the “Marijuana Businesses Access to Banking Act.” When the bill died in Congress, it had 32 cosponsors and no Senate companion legislation. The bill was reintroduced in 2015 with the same name and 39 cosponsors and a Senate companion with 11 cosponsors.
2017
In 2017, the bill was reintroduced and renamed the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act. By the end of that session, the bill had 95 cosponsors and the Senate companion bill had 20 cosponsors.
2019
On March 7, SAFE Banking was introduced in the House by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) and was referred to the Judiciary and Financial Services Committees. On March 28, 2019, the Financial Services Committee voted 45 to 15 to advance the bill to the full House. The bill had broad bipartisan support with 153 cosponsors, over a third of the entire House, at the time of the committee vote (a major jump from 2017). On April 1, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced a companion bill to the Senate and the bill was referred to the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. On June 6, the House bill moved out of committee and was placed on the Union calendar for a vote. The bill then passed the House by 321-103.
2020
Congress spent 2020 legislating relief legislation for Americans as the coronavirus took a toll across our nation. SAFE Banking language was also included in two coronavirus relief packages that the House approved, but unfortunately, did not make it through the Senate.
One thing is abundantly clear, states are continuing to legalize cannabis and the federal government must mitigate the state and federal conflict that legal cannabis businesses are facing. Access to banking is not only essential for any business to function, but a necessary measure for public safety. Laws making cannabis legal for adults have been passed in 18 states as well as the District of Columbia and the territories of CNMI and Guam, and 36 states, as well as several territories, have comprehensive medical cannabis laws. As the House of Representatives, again, has passed SAFE Banking, we will turn our focus to the Senate and keep up the momentum. Make sure when you have a few minutes call your senators and urge them to support the SAFE Banking Act, S. 910. You can look up your senators’ information HERE.
Committee Blog: Why Insurance Companies Should Cover Medical Cannabis Now
by Carol Welch & Jim Gerencser NCIA’s Risk Management & Insurance Committee
Cannabis was legalized for medical use in California in 1996. Since then, 47 states, the District of Columbia, and three territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, and CNMI) have legalized some form of cannabis, leaving only three states with no legal use. Thirty-six states have an effective medical use law in place. The main reason insurance companies haven’t had to consider providing coverage for patients is because federally cannabis is still listed as a Schedule 1 drug. Even though the likelihood of cannabis being legalized nationally seems bound to happen within the next few years, insurance companies should start planning to incorporate new cannabis policies into their plans now.
Here are five great reasons to cover medical cannabis:
SAVES MONEY
Science has proven that cannabis helps over 60% of epilepsy patients decrease the frequency and severity of seizures. Cannabis products should cost less than traditional epilepsy medications, especially when taking into account the added prescriptions often needed to combat the side effects of currently available prescription drugs.
Compared to the traditional cost of cancer treatment, patients opting to skip conventional treatments for cannabis could save their insurance companies thousands in initial cancer treatment, and potentially will have less recurrence and costly maintenance prescriptions.
Insurance companies are paying billions in healthcare costs to include doctor visits, lab tests, hospital admissions and prescriptions for conditions that cannabis has shown to improve dramatically. Chronic pain, depression and PTSD are all treatable with cannabis, and cannabis is much less dangerous than the opioids that are commonly prescribed in chronic pain cases.
SAVES LIVES
There are no known deaths reported from cannabis consumption alone. According to the CDC, there were 70,630 deaths due to drug overdose in 2019. In addition, there are estimates of over 1.5 million hospitalizations per year from adverse drug reactions that don’t cause death but are still costly to many people. Insurance companies can avoid some of the negative PR, potential litigation and upset related to deaths caused by pharmaceuticals, while providing patients with a solution that works for many conditions.
Research is increasingly showing that certain strains and compounds within the cannabis plant can have a significant positive effect on several conditions. For instance, breast cancer responds very well to FECO (full extract cannabis oil), with lab tests showing how cannabis causes cancer cell death. More study is still needed, and that is currently being conducted in Israel where there are fewer legal barriers to research.
REDUCES MEDICARE SPENDING
Data from all prescriptions filled by Medicare Part D enrollees from 2010-2013 showed a significant decrease in prescriptions being filled for symptoms for which cannabis could serve as an alternative treatment. Overall reduction in Medicare spending in states that implemented medical marijuana laws were estimated to be $165.2 million per year (2013). This one difference alone could mean billions in savings for insurance companies in the coming years.
IMPROVES SATISFACTION RATINGS
Let’s face it, insurance is a competitive business. Several large health insurers cover most of the country and will likely be the last to jump on board to cover medical cannabis. But for the smaller, regional or state-specific insurers out there, adding cannabis to the coverage lineup in legal states can provide a competitive advantage with employers and group plans.
Medical cannabis is listed as an eligible expense in many Canadian companies’ HSAs and islisted as an eligible medical expense by the Canada Revenue Agency. Since our northern neighbors are starting to cover it, hopefully that will encourage U.S. insurers to do the same.
IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO
Cancer is the #2 leading cause of death in the United States and can cost several thousand dollars for treatment. Using cannabis as a complementary treatment to traditional cancer therapies could decrease the cost of treating cancer to the patient, to the insurance companies and in the end to all of the people across the United States that contribute to Medicare and Medicaid.
If you would like to take action, contact your legislators to push for the federal legalization of cannabis or sign this petition calling on all U.S. insurers to step up and cover medical marijuana for their patients. Here’s a link to the Care2 petition: Health Insurance Companies Should Cover Medical Marijuana Now.
Member Blog: Sleep-Focused Brands Are Seeing Bottom Line Dividends
Nearly 40% of the nation’s top 100 CBD brands focus on need states. Chief among them is sleep, something the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) reports that 85% of Americans are falling far short of.
The 7.2 million sleep-related Google searches logged this past year provide ample evidence of interest. according to NBC News, which reports that 9 million Americans take prescription drugs to help them fall asleep.
Others prefer more natural solutions.
Nearly 11 million rely upon CBD and/or cannabis-based products to manage insomnia or sleeplessness, according to a 2021 report issued by High Yields Insights. Among them, almost 70% are women considered statistically more likely to suffer from insomnia.
YOUNG AND RESTLESS
Millennials are driving the bulk of market growth. Together, with a smaller percentage of Gen Z consumers, these severely stressed consumers represented 48% of the U.S. CBD market in the fourth quarter last year, according to High Yields Insights President Mike Luce.
Regardless of age or gender, brands like CBDfx are discovering that an ever-increasing number of their customers are using CBD to treat sleep-related issues. The Brightfield Group reports more than 58% of CBDfx customers purchased sleep products in the fourth quarter.
Collectively, 40% (4 in 10) of consumers, rely upon CBD to manage insomnia or sleeplessness, according to a recently issued High Yield Insights and InnovateMR 2021 sleep trend report.
FIGHTING FOR SLEEP
Growing pandemic-related uncertainty, anxiety, and associated sleep deprivation issues have kept sleep specialists like Colorado-based Pulmonologist Dr. Julie Whitaker, struggling to manage ever-increasing patient loads.
“We’re not seeing everyone we should,” says Dr. Whitaker, who sees the need to elevate the understanding of the importance of sleep, particularly among Americans.
The pandemic helped to elevate awareness of the importance of good sleep and has softened the momentum of the “sleep is for suckers” mantra, according to the pulmonologist.
CBD and cannabis brands are seeing significant growth, most notably among 25 to 35 year-olds. Although millennials dominate the growth trends, one brand reported moms 40 – 50 years of age are among its fastest-growing demographic.
Veterans, known to experience higher levels of insomnia (57% veterans) than the general population (30%), face elevated pandemic-related risks. Among veterans with Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or a traumatic brain injury (TBI), the rates are even higher — 93%, according to the Department of Veteran Affairs in San Diego.
Sleep specialists, like Whitaker, are particularly concerned about the stress levels in at-risk populations, particularly women- and veteran-headed households, whose support needs are more imminent.
When it comes to sleep, routines are important, according to the specialist who recommends patients develop healthy and consistent sleep routines, avoid consuming alcohol and OTC products known to disrupt sleep cycles, particularly antihistamines known to disrupt healthy sleep patterns.
CBD AND CANNABIS EFFICACY GROWING
In regard to other solutions, Dr. Whitaker says there’s “reasonable scientific evidence,” that CBD, particularly when combined with a small amount of THC, can help promote sleep.
Two in five working moms use cannabis, according to a newly minted survey released by San-Francisco analytics firm Lucky Analytics.
Women are helping cannabis brands like Ganja Goddess achieve record-breaking triple-digit sales growth. The cannabis company reports a 635% increase in its sleep lines last year, according to its SVP of Marketing Heidi Genrich.
Gummies provide a popular entry point, according to Incredible Edibles Brand Director Jessica Benchetrit, whose company helps make cannabis more accessible via entertaining and informative educational sessions.
“Consumers are looking for an enhanced sleep experience, says Benchetrit. “The majority (78%) are actively seeking out ‘indica-like’ edibles.
Incredibles’ Snoozzzeberry gummies climbed to the number one infused gummy product in the markets it sold in, during the fourth quarter of last year, according to BDS analytics reports.
REVEALING RESEARCH
A 2019 study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, found cannabidiol (CBD) improved the sleep quality and reduced nightmares of 38% of the participants, all of whom had PTSD.
Joseph Maroon, M.D., a clinical professor and neurosurgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center who has researched the effect of cannabis on the brain, says that CBD has properties that could help some people sleep better. Most notably, he says, it appears to ease anxiety and pain, both of which can make it harder to fall asleep or stay asleep, according to a published statement in Consumer Reports.
“CBD is safe,” says Dr. Daniel Clauw, an internationally known pain expert and head of the University of Michigan Director of Chronic Pain and Fatigue Center, who frequently collaborates with the Arthritis Foundation on education efforts.
Among sleep associations, the American Sleep Association has indicated that cannabis may help induce sleep in people with insomnia, anxiety or post-traumatic stress.
A MEANINGFUL IMPACT
“People are interested in better ways to relax at the end of the day,” says Ginrich. “And they are increasingly concerned about safeguarding their well-being over the long term.
“Stress and anxiety are not going away, so products and rituals that help people sustainably manage these pressures are in high demand,” adds the Ganja Goddess Marketing Director.
We all have a role to play in helping put America’s sleep issues to bed.
Author Jackie Berg is the publisher of the Health Hub, a publication division of CBD Marketing Hub, as well as the publisher of TheHUB Detroit, TheHUB Flint and recipient of the Association of Women in Communications 2018 Vanguard award. To learn more CBD Marketing Hub, a cultivator of CBD and cannabis clients, visit its website or reach out at hello@cbdmarketinghub.com.
USPS and Vaping Devices: What You Need To Know
by Madeline Grant, NCIA’s Government Relations Manager
The most recent omnibus that passed into law in December 2020 included a small provision related to vaping devices that could potentially have big implications.
The bill included language related to the Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act (the Act). The intent of the Act was to prevent underage smoking by applying the same safeguards already in place for cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to the online sales of e-cigarettes — a mission we all wholeheartedly support. The Act also amends the Jenkins Act, which generally prohibits mailing of cigarettes to consumers through the United States Postal Service (USPS), to include Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) and to subject them to the same mailability restrictions.
The Act defined ENDS as any electronic device that, through an aerosolized solution, delivers nicotine, flavor, or any other substance to the user inhaling from the device. The provisions also extend to any component, liquid, part, or accessory of an ENDS, regardless of whether sold separately from the device. Unfortunately, this definition is overly broad, and despite the name, an item can be interpreted to qualify as an ENDS without regard to whether it contains or is intended to be used to deliver nicotine — this means devices used for the vaporization of cannabis or hemp, essential oils, and other aromatics, or even water vaporizers used for babies.
What does this actually do?
Prohibits the mailing of non-nicotine devices to consumers through the USPS
Triggers burdensome and illogical compliance requirements for mailing through common carriers (i.e. requires the labeling of packages as containing nicotine, payment of state tobacco taxes, reporting of consumer data, and more, even if non-tobacco products)
Eliminates USPS exception for B2B mailings for non-nicotine devices, as the form requires tobacco product license information which non-nicotine businesses do not hold
As a result of this Act and subsequent confusion, many common carriers have changed their policies to ban shipments of any vaporization devices and components, nicotine or otherwise
How can you help?
Although the time to submit public comments has passed, you can still make a call to your congressional representative and senators to express your concerns. To find your elected officials you can visit congress.gov, type in your zip code, and this will bring you to your representative photo and information. From there call the Washington, D.C. office, state your name and address, to confirm you are a constituent and discuss the talking points below. Every constituent call can make a difference as staffers log all comments and concerns for the office.
When relaying your concerns, note that this broad interpretation of ENDS was not the intent of the legislation. It creates conflicts with existing regulations (e.g. FDA deeming rules, USPS mailability of hemp products, and state tax guidelines, etc.) and delivers significant unintended consequences.
Ultimately, it means consumers and patients may not be able to receive the state-legal, non-tobacco products they want and could significantly increase costs — all at a time when USPS is already struggling to bring stability to the agency.
Along with a fantastic informal coalition that formed to address this issue, NCIA has submitted comments that ask USPS to clarify that their interpretation of ENDS to not include these additional product categories that were not the intent of the original statute. As a united front, we will continue to educate congressional offices. We will continue to monitor any movement of this legislation and keep our members informed. Please reach out to your elected officials. Of course, if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to Madeline@TheCannabisIndustry.org.
Product safety isn’t an endpoint, it’s a journey. That’s what we told you in the 2021 series premiere, and it continues to hold true. In the last post, we revisited the Vaporizer Liquid Formulations portion of the NCIA’s policy council white paper to provide guidance to the industry. This time, we’re republishing the Vaporizer Delivery Devices section below. We’ve learned more about EVALI since its original publication, and while some of the specifics may be a little dated, the principles remain relevant to helping you understand vapor product safety.
Over the course of the next several months, we’ll bring you new content with the following working titles.
The Importance of Testing Vapor Products as a System
Edibles Stability – Microbial Growth Due to Insufficient Packaging
Terpene Limits Across Multiple Product Formats
So, while we wait with bated breath for this exciting new content, enjoy the excerpt below!
Excerpted from The Key To Consumer Safety: Displacing The Illicit Cannabis Market Recommendations For Safe Vaping. Access the full report and citations.
Background
While the technology used to vaporize cannabis extracts have been around for many years, advancements in vaporization technology and supply chains over the past decade have led to widespread adoption and growth of vaporization as a preferred method of cannabis consumption. Vaporizer devices offer the benefits of being discreet, allowing for metered consumption, and eliminating carbon associated with combusting cannabis flower. However, not all vaporizer devices are created equal and manufacturers should develop an understanding of the nuances of different vaporizer devices to ensure the delivery of a safe and high-quality experience. Aside from considering experiential qualities such as taste and the amount of vapor produced, manufacturers should consider at least the following three categories of issues that can present safety risks.
Physical Design Considerations
Vaporizer devices should be mechanically and electrically safe. This starts with relatively basic considerations that include ensuring the device is mechanically sound, does not leak alkaline or heavy metals, and is not configured in a manner that presents a safety hazard. In the early 2010s, there were many reported instances of vaporizer devices exploding. This was primarily due to improper electrical design and battery cell protection. Battery cells that are not protected from drawing current beyond their rated capacity or are allowed to drain too deeply present a safety risk. In fact, this risk led to the development of the UL 8139 standard for e-cigarette battery safety and the FDA recently relaxed its prohibition on e-cigarette battery changes in order to allow manufacturers to comply with this standard. UL 8139 is applicable to vaporizer devices and anyone who sources or develops a vaporizer device for the cannabis market should voluntarily comply.
Contamination by Hardware
Vaporizer device hardware should be tested for the presence of heavy metals. Currently, some manufacturers use Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) testing or rely on vendor representations that the components and materials being used are certified as FDA food-grade. The California Bureau of Cannabis Control mandated heavy metals testing standards for the three categories of cannabis products, including inhalable cannabis products, starting on December 31, 2018.
Vaporizer device hardware that comes into contact with cannabis formulation should also be free of other contaminants. It is important to consider both contaminants that could be immediately detectable in vaporizer devices as well as those that can be released or created over time. Vaporizer devices are designed using a variety of industrial manufacturing processes, some of which can leave residual oils, biological agents, or other substances in the device. It is important that device manufacturers clean incoming components, assemble them in a clean environment, then store and ship them in a manner that prevents re-contamination. Depending on the nature of the component, one or more of a cleaning bath or ozone treatment may be used for cleaning. After cleaning, assembly of vaporizer components should be performed in a cleanroom environment under appropriate current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP). Unfortunately, simply asking a device manufacturer whether it operates in such a manner is not sufficient to be certain that it does. There is no substitute for first-hand inspection of manufacturing processes. While it may not be practical for U.S.-based cannabis manufacturers to maintain a constant presence in the country of manufacture, it is possible to hire local agents who are skilled in audit practices and can perform unannounced inspections to verify that desired practices are implemented within the supply chain.
As noted above, hardware may also introduce contamination into the formulation over time, either through the process of leaching heavy metals or through chemical reaction. Leaching is a process whereby soluble constituents that may be present in materials dissolve into a formulation. A well-known example was the discovery that plasticizers present in certain plastic food and beverage containers were leaching and then being consumed. As a result, new types of plastics were developedfor improved food safety. Vaporizer components that contact cannabis formulations may present a similar issue and leaching may be tied to metals, ceramics, plastics, or other materials. In addition to leaching, certain materials may react with cannabis formulations, especially those with high terpene content which tends to be more volatile. Moreover, metal components in contact with formulations may be especially susceptible to leaching and lead to contaminants such as heavy metals in the formulation.
The good news is that it is possible to address this risk of leaching through the use of appropriate base materials and or plating. Base materials such as stainless steel are good candidates because of their low tendency to react with formulations. Plating other materials with corrosion-resistant metals is also possible; however, care must be taken to specify the right material and plating thickness while also ensuring the plating is not damaged during assembly.
With proper material selection and design, it is possible to reduce the risk of such contamination, including through conducting stability tests. In a stability test, a formulation is placed into the vaporizer device for a period of time, then removed and tested for contaminants. A good guide is to design the stability test to align with the desired shelf life of the product. That doesn’t necessarily mean the test needs to be as long as the rated shelf life. Typically, elevated temperature tests are used to determine stability and can cut the duration of the test to 50% or less of the desired shelf life. In addition, by taking measurements at intermediate intervals, stability can be better characterized and the point at which contaminants would exceed their respective limits can be projected.
Device Impact on Formulation: Control the Heat
The most fundamental, yet perhaps the most underappreciated aspect of vaporizer devices is how they vaporize cannabis formulations. Setting aside dry herb vaporizers, all liquid cannabis vaporizers basically work by bringing the formulation into contact with a hot surface in order to heat it and thus create vapor. While this may seem straightforward, there are a number of subtleties that affect the outcome. First, the temperature of the hot surface must be hot enough to heat the liquid, yet not so hot as to cause components of the formulation to degrade into byproducts that could be harmful. In fact, one study demonstrated how changing the voltage, and thus the temperature of an unregulated vaporizer device can affect the production of such degradants. While more advanced vaporizer devices attempt to control vaporization temperature by using heating elements made of specific materials that indirectly measure temperature and regulate the power delivered to the heating element, the majority do not.
Different formulations have different compositions and contain constituents that vaporize and degrade at various temperatures. This means that to fully control vaporization, the vaporizer device must be configured precisely to the requirements of the formulation in use. Second, many vaporizer devices do not heat uniformly. Rather, the heated surfaces heat unevenly, creating hot spots that can locally trigger thermal degradation. Temperature control circuits typically measure an average temperature and do not prevent such hot spots. Finally, the majority of vaporizer devices, whether they contain fiber wicks or ceramic, rely on capillary action to bring the formulation into contact with the heated area or surface. During a puff, capillary action is also what replenishes the formulation at the heated surface, and such capillary replenishment takes time. Depending on the viscosity of the formulation and the duration of the puff, a heated surface that was initially saturated with the formulation can become dry and hot during the course of a puff. Experienced users sometimes refer to this as a “dry hit,” which can be perceived when a cartridge runs dry or during a long puff. Dry hits can result in increased thermal degradation.
Armed with this understanding of the nuances of vaporizer devices, one can appreciate how the common business model of selling cartridges with a universal 510 threaded connection that can be used in conjunction with any number of batteries, any number of power settings, and filled with a variety of formulations makes it difficult to guarantee what is produced during vaporization. In order to understand and control the output of a vaporizer device, the system should be designed, configured, and tested as a whole; cartridge and battery, plus formulation. Closed systems with proprietary connectors and one-piece designs do not face the cartridge-battery mismatch challenge, but should still be tested in conjunction with the target formulation using a reasonable worst-case puff duration. And while new systems under development that employ non-contact heating methods may not present the same temperature control challenges, they too should be validated as a whole.
The Cannabis Manufacturing Committee (CMC) focuses on reviewing existing business practices and state regulations of concentrates, topicals, vaporizers, and edibles, ensuring the manufacturing sector is helping shape its destiny.
Committee Blog: Crafting a COVID-19 Vaccination Policy for Your Cannabis Company
By NCIA’s Human Resources Committee
COVID-19 vaccine policies are just the latest challenge for employers as the world continues to adapt to life after coronavirus. COVID-19 has forced employers to be much more actively engaged in monitoring our employees’ health and your company’s approach to a vaccine policy may continue to reflect the unusually intimate partnership between employers and employees in protecting the health of our communities.
Business owners may be eager for operations to return to normal after nearly a year of intense focus on disruptive business practices made necessary while we responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications for the workplace. While a widely vaccinated public has been promoted as the light at the end of this tunnel, over a third of Americans are reluctant to get the vaccine. This is where employers can make a difference in the trajectory of our national vaccine project by encouraging, and even requiring, employees to be vaccinated. Cannabis industry operators should be especially concerned about crafting a careful approach to vaccine policy as many of our workers have been declared essential throughout the pandemic and we provide services to some of the most vulnerable in our communities including those with chronic illness, the elderly, or those with compromised immune systems. Yet, in many states, cannabis business owners and human resources departments continue to struggle with unclear guidance about when our employees will be able to get the vaccine.
What role do cannabis employers play in vaccination against COVID-19?
Employers will have to navigate a number of competing interests and obligations to craft a sound and responsible vaccine policy. On the one hand, employers are obligated to provide a workplace that is “free from recognized hazards” (OSHA General Duty Clause), i.e. persons infected with the coronavirus. On the other hand, employers are generally more hands-off when it comes to personal health decisions like whether or not to get vaccinated against certain illnesses, and indeed we have an obligation to protect our employee’s privacy and right to refuse vaccination due to a religious objection or medical condition. There is no shortage of advice available to cannabis companies but much of this advice fails to explore the real-world challenges that HR practitioners and business owners will face as they navigate vaccine issues with employees on the ground over the coming months, partly because we are wading into uncharted waters. Below is a brief summary of what information is available to guide employers right now.
Employers must be prepared to take a position on vaccines
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has provided guidance for employers navigating their approach to vaccination at the workplace. In general, the EEOC supports employers’ right to encourage or require employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19, as well as take other precautionary measures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. There is a persuasive business necessity to, at a minimum, encourage employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and cannabis companies may find that their employees are relatively prioritized in many state vaccine distribution plans due to the prevalence of designating cannabis workers as essential, though guidance specifically pertaining to cannabis workers is slow-coming and vaccine availability has gotten off to a rocky start with an uncertain supply of vaccines. At least for the time being, multi-state employers will have to continue to adapt to a patchwork of various approaches to state vaccine distribution plans just as they have for managing the workplace throughout the pandemic.
Be ready to accommodate legitimate objections
Employers must also proceed cautiously when responding to employees who refuse vaccination. Some employees who resist vaccination will have a legitimate right to be accommodated due to a sincerely held religious belief or a medical condition that prevents them from taking the vaccine. Employers must be ready with a flexible policy that allows qualified personnel to engage in an interactive process with these employees to discover and document the nature of their objection and then to negotiate a reasonable accommodation. For those positions that have already been eligible for temporary work from home arrangements, for example, an extension of this arrangement might be a reasonable alternative to vaccination. Other accommodations can be made for employees who must interact with the public or their coworkers to perform their essential job functions, such as leave of absence, but how soon such an employee would be excluded from the workplace given the scarcity of vaccine availability and under what conditions this employee would be allowed to return to the workplace are still open questions.
Vaccines remain one of many tools employers have to reduce risk
The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) published research earlier this month revealing that the majority of employers plan to encourage but not require their workforce to be vaccinated against COVID-19. This approach seems to dodge some of the more troubling aspects of rolling out a mandatory vaccine program and reflects the reality that many employers can use a combination of other means to reduce the risk of transmitting the virus such as the continuation of work from home policies, virtual services, contactless product delivery, etc. A mandatory program would force a confrontation between those employees who are unwilling to get vaccinated and the company’s managers tasked with tracking vaccination, avoids potential workers compensation claims that might arise from adverse reactions to the vaccine, and provides relief for the potential administrative burden of tracking employees’ proof of vaccination. A voluntary vaccine policy also restores some of the onus for making an informed decision about vaccines on the employee rather than the employer assuming all the responsibility, and potential liability, for forcing a decision to become vaccinated on the workforce. Keep in mind that even under mandatory vaccination policies, some employees will inevitably not get vaccinated and the company will need to work with those individuals on a case by case basis to determine what reasonable accommodations, if any, can be made for those workers. Employers who mandate vaccines as a condition of employment will also likely need to pay for vaccination if there is a cost in the future as well as provide paid time off for employees to go to vaccine appointments. A voluntary policy may make it easier for the employer to be flexible and compassionate toward the varying needs and attitudes of our employees while navigating the continually evolving state of vaccine availability and public health advice.
Expect to adapt to new information
Throughout the pandemic, employers have operated with ambiguity and uncertainty. This (hopefully) final stage of the pandemic will be no different. As we craft our vaccine policies, we should be prepared to deal with the unexpected and adapt to change as new information is available or revised. This is where I believe that cannabis companies have a real advantage. In this industry, flexibility and innovation are essential skills and we as professionals in this industry are well-practiced at pivoting with little notice. I am confident that cannabis operators will rise to the challenge of navigating vaccine distribution while protecting our workers and our customers with the same aplomb that has helped our industry thrive during the challenging last 12 months.
Melissa Hafey is the Director of Human Resources for Blackbird. Blackbird is a software and services company that provides marketing tools and transportation solutions for cannabis operators. Melissa is a passionate advocate for creating meaningful work in rewarding work environments. Her experience includes change management, benefits administration, HRIS implementation, recruiting, workplace diversity initiatives, and human resources management across multiple states including California.
Committee Blog: Manufactured Product Safety – 2021 Series Premier
by NCIA’s Cannabis Manufacturing Committee
Product safety isn’t an endpoint, it’s a journey. And let’s face it, there is years-worth of research left to do on the safety of cannabis products. That’s why it’s important to stay up to speed on the latest thinking from leaders in the industry. In 2021, the National Cannabis Industry Association’s Cannabis Manufacturing Committee intends to help you do just that by providing information and approaches aimed to help you continue to improve the safety of your manufactured cannabis (marijuana and hemp) products while providing your customers with increasingly trusted experiences. This Manufactured Product Safety Series will consist of blogs, podcasts, and expert panel discussions focused on providing insight into topics relevant to a wide range of manufacturers.
Over the course of the next several months, we’ll bring you content with the following working titles.
Vapor Liquid Formulations
The Importance of Testing Vapor Products as a System
Edibles Stability – Microbial Growth Due to Insufficient Packaging
Terpene Limits Across Multiple Product Formats
But while we’re busy crafting these new pieces, we want to take advantage of our past publications to keep important safety topics front and center. Back in January of 2020, in response to the then-emergent EVALI outbreak, NCIA’s Policy Council created a whitepaper to provide guidance to the industry and regulators. We’re republishing portions of this whitepaper starting with the Vaporizer Liquid Formulations section below. We’ve learned more about EVALI since its original publication, and while some of the specifics may be a little dated, the principles remain relevant to helping you understand product safety.
Disseminating our knowledge of this topic also helps promote better regulation. Examples of what can go wrong are the Oregon Liquor Control Commission’s (OLCC) recently adopted regulations that effectively ban the use of propylene glycol (PG). Granted, they were addressing a difficult issue and made some good decisions, but had they read this piece, they might have better understood that PG “degradation has been shown only with temperatures in excess of what is typically produced by well-controlled hardware.” Even in studies where the temperature was not well controlled, thermal degradants were detected in amounts that are lower in the vapor stream when compared to combustion and inhalation of plant products, such as cannabis flower. And given that PG has been “used at up to 90% concentration in e-cigarette products for the past decade without reports to date of significant health issues,” it is unwise to ban an ingredient option that may turn out to have a better safety profile than even certain native terpenes, some of which may have to be added at abnormally high concentrations in order to achieve the desired viscosity, without further research.
So with that in mind, stay tuned for the next piece in the series and enjoy the excerpt below!
Excerpted from THE KEY TO CONSUMER SAFETY: DISPLACING THE ILLICIT CANNABIS MARKET RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SAFE VAPING
The cannabis-derived ingredient in cannabis oil vaporizers is a concentrate that is produced by extracting the cannabinoids and other compounds from the plant. With the exception of supercritical CO2 extraction, most other common extraction methods use butane, alcohol, or hexane as solvents for the extraction of cannabis oils used in vape pens. Extraction processes using these solvents may result in a small presence of the solvent in the extracted oil. Any residual solvent must ultimately be removed prior to any product being sold to consumers. States that have legalized and regulated cannabis typically have specific requirements regarding allowable concentration levels of these solvents. These states also require full analytical testing by licensed independent labs, including reporting of residual solvents, to ensure that only safe levels of any solvents are present in the final formulation of cannabis vape products.
The type of cannabis concentrate used in a vaporizer is important to consider. Some require diluents or other additives to be effectively vaporized while other types of concentrates (eg: live resin) have the appropriate viscosity to be used in vaporizers without adding any diluting non-cannabis ingredients.
Similar to what we are seeing in the commercial e-cigarette industry, some manufacturers of cannabis extract-containing vape pens choose to add ingredients that help adjust the viscosity of the cannabis oil. This allows the oil to flow evenly through the atomizer when heated. Some of these additives may also contribute to a vapor “cloud” when exhaled. PG, VG, and PEG are the most commonly used cosolvents or diluents. PG and VG are on the FDA’s Inactive Ingredient List for inhalable drug products and are allowable only at fairly low concentrations in drug products, but have been used at up to 90% concentration in e-cigarette products for the past decade without reports to date of significant health issues. PEG is not on the FDA’s list and less is known about its inhalation toxicity. Therefore, PEG should be viewed with more caution, even at lower concentrations.
The state of Colorado has paved the way for the industry on forward-thinking cannabis regulations and remains an industry leader. Governor Polis, his cannabis advisor, and the Marijuana Enforcement Division should be commended for creating an environment in the state that fosters business development while simultaneously protecting consumers. After discussions between Colorado regulators and stakeholders about additives, and given the lack of sufficient safety reviews of these ingredients, the state of Colorado prohibited Polyethylene glycol (PEG); Vitamin E Acetate; and Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT Oil) in inhalable concentrates and products effective January 1, 2020. Colorado further banned non-botanical terpenes, any additive that is toxic, and any additive that makes the product more addictive, appealing to children, or misleading to patients or consumers. Other states should consider following Colorado’s lead.
The creation of degradants through overheating is also an important consideration. For example, overheating PG and VG may result in their degradation into molecules with established toxicity profiles such as glyceraldehyde, lactaldehyde, dihydroxyacetone, hydroxyacetone, glycidol, acrolein, propanal, acetone, allyl alcohol, acetic acid, acetaldehyde, formic acid, or formaldehyde. However, this degradation has been shown only with temperatures in excess of what is typically produced by well-controlled hardware. Because PEG is a polymer of glycerin, its degradation upon heating is similar to that of VG and it forms the same unwanted toxic molecules.
Vitamin E Acetate and Tocopherols Inhalable Safety Profile Has Not Been Evaluated
Investigators at the FDA and CDC recently found that some cannabis-containing vape products from the illicit market contain a molecule called vitamin E acetate (VEA), also known as Tocopheryl acetate. Vitamin E is a common name for several similar types of chemicals called “tocopherols.” Vitamin E occurs naturally in certain foods, such as canola oil, olive oil and almonds, but also can be made synthetically. Tocopherols are used as nutritional supplements, and manufacturers put tocopherols in food and cosmetics. VEA is the acetic acid ester derived from vitamin E and is also not known to cause harm when ingested as a supplement or applied to the skin.
VEA’s safety when inhaled has not been evaluated. Numerous published studies indicate that the inhalation of vaporized oils, including certain tocopherols, are harmful to the lungs and numerous cases of lung injury after their inhalation have been documented since 2000. Tocopherols such as VEA adhere to an important fluid in the lungs called lung surfactant. Lung surfactant enables oxygen to transfer from air into your body. Studies have shown that tocopherols impair gas transfer in the lungs. Currently, it is believed that inhalation of significant amounts of certain tocopherols can lead to the death of lung cells and initiate a massive inflammatory reaction that can further contribute to lung damage and functional impairment. Accordingly, VEA should not be used as an additive in any inhaled product. Following the FDA and CDC’s investigation, Colorado added VEA to their list of prohibited ingredients in inhalables to their regulations effective January 1, 2020.
Artificial Flavorings Have Not Been Fully and Scientifically Evaluated.
Some manufactures of cannabis extract-containing vape pens choose to add flavoring agents to the cannabis oil to give them a distinctive flavor, similar to products in the electronic cigarette industry. These additives tend to produce flavorings that are appealing to some consumers. While a number of flavorings have been used for many years without incident, the safety of the majority of flavorings when added to vaporized products – alone or in combination with cannabis extracts – have not been fully and scientifically evaluated.
In one study, certain chemicals that are used in flavorings for vanilla, cherry, citrus, and cinnamon can create compounds called acetals when they are mixed with solvents such as PG and VG. Acetals are known to cause irritation when inhaled and can lead to chronic inflammation in the lung. The long-term
effects of these flavoring agents on lung function are unknown. A separate study showed that some popular flavorings may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease when inhaled, although several other studies show no negative effects.
As approximately 17 million Americans use vape products, many of which contain flavors, and only around 2,000 cases of e-cigarette, or vaping, product-use associated lung injury (EVALI) are currently being reported, it appears unlikely that all flavoring agents in all hardware devices are linked to EVALI. However, until more detailed safety studies have been completed on these product lines, manufacturers should proceed with caution.
Some Terpenes are Safe (GRAS); Some Can be Harmful When Heated
Terpenes are a class of molecules found in many plants, including cannabis, that are responsible for the aroma of the plant. Plants evolved to make terpenes to attract pollinators and to deter herbivores and unwanted pests. Terpenes are biologically active and help contribute to many of the physiological effects of inhaled cannabis. Isolated terpenes have been widely used as fragrances in perfumes in the cosmetic industry and in medicine, such as aromatherapy. Although many terpenes are considered “Generally Regarded As Safe” (GRAS) by the FDA, some terpenes are toxic when inhaled/ingested at high concentrations. While most cannabis goods on the market contain levels of terpenes similar to those that occur naturally in the cannabis plant (~1-5%), some products contain terpenes at much higher concentrations (upwards of 25%). High levels of terpenes and other molecules can also occur if chemical procedures such as distillation are used to concentrate cannabis or hemp oil.
In general, terpenes are benign at low concentrations; however, overexposure to concentrated terpenes has the potential to lead to negative effects, including hypersensitive (allergic) reactions in chemically sensitive people. Additionally, some vape pens do not have the means to adequately control the temperature and can heat the cannabis oil to a very high temperature. In certain instances, this has been shown to lead to thermal decomposition of some molecules in cannabis extracts, such as terpenes, resulting in the formation of new molecules with established toxicities. It is also worth noting that even when these new molecules have been shown to form, they have beendetected in amounts that are lower in the vapor stream when compared to combustion and inhalation of plant products, such as cannabis flower, or tobacco leaf.
Cannabis-derived Terpenes
Cannabis contains terpenes, such that cannabis oil extracts used in vape products typically also contain these molecules, depending on the extraction method. Typically, the distillation process causes a loss of terpenes. Some vape manufacturers now recover cannabis-derived terpenes during the distillation process and then re-introduce them back into the final formulated product. Because of poor process control, one potential safety concern from this procedure is that these cannabis-derived terpenes have an undefined molecular composition and the specific concentration of any terpene in the crude mixture likely varies from batch-to-batch due to numerous experimental variables. For example, many manufacturers that are producing large volumes of vape products by necessity must make the oil extracts from a mixture of cannabis strains. Since every cannabis strain contains different terpene profiles, this means that formulated products made from these strains will also vary in their terpene profiles from batch-to-batch.
The potential for terpene profiles changing during the manufacturing process could pose a potential safety concern. Additionally, new isomers, oxidative by-products, or degradative terpenes may be present in these captured terpenes, which could possibly present hazards never presented by merely combusting and smoking the cannabis plant. Some states that have regulations on cannabis require analytical testing of formulated products, including the reporting of terpene concentrations, but this is not yet the universal standard. Vape manufacturers must exercise caution and be required to analyze terpene profiles of products they make in order to begin to develop a better understanding of this subject. Adhering closely to terpene concentrations known to be present in cannabis flower is a good practice.
Non-Cannabis Derived Terpenes Can Contain Residual Solvents and Pose Dangers
One widespread misconception in the cannabis vape industry is that cannabis-derived terpenes are somehow safer or better for you than non-cannabis-derived terpenes. There are few cannabis-specific terpenes because most terpenes are also present in other plants. Most cannabis vape manufacturersthat operate at a large scale, therefore, prefer to use terpenes isolated from non-cannabis sources to introduce into their formulated products. There are several reasons why this is popular in the industry. High purity terpenes (e.g. >99% pure) are sold by numerous retailers, which allows these terpenes to be re-introduced into cannabis vape products at defined and safe concentrations. Also, the cost of using non-cannabis-derived terpenes is far lower than the cost of isolating and using cannabis-derived terpenes.
For example, the terpene D-Limonene is present at extremely high levels in citrus fruits, and therefore can be isolated to high purity easily and inexpensively from them. In contrast, in most cannabis strains D-Limonene is only found at relatively low concentrations, and therefore one would have to use massive amounts of cannabis material to isolate significant quantities of this terpene required for companies that are operating at scale.
The origin and concentration of non-cannabis-derived terpenes that manufacturers use in their formulations is nevertheless important. Non-cannabis-derived terpenes from overseas often have several residual solvents in them, including ethanol, hexane, xylenes, benzene, butane, and toluene. Moreover, some retailers of non-cannabis-derived terpenes do not list the actual concentration or purity of terpenes in their products. It is imperative that cannabis vape manufacturers purchase and use non-cannabis derived terpenes that are accompanied by a COA that reports the purity of the terpene, any solvent(s) that may carry the terpene, and be required to adhere to the same purity standards and mandatory analytical testing requirements as cannabinoids. Reputable companies will also supply a safety data sheet (SDS) that describes the known toxicities of that terpene by different routes of ingestion, including inhalation.
Cannabis manufacturers that make formulated vape products should be aware of any toxic liabilities of non-cannabis-derived molecules introduced into these products. Vape products should also undergo analytical testing for cannabinoids, terpenes, and contaminants. Finally, analytical tests for aerosolized cannabis, similar to those used in the e-cigarette industry, should be developed, implemented, and mandated to address safety concerns. The industry needs to build the volume of inhalation safety data required for all of these ingredients, hardware, and end product combinations.
An Important Announcement About NCIA’s Lobby Days
While the NCIA team was hoping to welcome all of our members to Washington, D.C. this spring for our 10th Annual Cannabis Industry Lobby Days, we have made the difficult yet necessary decision of postponing the event until further notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was not a decision made lightly, as our annual fly-in is an integral part of our government relations efforts on Capitol Hill. However, with congressional buildings being closed to the public, new virus variants, and continued community spread, we believe this is the smartest and safest decision for our members, elected officials, and their staff.
That being said, the NCIA government relations team continues to virtually lobby and “meet” with various stakeholders, coalitions, and congressional personnel to further cannabis policy reform every day, thanks to the financial support of our members. We are working hard to reintroduce priority bills, include the SAFE Banking Act in the next pandemic relief package, and are helping to craft new, exciting, progressive legislation that focuses on de-scheduling cannabis and creating a thriving, diverse, and equitable industry.
Stay tuned via our newsletter, website, and NCIA Connect to learn more about NCIA’s Lobby Days and what’s next. We can’t wait to host all of you back in our nation’s capital, but in the meantime, please stay safe and stay healthy!
Member Blog: Growing Beyond THC – Terroirs and Terpenes Are The Future Of Premium Cannabis
I’m a serial entrepreneur and my roots in Napa Valley run deep. I’ve been a cultivator in this beautiful terroir for over 40 years, initially as a wine guy from a family of growers and makers, and now as the Co-Founder and CEO of a premium seed-to-sale cannabis company. I see a lot of similarities between wine and cannabis, comparisons that paint a bright, accessible, and profitable future for our industry.
Wine + Cannabis Offer Interesting Comparisons
Both are agricultural products that are highly regulated, though cannabis far more so given the industry is still in its infancy. 40 years ago, when my family started in the wine business they experienced similar business challenges, or as I like to call them – opportunities.
Like wine, cannabis comes in a variety of strains and formats. Also, like wine, cannabis is extremely well suited to the growing conditions of California’s terroirs, especially those where I live in Northern California. If you think about the wide variety of wine varietals – Cabernet, Pinot, Sauvignon Blanc, Rieslings, and so on – there is an even greater variety of cannabis strains – Lemon Sour Diesel, Double Chem OG, Budzilla, Bogota Berry, etc. There is something for every palette, which pre-legalization, I am not sure many people really paid attention to. This is all to say, that just as there are many different ways to enjoy wine depending on your tastes, your budget, or your intentions and preferences, the same is true for cannabis.
There’s so much more. If you’ve ever had a great wine or even a decent wine, you know that there are all these flavors and aromas that layer on each other and evolve over time, interacting in different ways to create this wonderful sensory experience that’s both about taste and smell. The same goes for cannabis. Premium cannabis is as complex as the most complex wine. Both wine and cannabis contain terpenes and it’s the variety of different terpenes in each of them that determines the flavors, aromas, and overall experience. Coming from wine, this is something I understand and I think as people explore cannabis without the stigma of prohibition, they will begin to seek out terpene-rich strains, just as they now seek out complex wine profiles – perhaps unknowingly given how wine is such a normalized product in today’s society.
Of course, there are obvious differences between cannabis and wine. The plants themselves are very different. One’s an annual plant and one’s a perennial vine. But, they both produce very similar compounds that make the sensory experience of their flower and fruit so much richer.
Let’s Talk Terpenes
You’ve probably been hearing a lot more about terpenes lately. They’re kinda the new ‘it’ thing in our industry. Terpenes are organic compounds in plants responsible for the unique smells and tastes of your favorite plants, flowers, and fruits. Most people don’t know this but with both wine and cannabis, most of what you think you’re tasting is actually what you’re smelling. It’s these terpenes that give your favorite wines and cannabis strains their signature scents.
Some of them overlap — there are some of the same terpenes in both cannabis and wine grapes like limonene and myrcene. And then there are some terpenes that are more unique to one plant or the other. But it’s the same compounds and so coming out of wine, it was such a natural thing for me to say, I’m not in this to build the strongest, highest-THC-get-you-wasted product. I wanted to develop something that honored the terroirs I’ve come to know and love. A premium product offering, with the same wonderful components of the wines I’ve been creating and the same rich variety of flavor profiles as the grapes I’ve been growing for all these years.
As chemicals go, terpenes offer delicate but very distinctive aromas but they are volatile and, if you’re not careful, will disappear quite quickly. You have to work to maintain them to keep them from evaporating from your flower as from your wine. Taking the time and care to capture and preserve these aromas and flavors that are truly unique to each strain and varietal makes for a much richer experience than the extreme high that some people chase, the cannabis equivalent of Night Train. With cannabis, quickly harvesting the flower and getting it into a temperature and humidity-controlled drying room helps maintain these volatile compounds as does the way you cure and store the flower after the initial drying. In wine, we preserve the terpenes with careful barreling and bottling.
The best way to enjoy terpenes is to use a flower vaporizer. Just heating it up enough to release everything without burning it and without burning rolling paper that covers up the subtle aromas of the terpenes.
Outdoor Growing Enriches the Final Product
The cannabis plant has been growing outside for millennia and our hypothesis at Napa Valley Fumé is that growing outdoors creates a wider range of terpenes and a richer, more nuanced consumption experience. A plant, like a human being, is a holistic entity, it’s a being of a sort. If you took a person — like in The Truman Show — and never let them outside, what would that do to that being?
In truth, we don’t really know what indoor growing does to the plant. But what I think is that these plants are meant to be grown outside. That’s where they do their best. They have to contend with elements that make them stronger, and other factors like pests, which over time create resistance, again making them stronger. They are also receiving full-spectrum sunlight that changes each day of the year. As the year goes on, the color spectrum starts to vary. It is bluer in the spring and redder in the fall. So while I get the efficiency of indoor growing, I believe that all of these environmental elements together with the heating during the day and cooling at night and the fact that different growing regions have different climates and terroirs, you get the best, most interesting plants when you grow outdoors.
Terroir: As Important to Cannabis as They are to Wine Grapes
Terroir is a great word because it’s not just about one element, it’s about everything in a given place. The altitude, the soil, the mineral content of the water, the directional exposure to the sun. In Napa where we’re based, the terroir is affected by the fog that comes up from the Bay. We measure the temperature days over the course of the whole growing season, assessing the total heat that the plant received. All of these things contribute to the terroir and the terroir informs and enriches the sensory experience of the resulting fruit and flower.
Plants, whether you’re talking about grapes or cannabis, will perform differently in different terroirs and will express themselves in different, nuanced ways. For me, this suggests a bright future for sun-grown cannabis with a wide variety of strains each displaying the unique signature of their terroir. The same seed grown across different terroirs expresses really differently, resulting in a distinct profile in the flower and an enhanced consumption experience.
Bottom Line: Terpenes, Terroirs, and Outdoor Growing Paint a Bright Future
This plant has so much to offer and is so expressive. While there’s a place for both indoor and outdoor, it seems to me that the most expressive form of this plant, with the most interesting aromas and flavors, comes when you grow in the full spectrum of sunlight outdoors. To attain the same rich variety in your cannabis experience as you do with wine, you want to do it outdoors, you want to tend them for the greatest terpene expression, you want to pick your strains at the beginning for that. Optimizing for terpenes doesn’t just have a flavor effect, it also shapes the psychoactive effect of the flower. The right terpenes and compounds can make the resulting high sleepier or more energetic, as well as providing other health benefits that are currently supported by anecdotal evidence and will likely be born out in the research that is currently underway.
As with the trajectory of the wine industry, we believe that educating consumers about terpenes and terroirs and offering them a wider variety of products and consumption experiences, will expand the category, creating a bright future for all of us. I’m excited and encouraged by articles like this one from Wine Magazine that suggest that we’re on to something.
Eric Sklar is an entrepreneur, Napa Valley vineyard owner and public official. He and his family have been growing grapes in Napa Valley for 40 years and he planted his first licensed cannabis garden in 2018. Eric is the CEO and co-founder of Napa Valley Fumé, LLC, a cannabis management and branding company that has launched brands such as LAKE GRADE with a few others in the works. He is also the co-founder of the Napa Valley Cannabis Association and the President of California Fish and Game Commission, a position he has held since 2016.
In 2005, Eric founded Alpha Omega Winery in Rutherford, CA and was managing partner until 2013. He’s held positions on the Board of the Napa Valley Vintners, as well as Napa Valley Vintners’ Community and Industry Issues Committee. In 1989, he founded Burrito Brothers’ Inc., a restaurant chain based in Washington, DC, which he sold in 1999. Eric was also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Business where he taught courses in entrepreneurship, business strategy and marketing. He has held several other political positions including Assistant Press Secretary to Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro in 1984.
Eric received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley in 1984, a Diploma in Business Studies at the London School of Economics in 1986, and a Master of Business Administration at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 1997.
Committee Blog: Trust In Cannabis – Why It Matters More Now Than Ever
As a country, the U.S. is experiencing what can best be described as the “age of distrust.” While public distrust in institutions has been escalating for at least a decade, according to the annual Edelman Trust Barometer which has tracked trust in media, governments, businesses, and nonprofits since 2000. Social unrest and a global pandemic have escalated this distrust. Never has the public eyed institutions or businesses with such suspicion.
Meanwhile, in our industry, the vaping crisis of summer 2019 hit our industry below the belt, aided by some bad actors knowingly flooding the illicit market with products that couldn’t meet stringent state testing. That crisis created a crisis of confidence in the overall cannabis industry-leading it into a bleak period which was only partially buoyed by the declaration that dispensaries were considered “essential businesses” during the COVID-19 pandemic, pro-cannabis outcomes in both voting booths and Congress, many thanks to NCIA’s national and local efforts. By supporting NCIA, you’re signaling industry commitment and that you value growing trust within the industry.
Now, against the national backdrop of distrust and a COVID-19 vaccine that offers a glimmer of hope, it’s time to evaluate ourselves and our industry’s actions. Never has it been more crucial for all brands, but particularly our industry, to lean into actions and communications which consistently and powerfully earn the trust of investors and consumers. As an industry, we’re on an important precipice, what we do next will either ensure our credibility or tarnish it for years to come.
Consumers (and therefore investors) are looking at brands in a more holistic manner. Trust will be the single most valuable brand attribute.
Trust is defined on two spectrums: competence and ethics.
For CEOs, CMO’s, and experts in our industry, the time is now to act and communicate from a place of authentically aligned communications. This alignment will require hyper levels of empathy and a constant pulse on the state of affairs affecting your customers. Consumer behavior is in flux now.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed consumers and now is the time for brands to align. According to the Edelman Barometer special report, Brands Amidst Crisis:
The role of brands in reflecting the consumer’s desire to be viewed as a tastemaker or trendsetter has decreased 9%
Up 38% is spending time with family
86% of consumers expect brands to solve both societal and personal problems, including proper treatment of employees and making product in a domestic market
The only values more important than trust to consumers are price and quality
Because consumer behavior is in flux, it’s never been more important to ensure internal and external values and communications align. Ironically, ensuring alignment supports the flexibility needed to respond quickly to changing behaviors or unexpected upheaval.
Aligned communications means we act internally and externally in a consistent and emotionally intelligent manner that earns trust. It’s not just good for our industry, trust in brands has very real bottom-line implications including increased sales, increased investor opportunities, and reduced customer acquisition costs. In fact, according to Edelman Trust Barometer, high trust consumers have 75% more brand loyalty.
Outstanding packaging and even quality products are the minimum expectations for today’s brands. But even those choices come under scrutiny from consumers if they don’t mirror consumer expectations and lifestyle. Therefore, earning trust starts at the very beginning. The earliest choices are powerful signals to consumers about brand values.
It isn’t enough to simply sponsor a campaign or align with a social movement. While those choices can be powerful quivers in your trust arsenal, it feels and sounds hollow when the brand is suddenly thrusting itself into a conversation without looking at itself first. Consumers are increasingly aware of “trust washing.”
92% of employees expect their employer’s CEO to speak up for issues ranging from income inequality to diversity and training for future jobs. An aligned trust-based strategy starts on the inside. Take a solid look at the ethos and ethics within your own company.
What are your company’s values?
What do you stand for?
How do you signal trust internally and how do you reward it?
Does your internal communication stand for your values?
The reason this internal step is critical is no matter what, your brand ethos is distilled into consumer interactions and communication, whether those communications are with dispensary workers or directly to the consumer, the experience will always stay with the brand. Imagine a dispensary worker making recommendations to a new-to-cannabis buyer, naturally, the dispensary worker has a huge amount of influence on the consumer’s impression of a new brand. And new-to-cannabis buyers are most likely to be loyal to their first brand, assuming the product meets expectations.
Personal experience is the number one way to build trust with consumers. 59% of customers say personal experience matters the most.
What consumer interactions signal trust?
How do you manage poor reviews?
How do you handle customer inquiries?
How does your owned media reflect not only your brand values but those of your customers?
Personal experience is absolutely about product experience and brand interactions. Brand interactions at events will take on more importance in cannabis. Consumers will want to engage in an experiential way with cannabis brands and it won’t be at cannabis events exclusively, consumers will expect to see cannabis brands in all the same places they see alcohol brands, even if sales and sampling aren’t available, which means experiences will need to be multi-sensory and strongly personal. Choose your experiences carefully based on your brand audience and ethos.
Earned media is second only to personal experience incredible trust-building. During the COVID-19 pandemic, trust in publications increased by 7%. Brands should look for opportunities in earned media that reflect their values. Branded content is another area where brands can use the credibility of publications.
Experts are still considered credible sources (52%) and they far surpass celebrities (35%) and influencers (36%). As you consider brand strategies in 2021, take a careful look at who you’re leveraging and what role they play. Choose your experts carefully and ensure they are fully vetted. NCIA’s Marketing and Advertising Committee is developing an “experts directory” of carefully vetted industry professionals, this will be a key resource not only to event organizers, but CEOs and CMOs looking for credible, authentic experts.
Our industry has so much to offer consumers, we provide very real opportunities for consumers to enhance their lives. We have been active on numerous social justice fronts from the very beginning. We may come from a historical place of rebellion, but often, even that rebellion came from a place of empathy and not just income. Consumers today are responding to companies who double down on trust and an aligned brand value system. There’s every reason to think the cannabis industry can do this better than anyone. Together, let’s lean into our values and seed trust not just in our companies, but in our industry.
*All statistics come from Edelman Trust Barometer 2020, unless otherwise noted.
Tara Coomans is the CEO of Avaans Media (formerly known as Primo PR), which has been working with hemp and THC brands and services since 2015 from startup through IPO. Founded in 2008, Avaans Media brings a digitally forward and purpose-driven perspective to public relations. Avaans Media is based in Los Angeles with clients and team members distributed around the country including Washington D.C., New York and Denver.
Coomans is on NCIA’s Marketing & Advertising (MAC) committee and leads the MAC Experts Directory subcommittee for 2021. Coomans is a frequent writer and speaker on public relations, marketing, and social media topics.
Committee Blog: The Language Of the Cannabis Industry – Developing A Commercial Manufacturing Glossary
The language of the cannabis industry is crude. It’s not that the cannabis industry relies on vulgar or offensive words, but rather that modern cannabis vernacular remains raw, unrefined, incomplete, and sometimes contradictory, even in mature markets. Perhaps most generously described as “imprecise” or “fluid,” the current lexicon is changing as quickly as the industry, but not always for the better. Consistent and universal terminology are hallmarks of strong industries. As the cannabis industry (including both high-THC “marijuana” and low-THC “hemp”) continues to grow and prove its legitimacy, it is critical that everyone is speaking the same vocabulary.
Defining the issue
Out of necessity, the language of the cannabis industry took root in the dark. Decades of prohibition followed by state-led regulation has resulted in a fractured vocabulary where terms-of-commerce have fuzzy boundaries. The current landscape of murky terminology can inject ambiguity into everyday transactions and, in the worst of circumstances, mislead consumers. As some industry terms coalesce in particular regions, for example, other terms take on different meanings around the country. It is not a problem unique to the cannabis industry, but with its regulatory history, rapid product advancements, and diverse consumer base, the NCIA’s Cannabis Manufacturing Committee (“CMC”) felt it time to start a conversation about the words that define the industry.
With legalization comes a mass-consumer base and new forums to joust for consumer attention. Retail shelves, product packaging, and commercial advertising are the new arenas where cannabis companies try to describe their product to consumers and differentiate their brands from others. Out of this scrum comes a new marketing jargon that can be difficult to decipher. Shatter, crumble, butter, wax, sauce, diamonds, distillate, isolate, broad-spectrum, full-spectrum, partial-spectrum… and that is just in one section of the dispensary. Indeed, a huge swath of cannabis consumers fall into the infrequent or casual consumer demographics for which these terms mean next to nothing.
What’s the problem?
This linguistic haze is felt acutely in the manufacturing link of the supply chain. Manufacturing is the relatively nascent segment of the industry that converts raw cannabis plants into various medical, adult-use, and industrial products. In just the past two decades, new technologies have produced a glut of new products, each of which needs to be called something. But those new terms have ambiguous definitions that are easy vehicles for confusion. And where confusion is prevalent, both consumers and companies suffer.
For many cannabis customers, trying to decode a dispensary menu is like reading in an alien language. They frequently must rely on budtenders and marketing materials to understand some products’ basic characteristics. And even if they manage to become fluent in one dispensary’s menu, they may still find it difficult to predict how that menu will translate to other retailers across the country. The lack of vocabulary standardization would be untenable in the food or beverage industries. In the cannabis industry, where patients may rely on specific products for medical treatment, consumers should have a uniform vocabulary to describe products.
That challenge is not limited to retail consumers. Language is critical to the smooth functioning of intra-industry business relationships. As in any other industry, cannabis business relationships are far more successful when the parties’ expectations are aligned. When a dispensary orders tens of thousands of dollars in shatter, crumble, distillate, and tincture, they have certain expectations about the products they will receive. Even experienced extractors, operators, and executives have different understandings of where some products end and others begin.
Ambiguity in the commercial arena can lead to big problems. Among the best-case scenarios, a miscommunication results in a dissatisfied customer. More serious disagreements may require costly replacement shipments or refused deliveries. Of course, if the stakes are high enough and both parties are adamant in their positions, a linguistic quarrel may become a courtroom duel. Some advertising litigation, such as for “Refined Live Resin” vape cartridges, is already working its way through the court system. When it comes to cannabis terminology, fuzzy boundaries are not a standard the industry should embrace. But leaving cannabis industry terminology to the mercy of courts and regulators also holds little appeal.
And so…
…the CMC set out to create a working glossary. The goal of this document is to get the industry on the same page with published terminology standards as best understood by the NCIA’s Cannabis Manufacturing Committee. These standards are intended to facilitate commerce within the cannabis industry by increasing consistency and decreasing confusion.
The CMC developed a list of the most common terms that are currently utilized in the manufacturing segment. While the committee included some broad terms applicable to the industry at large, the focus was on those terms that most directly relate to cannabis extraction and refinement. From that list of industry terms, the committee drafted definitions that attempt to capture how those terms are currently being used throughout the legal cannabis industries. The CMC then shared those draft definitions with as many practitioners as it could to get a broad selection of perspectives. Wherever possible, the CMC sought to be inclusive of regional variations and note instances where terms are exceptions to a generally understood meaning. But the CMC understands that neither this process nor any other is guaranteed to represent all corners of an increasingly complex industry.
The document is not meant to be the ultimate word on cannabis terminology, but rather a snapshot in time and the starting page for a discussion about what the words of the cannabis industry should mean. Importantly, these definitions are the CMC’s attempt to capture how the terms are currently used, not how they should be used. Indeed, there are several well-qualified bodies debating the future of cannabis nomenclature, including ASTM’s D37 committee and the Emerald Conference.
Along with publication of this glossary, the NCIA’s Cannabis Manufacturing Committee is inviting comments from the entire cannabis community. Your constructive comments are a crucial part of forming the vocabulary of an industry. The CMC’s intent is to revisit these definitions approximately every calendar quarter, adding, revising, and annotating as new terms are invented and meanings inevitably shift.
Paul Coble is the founder and CEO of Thalo Technologies, a veteran intellectual property attorney, Vice-chair of the NCIA’s Cannabis Manufacturing Committee, and Chair of the Nomenclature Subcommittee.
The CMC focuses on reviewing existing business practices and state regulations of concentrates, topicals, vaporizers, and edibles, ensuring the manufacturing sector is helping shape its destiny.
The 117th Congress – What To Watch
Before we dive into what to watch this Congress, we’d like to acknowledge the totally unacceptable and disgusting violence that besieged the Capitol recently. You can read NCIA’s statement on the insurrectionhere.
by Michelle Rutter Friberg, NCIA’s Deputy Director of Government Relations
Photo By CannabisCamera.com
We’re barely halfway through January, and it already feels like so much has happened in 2021! We at NCIA anxiously watched along with the rest of the country to see who would be victorious in the Georgia Senate races and, subsequently, which party would control the U.S. Senate. Both of the Democrats, Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff defeated their Republican opponents and won their races —- ensuring that the Senate will be split 50-50 with Vice President-elect Harris being the tiebreaker.
The 117th Congress has barely begun, but after Inauguration Day on January 20th, things will really take off here in the nation’s capital. Keep reading to see my answers to FAQ’s for the new Congress:
Whatever happened to the SAFE Banking Act?
During the 116th Congress, the SAFE Banking Act (H.R. 1595/S. 1200) became the first cannabis-related bill to be passed by a chamber of Congress. In September of 2019, SAFE came to the House Floor under a suspension of the rules and passed by a whopping 321-103. While the bill had a hearing in the Senate Banking Committee back in the summer of 2019, it never received a markup or moved further than that. In addition to the bill itself, the SAFE Banking Act was also included in not one, but two COVID-19 relief packages passed by the House, colloquially known as HEROES I & II.
This session, the SAFE Banking Act will be back, and with even better chances to pass! The bill will be reintroduced in both the House and Senate in the next 1-2 months and we expect little to no changes to the text. Additionally, we’re also continuing to work with our Hill champions on this issue to see if we can get the language included in the next COVID-19 relief package — something that both President-elect Biden and Democratic leadership has said is pretty much priority number one.
In the meantime, keep an eye out for reintroduction and for how many cosponsors the bill has when it’s dropped — when the 116th Congress ended, SAFE had already passed the House as but also had 33 Senate cosponsors — that’s one-third of the entire chamber!
What’s next for the MORE Act and comprehensive cannabis reform? Is legalization on the horizon?
Cannabis policy ended the year on a high note (no pun intended!) when the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement Act (H.R. 3884), commonly known as the MORE Act, passed out of the House of Representatives by a vote of 228-164.
As I mentioned earlier, all eyes were on the Georgia Senate races as we strategized over what could be possible for the 117th Congress depending on the outcome. With the results in, we now have a better idea about what’s possible with comprehensive reform, but there’s still a lot of unknowns. We know that the MORE Act will be reintroduced sometime in the coming months in both the House and Senate. In the Senate, the lead sponsor was Kamala Harris, who is now Vice President-elect, which means another Senator will have to pick up the torch. I can’t share with you who it’s going to be just yet, but trust me when I say they will be a wonderful lead and are a true champion for cannabis reform!
A reintroduced MORE Act will likely have a good number of edits and changes, but the underlying intent of the bill will be the same: to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and help repair the harms the war on drugs has done — specifically to communities of color.
We also know that comprehensive reform, in general, has a better chance of advancing given that Democrats now control the Senate. Sen. Schumer (D-NY) was quoted in October as saying if he’s reinstalled as Majority Leader he “will put this bill in play,” and “I think we’ll have a good chance to pass it”, talking about his own bill, the Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act (S. 1552).
All of that being said, legalization, or the passage of comprehensive reform is far from a done deal. Legislation requires 60 votes for passage in the Senate, and we have a lot of hard work to do to get to that level of support in the upper chamber. In the House, Democrats have an even slimmer majority now than during the 116th Congress, so we also have to make sure we don’t lose support there.
What about appropriations?
You’ve been involved in cannabis for a long time if you remember when the appropriations process was the only way to get Congress to talk about this issue. But now, with Democrats controlling both chambers, you may be hearing more about these amendments again.
Appropriations bills are legislation in Congress that “appropriates,” or sets aside, federal funds to be divided between specific federal government departments, agencies, and programs. Read more about this process and why it matters for cannabishere.
Over the last few years, the House has continued to pass marijuana-related amendments but were unable to get through the Senate due to Republican control and a “gentleman’s agreement” between the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. But now, all of that will change.
In the past, appropriations amendments have been introduced that touch on a multitude of issues: research, veterans, medical and adult-use cannabis, hemp, banking… the list goes on! In this session, expect to see cannabis-related amendments included in the final budget. Just remember that budget bills must be passed annually, so anything that comes into law this way must be renewed again next year!
What’s going to happen at the committee level?
If you’re following cannabis policy at the federal level, definitely keep your eyes on what’s happening in various congressional committees. Given who controls both chambers, all of the committees will now be chaired by Democrats, which means you’re going to see a lot of cannabis-related bills come up for hearings and markups. Some I’ll be keeping my eye on, including both chambers’ appropriations, financial services, tax, and judiciary committees.
The opportunities for reforming our outdated cannabis laws have never been brighter than they are right now as we begin the 117th Congress. Bills are going to begin dropping left and right — and that’s because there’s a ton of excitement, enthusiasm, and optimism about what we can accomplish over the next two years.
Want to learn more about what’s possible? Make sure your company is an active member of NCIA and register for our next members-only webinar with our government relations team on Wednesday, January 27, or, if you can’t make it, hop on over to NCIA Connect to chat with us and learn more about what we’re working on in D.C.!
Committee Blog: Future-Proofing Your Business – How Adopting Industry Standards Improves Your Bottom Line and Reduces Your Risks
By developing and adopting standards now, operators in the cannabis space can avoid unnecessary future expenses they might incur when needing to rework established facilities to meet upcoming federal standards or third-party compliance
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in 1905led to the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. The food sector has matured through additional governmental regulations, industry-led initiatives, consumer and trade guidelines and standards, and more recently, the Food Safety Modernization Act. Over one hundred years of progress helped to ensure what is arguably the safest food supply in the world. By comparison California, in 1996, 24 years ago, legalized Medical Cannabis. Since then, 36 states have legalized cannabis for medical or adult use. Confusingly, that is 36 different sets of regulations, none harmonized. And no consensus on how FDA will regulate cannabis when it is descheduled.
But investors and producers in the cannabis sector are seeking direction on how to future proof their businesses so they can manage the transition from fragmented state-level regulations to rigorous federal oversight. Developing and adopting cannabis industry best practices may be the greatest insurance available.
NCIA’s Facility Design Committee is one of the few groups beginning this effort. The group has representatives from operations, regulatory compliance, quality, equipment vendors, design and construction, and allied industries.
Standards can focus on several areas. Because the cannabis industry deals with substances that are ingested into the human body, standards that support consumer health and safety are paramount. Much of the current practice in the food sector, organized under the topic of current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), can port over to Cannabis with some adjustments. These practices protect consumers and your brand. GMPs have, as a foundation, many aspects of facility and process design, but standards for these don’t yet exist. However, by developing and adopting standards now, operators in the cannabis space can avoid unnecessary future expenses they might incur when needing to rework established facilities to meet upcoming federal standards or third-party compliance. They also can control their own destiny, in effect, by establishing approaches that later can be considered as regulators write the rules in the future.
As operators themselves, a number of our committee members have felt the direct impact of product recalls due to a lack of clear delineation at the intersection of cannabis and food safety regulations. Depending on the scope of the recall, a company can be crippled by not properly understanding and adhering to a common set of standards across the industry, especially when concerning safe food handling practices and similar regulations that control consumable product manufacturing. For example, one of our committee members had to recall a batch of infused gummies because public health regulators used safe food handling regulations to determine that the gummies were exposed for too long in a potentially contaminated environment during the setting process. Had the operator adhered to standards commonly used in food production, they would have avoided the costly impact of the product recall. With nearly 15% of flower failing tests for yeast and mold in Colorado, the cannabis industry has become no stranger to costly recalls.
Standards not only minimize risk to the consumer and the business, but also improve quality and consistency. Improve employee NPS (Net Promoter Scores). Reduce cost and production downtime. Increase the inherent value of the business. And offer a brand message that increases sales.
Nearly all related industries follow best practices, known as cGMPS (current Good Manufacturing Practices), which can be adopted for our industry. If we look to examples from the food sector, you find mature and professional regulations at the federal level and experienced inspectors from USDA, FDA and state departments of Health or Agriculture, as well as global standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), initiatives from trade customers such as Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), equipment certifications from European Hygienic Equipment Design Group (EHEDG), NSF International, and 3-A Sanitary Standards. This constellation of resources is not yet published for the cannabis sector.
Join us in this exciting journey. Become involved, and stay aware of and ahead of the pending regulations. We don’t have 114 years to get this right!
The Facilities Design Committee (FDC) focuses on providing NCIA members and regulators a framework and information about facilities design options through which legal producers can plan for GMP level production as the market transitions from a state to a federally regulated industry.
Member Blog: Augmented Reality CBD, Cannabis Product Labels – Entertainment Paves Path to Education
by Gary Paulin, VP of Sales and Client Services at Lightning Labels
Everyone loves good, entertaining stories. In part, their value lies in information — and education — sticking with recipients long after the storytelling has ended.
There’s a correlation in this to the value of Augmented Reality (AR) CBD and cannabis labels — which provide a novel, entertaining way to capture and keep audience attention. Along the way, product-makers have an opportunity to provide credibility-enhancing education about products, trends, quality control, and the like.
More than ever, consumers want to feel their products protect them. Likewise, cannabis and CBD manufacturer reputation and revenues hinge on consumers feeling safe using their products, and clear about proper (and improper) uses.
Augmented Realitybrings interaction and product labeling together, using smart device apps, and even your smart phone’s camera to create an enhanced user experience. When viewers download a related smartphone app and point it at the product’s label, they can see an array of different options including videos, 2D/3D content, social media sharing options, and content that enables seeing how products appear in the real world. A web-based interaction can be launched using your phone’s camera – just open your camera app and point it toward a QR code. In either case, the AR experience is initiated, and interacting with brand labels this way is fun, interesting, and can be extremely educational.
In many ways, it’s like hearing and seeing a story. When connected to useful, practical educational information, AR can fully address common and compelling consumer concerns at a time when fears about safety and health are at an all-time high.
In turn, this can assist manufacturers looking to gain another competitive edge when it comes to consumer awareness, preference, and sentiment. This further strengthens the labels’ role as the front door to product marketing and sales.
TrendHunter.com, dedicated to trend identification, notes that AR is gaining popularity in a variety of industries, ranging from food and beverage to cannabis. Regarding labels, the site notes: “The food and beverage industry adopts augmented reality-based labels… The use of AR in food labels is on the rise, with brands using such technology to both engage and educate their customers on the products they’re considering, or have already purchased. Such items cater to consumers’ continued interest in gamification, and add an element of interactivity that tends to be limited in product packaging.”
TrendHunter.com continues: “Though consumers tend to go online and research the details pertaining to products they purchase, the amount of information to sort through can be overwhelming. Thus, having brands do some of the work in relation to product education allows consumers the freedom to purchase in-person. With tech-integrations into labeling and packaging, this process is streamlined for consumers.”
Specifically targeting cannabis, TrendHunter.com emphasizes: “Virtual and augmented reality enters the cannabis space… The merging of augmented and virtual realities with the cannabis industry is on the rise as brands look to offer immersive experiences for connoisseurs and beginners alike. These platforms offer benefits like virtual product libraries and augmented package engagement — prioritizing both informative and creative experiences for viewers… For novice consumers, being informed about this emerging space is crucial in order to alleviate some of the apprehension they feel when they’re considering consuming a substance that was once attached with stigma and misinformation.”
Here are some hands-on, straightforward ways that AR-powered cannabis and CBD product labels can engage and educate consumers:
Show products being manufactured, establishing quality controls, purity and other credibility-building examples along the way;
Relate customer stories and reviews endorsing products, benefits and efficacy;
Address claims and controversies within the industry or involving the company itself;
Document complete tracking of products from seed to shelf, proving authenticity and quality control;
Provide ways (and encouragement) for consumers to interact with a brand via AR;
Offer easy social media sharing options, so that individual consumers can become brand information hubs via their networks.
Gary Paulin is VP of Sales and Client Servicesat Lightning Labels, a Denver-based custom label printer that uses state-of-the-art printing technology to provide affordable, full-color custom labelsand custom stickers of all shapes and sizes. Contact: sales@lightninglabels.com; 800.544.6323 or 303.481.2304.
Video: Member Spotlight – HAL Extraction
NCIA recently visited with our members HAL Extraction based in Golden, Colorado. While social-distancing with the team there, we learned more about their extraction rooms, booth, and labs, and how operators can get their cannabis extraction production facility up and running. The company’s Chief Engineer, Josh Gladfelter, gave us a tour and demonstration of the capabilities of their product offerings, while Sales Manager Emma Byrnes explained how the company works with customers to find solutions to their specific needs. As explained by the company’s President, Patric Galvin, HAL Extraction is focused on leading the way for industry’s safety standards, helping facilities achieve compliance, and the longevity of our industry. Learn more and take a tour in this NCIA member video spotlight.
Member Blog: Five Reasons to Use a High-Speed Smart Safe for Your Cannabis Business
There are many challenges to running a successful cannabis business, including finding the correct product to sell, hiring and training qualified budtenders, dealing with state regulations, accepting cash payment, and depositing cash into the limited number of banks and credit unions that accept cannabis business. Although many economists and magazines believe cash is going away with the recent introduction of digital and app-style payment solutions, in the cannabis space, cash is king. Cash payment is really the only form of payment for many states except for the rare occasions an app can be used. The questions that have been asked for years are what does the cannabis industry do with the cash payments they receive, how is the cash counted and secured, and how can it be deposited into the business bank account?
Cannabis businesses are always looking for ways to effectively count cash and make deposits in their retail locations while simultaneously trying to lower labor cost, increase accountability and productivity, and reduce risk. Traditional deposit preparation methods have not drastically evolved in the last 50+ years. A budtender will pull their till from the drawer and count down to the starting till amount, leaving the remaining funds as the deposit. In addition, it is also common practice for businesses to incorporate dual authentication practices, essentially double counting, or counting in the presence of a witness to ensure the count is correct. While dual authentication can give the impression of good quality control and insurance, unfortunately, it raises the cost of counting the deposit inside the store by tying up at least two employees’ time and attention on trivial cash counting responsibilities. Granted the store manager is a salaried employee, but the downside is the store manager is managing for time to count cash instead of the daily sales, however, there is a much better, faster, and more accurate way to make deposits in the cannabis industry.
A high-speed smart safe is faster than counting by hand and a more secure way to deliver cash deposits to the select banks. The reason is, at the end of the night, the procedure of making a deposit at the bank location is a dangerous one and is why many organizations will have utilized the same type of dual authentication to drive to the bank to make the deposit in the night drop box. Again, there is an illusion of safety with having two people make a deposit in the night drop. Here are five of the many reasons to use a high-speed smart safe in a cannabis business:
Accountability:
The smart safe provides individual user accountability, by capturing critical transactional data: who is making a deposit, the date and time stamp of the transaction, and the total value of the deposit. Individual user accountability allows customers to abandon the need to deploy dual authentication practices, allowing managers to reallocate their time and attention towards revenue-building responsibilities: supervising employees, training employees, inventory, customer service, etc.
Remote Visibility:
An online dashboard provides detailed transaction statements, trend/behavior tracking potential, and simplified reconciliation reporting. Reports can be accessed online from any device, downloaded/exported, and shared across your network, which improves the efficiency of accounting and loss prevention departments. The online dashboard will have different reports ranging from daily deposit, transactional history for the day, and a monthly deposit report for easy reconciliation.
Deposit Accuracy:
Incorporated bill validators will count and authenticate each note before securing funds into their final depository, thus creating a closed-loop system-cash is deposited, not dispensed.
Security of Funds:
By incorporating drop policies that align with the placement of the cash management device, customers can achieve an efficient and secure deposit process, but also reduce unnecessary cash exposure that may accumulate within a till drawer or within the back office. Smart safes are designed to only allow the Cash In Transit Company to pick up all deposited cash thus reducing the risk of theft.
Provisional Credit:
Provisional Credit is an online credit to the business bank account prior to the removal and secondary validation of funds offsite. In conjunction with your banking relationship, a smart safe has the ability to transmit a daily electronic file to the bank where said bank will give credit on the day’s deposit.
With the proper smart safe in place, it will allow cannabis business owners to manage the cash deposits more efficiently and reduce risk inside the location, and to reduce lower/short deposits. The smart safe gives each owner the ability to log in to the online dashboard from any device connected to the internet and see all the transactions from all smart safes across all their cannabis locations. Just imagine having the ability to see all deposits and transaction history in one convenient place to allow for better transparency and reconciliation. With the CARES Act being introduced and voted on, if passed, it would afford for more banking partners and offer more options for the smart safe to send provisional credit to your bank.
Bobby Combs is National Account Executive at Kisan America Corporation. He has over 6 years of experience in the cash automation industry and utilizing previous experience to formulate best practices and redesign cash handling procedures to maximize efficiency and reduce risk and labor. Kisan provides cash management solutions through smart banknote deposit and sorting systems.
Member Blog: GMPs – A Way Ahead for Hemp and CBD Firms
The hemp industry is the marijuana industry’s half-sister. Both are variations of the plant cannabis sativa and both were made illegal in 1937 with the passing of The Marijuana Tax Act. Flash forward to the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (known as the 2018 Farm Bill) that was signed into law by Congress on December 20, 2018. One year later, The USDA issued interim regulations that entitled Establishment of a Domestic Hemp Production Program for the cultivation of hemp on October 31, 2019. Both were huge steps forward for public access to hemp and hemp products. FDA legalized the growing of hemp in states with a state-mandated hemp program and removed hemp and its derivatives from Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Schedule I status and the U.S. Domestic Hemp Program aims to approve cultivation plans issued by states and Indian Tribes.
Even so, then FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb issued a statement hours after the signing of the Farm Bill reiterating that “Congress explicitly preserved the agency’s current authority to regulate products containing cannabis or cannabis-derived compounds under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) and section 351 of the Public Health Service Act.”
Still today, two years later and counting, FDA only permits CBD products submitted as an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application as a pharmaceutical and there remains only one such accepted CBD product, Epidiolex, manufactured by G.W. Pharma. All other CBD products are illegal for interstate shipment.
In-state production and sales may be a different story, provided that state has a mandated hemp program. In those cases, provided state law is followed, production and sales are legal and protected, but the minute products cross state lines, they become the jurisdiction of the federal government and, more specifically, the FDA. At least 47 states have enacted legislation to establish hemp production programs or allow for hemp cultivation research.
Section 10113 of The 2018 Farm Bill states that (c) Nothing in this subtitle shall affect or modify:
(1) the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 301 et seq.);
(2) section 351 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 262); or
(3) the authority of the Commissioner of Food and Drugs and the Secretary of Health and Human Services- ‘‘(A) under- ‘‘(i) the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 301 et seq.); or ‘‘(ii) section 351 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 262); or ‘‘(B) to promulgate Federal regulations and guidelines that relate to the production of hemp under the Act described in subparagraph (A)(i) or the section described in subparagraph (A)(ii).”
The mission of the FDA is “to ensure the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices.” As such, FDA categorizes every product for sale in the U.S. which is either ingested or applied to a human or animals into categories. That means hemp-derived CBD products will have to lawfully fit into one of those categories, however, while there has been positive movement towards the legal sale of hemp products on the USDA cultivation side, the FDA has authority over foods and dietary supplements, and the FDA’s position is that the addition of hemp/CBD to a food or dietary supplement is “violative.” In a Consumer Update statement revised on November 25, 2019, the FDA clearly stated that “it cannot conclude that CBD is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) among qualified experts for its use in human or animal food.”
That being said, FDA has indicated it would be open to review of safety data for submission of a cannabinoid as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) for Food or as a New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) in a supplement as the lack of any federal regulation runs the potential of putting people at risk. That has sent the industry scurrying to design and initiate studies in the hopes of demonstrating levels of safety that meet FDA’s satisfaction.
In the meantime, those currently operating in states where hemp manufacturing is legal, must ensure Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) are adhered to closely. Should the FDA ever allow hemp products with CBD to be sold in the future, a manufacturer’s ability to demonstrate understanding and compliance with GMPs will be critical. Each FDA regulated industry has its own set of GMPs for the development and implementation of quality systems.
21 CFR 117, Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventative Controls for Human Food
21 CFR 507, Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventative Controls for Food for Animals
21 CFR 111, Current Good Manufacturing Practice in Manufacturing, Packaging, Labeling, or Holding Operations for Dietary Supplements
21 CFR 210, Current Good Manufacturing Practice in Manufacturing, Processing, Packing, or Holding of Drugs; General
21 CFR 211, Current Good Manufacturing Practice for Finished Pharmaceuticals
FDA Draft Guidance for Industry, Cosmetic Good Manufacturing Practice, June 2013
As the industry waits in the hopes that FDA will come on board with those states that have already legalized CBD’s use in products, it important to take the necessary steps to develop GMP protocols and quality systems as part of documented Standard Operating Procedures and record-keeping that those procedures are being followed, products are being tested and those tests are being validated.
Ensure as you begin to develop or strengthen your GMP programs that you do so with a full understanding of the requirements set forth in 21 CFR 111. Whether these programs are designed in-house or with the assistance of an outside consulting firm, ensure your GMPs are specific to your manufacturing procedures as opposed to a stock one-size-fits-all program. A reputable consulting firm with demonstrable expertise in FDA regulations and in helping to develop these GMPs is a good place to start, one that listens to your questions and concerns before providing you their stock answer. A good consulting firm can walk you through your unique processes.
Ensure your quality systems are robust and documented, including your demonstrations that your cGMPs are being followed.
Charlotte Peyton supports EAS Consulting Group CBD and hemp clients as well as that of dietary supplements and pharmaceuticals. As an independent consultant, she assists with projects ranging from startup through manufacturing and support. Her expertise includes quality, regulatory and management, method development, and method validation for FDA regulated drug, dietary supplement, and bioanalytical samples. She has extensive experience in writing validation protocols, reports, and SOPs and assists with implementation of stability programs and report writing for finished products.
EAS Consulting Group, a member of the Certified family of companies, is a global leader in regulatory solutions for industries regulated by FDA, USDA, and other federal and state agencies. Our network of over 150 independent advisors and consultants enables EAS to provide comprehensive consulting, training, and auditing services, ensuring proactive regulatory compliance for food, dietary supplements, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, cosmetics, tobacco, hemp, and CBD.
Video: NCIA Today – August Recap, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Update, Election Predictions, and more!
Host Bethany Moore, NCIA’s Communications Manager and host of NCIA’s weekly Podcast ‘NCIA’s Cannabis Industry Voice‘ brings you an in-depth look at what is happening across the country in federal cannabis policy reform and with NCIA.
From the top, Bethany discusses the new NCIA #IndustryEssentials webinar series. Webinars that arenʻt just about getting some big-name talking heads on a Zoom call, but about getting the correct people with the most up-to-date information to help our members stay ahead of the curve. This new series provides insights you canʻt find anywhere else, from experts who will surprise and delight you with their in-depth knowledge on relevant industry topics.
We check in with NCIA Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Manager Tahir Johnson to hear some of the recent highlights from his new show “The Cannabis Diversity Report.” Launched alongside the NCIA Social Equity Scholarship program, this weekly conversation takes an in-depth look at navigating, regulating, and growing the cannabis industry as a minority operator.
Director of Public Policy Andrew Kline joins Bethany on NCIA Today to discuss the nomination of Kamala Harris as the Democrats’ vice-presidential choice. A former Biden staffer and advisor, Kline discusses the minute differences he sees in the nominees’ cannabis policy and his expectation that Senator Harris can help Vice President Biden’s views evolve.
2020 isn’t completely canceled, as we begin registration for this November’s #CannaBizSummit CYBER, register today!
Committee Blog: Best Practices Guide – Allergen Labeling
Determining which edible to consume is an art all by itself. Making that choice when you suffer from food allergies often makes the decision all the more challenging.
Despite the continued federal illegality of cannabis, cannabis products are still obligated to abide by federal labeling requirements regarding the disclosure and identification of the presence of common allergens, including tree nuts (such as coconut and almonds), peanuts, fish, shellfish, dairy, soy, eggs, and gluten. Labels often do identify the presence of those ingredients and sometimes even the traces thereof. Although companies are seemingly committed to following federal requirements, there is still a continued absence of additional, more specific information that could help individuals with allergies make better-informed decisions when selecting their edibles.
A commitment to providing more information in labeling of common allergens not only helps consumers but also has the propensity to battle the stigma of cannabis as an underground and unregulated industry by embracing more advanced self-regulation and increased transparency. Additional information promotes transparency in the production and packaging processes, and provides valuable information to the discerning customer in addition to promoting better business practices. With roughly one in 20 adults allergic to peanuts or tree nuts, at least 5% of purchasers are directly impacted by the information related to the presence and management of nuts in a manufacturing facility.
In the marketplace today, common label designations include “may contain traces of,” “produced in a facility that also processes” or “produced on equipment that also processes.” Rarely is more information provided. Even though broad strokes disclosures satisfy federal requirements and limit legal liability, they do not do much to inform consumers suffering from allergies who could eat something produced with care, but cannot safely or comfortably consume food products that may contain traces of. With anxiety and paranoia, a potential consequence of cannabis overconsumption, the availability of more information about the presence of allergens on a label could possibly cure or temper an unwarranted freakout. More detailed information could even help avoid emergency room visits and the related trauma and anxiety from experiencing allergic reactions or the vestiges of one. No one enjoys the associated trauma and paranoia of hives in their mouth or wheezing while under the influence of an edible because they ate something that may contain traces of and actually did contain traces of the allergen.
The “may contain traces of” designation is good for the edible manufacturer at discharging potential liability, but it does not do much for consumers that are actually allergic to the items beyond sending the signal that if they consume the product, there is a possibly a legally identifiable amount present within the edible that could potentially trigger a severe allergic reaction. The language provides little information as to why there may be traces of the allergen. For the affected consumer, the business practices used to segregate common allergens or otherwise avoid cross-contamination or contact is what is critical for determining the likelihood and magnitude of the risk of any potential contamination, and therefore the risk presented by the consumption of an edible. This language, while good for insulation from liability, is not informative as to how the traces may have occurred and has the potential to be misleading and deter purchasers that would not be deterred if the label were more accurate at disclosing where in the production chain a potential trace of contamination could have occurred.
Manufacturers currently provide notice if there are “traces of,” or if equipment or a facility contains a common allergen, but they could go further. Four potentially more informative versions of “may contain traces of” or “made on the same equipment as other items that include…” or “made in the same facility as items that include” are:
Produced in a facility, but on separate equipment,
Produced on equipment, that processes INSERT ALLERGEN(S), but using best/reasonable business practices to segregate allergens in the production and storage process.
Produced on equipment, that processes INSERT ALLERGEN(S) where the facility produces products containing allergens on different days than products not containing INSERT ALLERGEN(S).
Produced in a facility that processes INSERT ALLERGEN(S) where the facility produces products containing allergens on different days than products not containing INSERT ALLERGEN(S). All production machinery is cleaned between the productions of different types of edible products.
Cannabis edibles product manufacturers could lead the charge on providing more informative allergen disclosures by promoting the use of more descriptive labeling practices. While such a move may cost fractions of a penny in ink and packaging real estate, the goodwill it could buy is invaluable. The loyalty of the allergy afflicted consumer (and the purchasers who care for or care about them) should not be understated. If a little extra print turns one in 20 customers into a lifetime brand patron, it is probably worth the rub.
Brandon Dorsky helps clients navigate the constantly evolving global marketplace in a variety of industries, providing strategic, seasoned counsel to facilitate growth, mitigate risk and seize opportunity in the cannabis, fashion, music, entertainment and media industries. Through a wealth of experience, contacts, enthusiasm, and commitment, clients receive carefully tailored legal and consulting services to accelerate their business’s success.
Member Blog: Drug Testing In Legal States – Corporate Policy vs. State Law
Currently, 33 states have legalized medical marijuana, and 11 others have given the green light to marijuana’s recreational use; however, the federal government still classifies any use of marijuana as illegal. This disparity creates a rift when employers go to test new employees for drugs.
Workplace drug testing began in the 1980s as part of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s “War on Drugs” campaign. At that time, employers wanted to ensure their workers were fit to do the job at hand. Since marijuana has become legalized in many states, employers in these states are unsure of new drug testing protocols; so are the states and legal systems themselves.
The resulting situation is a Catch-22.
Without testing, there would be more applicants for any given job and a larger pool of prospective workers. Therefore, employers would potentially get the strongest candidates. However, with testing, employers can assure they get drug-free employees who will be safe on the job.
But if marijuana is legal in some places and not others, who gets to decide where to draw the line?
Safety on the Job
Safety on any job is paramount, which requires workers who are alert and capable of completing the intricacies of the job.
According to Business News Daily, “The problem for employers is that impairment, because of marijuana, is usually much more difficult to detect and test for than alcohol. Unlike alcohol, it is very difficult for employers to determine if a positive drug test for marijuana is the result of drug usage during work or on non-work hours, so it is logistically simpler to just have an outright ban.”
Making the issue cut and dry is much easier on employers compared to making case-by-case decisions.
Additionally, any companies that accept federal money or hold contracts with the federal government will have to maintain drug testing protocols. In other business sectors, the line is not clear, which calls the legality of testing into question.
Legality of Testing
With the ever-changing state cannabis laws and the potential for cannabis to be legalized on the federal level, the nation is basically in a “trial and error” situation. Regardless, employers must keep current with these ever-changing circumstances to protect themselves and their employees.
The medical nature of marijuana usage further complicates the matter. Currently, 33 states issue medical marijuana cards, which permits users to use marijuana to treat medical issues. Business News Daily says, “Several states have specific laws protecting medical cannabis patients from employment discrimination. Typically, employers can require drug testing before employment and at random times, so long as there is no discrimination against medical marijuana users [who] are legally allowed cannabis for medicinal reasons.”
Besides the debate over medical marijuana cards, employers are stymied about what to do regarding recreational use as it pertains to the workplace. Since testing results can return positive weeks after the person smokes, there is really no way to tell if someone is a habitual user or it was a one-time event.
The states are divided. Currently, about 20 states will not allow discrimination in the workplace. But there is only one state that has gone so far as to say that recreational use of marijuana use is acceptable: Maine. Other states are starting to follow suit. Nevada law ensures that there can be no adverse outcomes for positive tests. And New York City will soon get rid of pre-employment testing altogether.
Other states are not so quick to change. For instance, workers in Illinois can still be disqualified as applicants or terminated as employees for a positive test. Currently, Illinois allows for the “good faith belief” that employees can consider workers under the influence if their speech or actions seem impaired.
Unfortunately, even the court systems do not agree. In some recent cases, the judge has sided with state rights, and in others, the federal appeal was victorious.
Moving forward, employees and employers need to continue the “wait and see” approach until federal and state employment laws catch up to the legalization of cannabis. For now, employers must determine their comfort levels with recreational marijuana use as it pertains to safety in the workplace.
Samantha Vanegas retains a MBA from the University of Florida Warrington College of Business. She works with the leaders of small start-up and growth-stage companies and non-profit organizations who seek temporary leadership to support growth and transitions. Whether for project-based work or as an interim manager, she is fabulous at supporting individuals and teams who are passionate about their work and need help bringing order to all the moving parts. She addresses common issues such as: how to build effective organizational infrastructure and systems; and, how to create and implement a strategy that will carry your business forward. She is a problem-solver who is able to envision the sum of the parts during and through transitions. She has a strong background in sales, operations, HR and marketing which elevates her expertise in assisting organizations with compliance intelligence and also with user, customer and employee experience surveys and solutions.
ath Power Consulting is an all-in-one resource for multi-modality survey and mystery shop research, competitive intelligence, compliance auditing, market analyses, employee training, and strategic consulting. Since 1997, we have helped our clients improve customer retention, build brand loyalty and advocacy, deepen employee engagement, measure compliance, maximize performance, and increase profitability – distinguishing them from their competition and giving them a commanding edge in the marketplace.
SAFE Banking Not Included In Newest COVID-19 Relief Package
by Michelle Rutter Friberg, NCIA’s Deputy Director of Government Relations
Today, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and the GOP caucus unveiled the text of their long-awaited coronavirus relief package. The initial draft text of the bill did not include any cannabis provisions, namely, the SAFE Banking Act.
If you’ll recall, back in May, the House of Representatives passed the HEROES Act, which included the text of H.R. 2215, the SAFE Banking Act. The language included in the House-passed HEROES Act would make it easier for financial institutions to work with cannabis businesses that are in compliance with state law, as well as help address serious public health and safety concerns caused by operating in predominantly cash-only environments. After the House passed the bill, it remained in the Senate while the GOP-controlled chamber came up with their own version.
But, a lot can change in a few months. Since HEROES passed the House in May, NCIA has been hard at work (from home!) talking to House and Senate leadership, as well as other key Senate offices. The good news is that those conversations have been overwhelmingly positive and we feel incredibly hopeful that the discussion about SAFE Banking will continue to be a part of the conversation as negotiations progress.
Make sure you stay engaged and continue to tell your lawmakers that you are a cannabis voter and that these issues are important to you! Contact your Senators today and ask that they support SAFE Banking as a necessary piece of legislation that can help the tens of thousands of cannabis workers stay healthy by allowing our industry access to legitimate banking and end our cash-only operations.
Want to make sure you hear the latest about what’s happening in cannabis policy? Follow NCIA on social media and be sure to share important information and resources as we release them with your networks, because we’re going to need all of us in this together!
The most important thing anyone can do to make sure SAFE Banking and other important reforms are realized in Congress is to ensure that their cannabis business is a member of NCIA. If you are not yet a member, please support our work by joining today. If you already are a member, thank you for making our advocacy work possible.
Committee Blog: What’s Up With Cannabis Standards?
by David Vaillencourt, The GMP Collective, NCIA Facility Design Committee
and Alena Rodriguez, Rm3 Labs, NCIA Scientific Advisory Committee
The cat is out of the bag despite the continued federal illegality of cannabis in the United States. A few years ago, the United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) recognized the need for standardization to address the safety and quality of cannabis used for medical purposes for the now estimated 3 million+ patients across the country. While the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) does not develop standards and does not operate as a self-regulatory organization, it strongly supports the work being done by experienced standards-setting bodies. While NCIA lobbies for federal descheduling, the involvement of the USP and other organizations is another strong indicator of progress with respect to consumer and patient safety.
The USP is a nonprofit that humbly began with a small group of physicians on a brisk New Year’s Day in January of 1820. At the time, people would turn to their local apothecary for medications, where a druggist would mix together custom preparations from hand-collected plants and minerals. The types and quantities of these ingredients varied widely, with multiple names for the same medicine. Though sometimes not the fault of the physicians, it was not uncommon for the treatment to be worse than the disease. The USP rapidly evolved from a resource to an authority, when the importation of poor-quality medicines from Europe led to the Drug Importation Act of 1848. Tragic incidents of impurities and toxins in drugs over the years ultimately led to the 1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, in which Congress declared that certain medicines sold in the US must meet applicable USP quality standards. It should be noted that the USP included standards for cannabis preparations in the Pharmacopeia from 1851 until 1942.
Nearly 80 years later, the USP and several other internationally recognized groups are responding to the need to support the cannabis industry despite the quagmire of cannabis legality. Recently, the USP formed an expert panel of clinicians, scientists, and industry representatives from around the world resulting in a peer-reviewed article recently published in the Journal of Natural Products. The recommendations offered in this article (available here) provide a valuable foundation for the alignment of testing and quality attributes for cannabis flower. It is important to note that the USP published this information in a peer-reviewed article rather than a formal compendial monograph because of cannabis’ Schedule I status. Regardless, this article is another critical milestone towards standardization of the widely used plant, and it is only possible with support from individuals with knowledge of cannabis. Fortunately, there are established platforms that we as an industry can participate in and align with, known as Standards Development Organizations, or SDOs, that work closely with the USP to continue the advancement of our industry. In fact, many SDO efforts are referenced in the USP article.
ASTM International is one SDO that has responded favorably to industry and regulatory requests for assistance in standardizing cannabis. Founded in 1898 as the American Society for Testing and Materials, the group pioneered the standardization for the steel used to fabricate rails as frequent rail breaks across the fast-growing railroad industry plagued efficient transport of goods across the country between previously disconnected cities. Of the over 12,800 global standards published through ASTM’s rigorous consensus process, nearly one-third of them are codified within our federal regulations. ASTM Standards help ensure that the products in our lives can be depended on for safety, quality, and reliability.
The next time you wear a snowsport helmet, buy a crib for your child, use surgical gloves, pump gasoline, or get a new roof for your house, thank ASTM for creating the standards that help ensure that these items are safe. And lucky for us, now ASTM is focusing on cannabis standards.
In 2017, Committee D37 on Cannabis was formed, with subcommittees focused on developing test methods, cultivation best practices, quality assurance, processing and handling, security, and electronic devices. Today, over 800 members from 26 countries are actively contributing to the development of voluntary consensus standards. To date, more than a dozen voluntary consensus standards have been passed through the highly respected balloting process, providing specifications on water activity for cannabis flower, guidance on security plans, and many more. You can learn more about Committee D37 here and become a member here.
Another SDO is AOAC International, formerly known as the Association of Official Analytical Chemists. AOAC is a third-party, international association that establishes standard analytical methods and has been around since 1884. With the help of expert volunteers, AOAC ensures allOfficial Methods of Analysis (OMA) are highly scrutinized, scientifically sound, and defensible. OMA methods are recognized in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations and are legally defensible in court globally.
AOAC created the Cannabis Analytical Science Program (CASP) to convene experts to discuss, develop, and validate cannabis testing standards. CASP is made up of five working groups: Microbiological Contaminants, Chemical Contaminants, Cannabinoids in Consumables, Training and Education, and Proficiency Testing. So far, CASP has published two First Action Official Methods for Cannabinoids in Cannabis sativa Dried Flowers and Oils (2018.10) and the Quantitation of Cannabinoids in Cannabis Dried Plant Materials, Concentrates and Oils (2018.11) and which are the first internationally recognized methods for potency in cannabis. They have also released several Standard Method Performance Requirements (SMPRs) that are developed through a voluntary consensus process, and prescribe the minimum analytical performance requirements for analytical methods during validation of the method. You can learn more about CASPhere and register to joinhere.
The work of USP, ASTM, AOAC, and others supports effective quality control of consumable products to promote public safety. These organizations create standards that are recognized by federal and state regulations across applicable consumable industries. Standards allow consumers to trust the products they buy have been subjected to thorough safety and quality controls that are the same no matter which state you buy the product in. Each organization has created an expert panel specifically for cannabis in order to help prevent uneven approaches to safety and quality. The efforts of USP, ASTM, AOAC, and AHPA directly relate toNCIA’s mission to promote the growth of a responsible and legitimate cannabis industry. With several thought leaders active both in NCIA and these organizations, it is imperative that moving forward we liaison with each other to ensure cannabis quality efforts are in alignment.
As NCIA says, “our industry is stronger, smarter, and more prosperous when we work together.”
Allied Association Blog: Repetitive Motion Injuries and the Importance of Ergonomics in the Cannabis Industry
Repetitive motion injuries, also known as musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) are temporary or permanent injuries to muscles, nerves, ligaments, and tendons caused by performing the same motion over and over again. Common repetitive motion injuries are carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2013, repetitive motion injuries cases accounted for 33% of all worker injury and illness cases.
These injuries can be mitigated or controlled through ergonomics. Ergonomics is defined as: “The scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of the interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data, and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.” Or more simply put: ‘Fitting the job to the person.’ The goal is to eliminate discomfort and risk of injury due to work. Ergonomics can prevent or reduce work-related MSDs and increase work efficiency.
Every industry and business has tasks that require repetitive motion, the cannabis industry and businesses are no exception. Cannabis operations have some motions and tasks that are similar to many industries, like lifting heavy objects, computer work, and standing for long periods of time. Cannabis operations also have some motions and tasks that are similar to other agricultural operations like pruning and harvesting.
But there is a task and motion in the cannabis industry that is uniquely its own: trimming. There are many different methods to marijuana trimming, including: pre-harvest trimming and pruning, wet trimming, dry trimming, and machine trimming. All trimming methods have the same goal: to manicure the flower (or bud) to its final product ready for the customer or patient. The process is a tedious one where the trimmer removes the leaves of the marijuana flower with scissors while leaving the calyx and resin (the good parts of the bud). The quality of smoke, vapor, and ultimately the consumer’s experience is affected by the quality of the trim job.
Traditionally, most marijuana trimming has been done seasonally around the harvest season. Most cannabis grown outdoors is harvested around October and it is common for cannabis farms to have ‘trim crews’ help them for a couple of months. As medical and adult-use laws expand, so do indoor and greenhouse operations. These operations are capable of ‘perpetual harvests’ meaning they can harvest more often; this has to do with the ability to control light and dark cycles. This means many operations can plan to harvest plants monthly, weekly, or daily if they choose. This has changed the demand for trimmers from largely seasonal you year-round demand, increasing the trimmers’ likelihood of repetitive motion injuries.
There is still a lot of confusion with workers in the industry about their rights. While many states have legalized marijuana, it is still federally illegal. Many workers do not know while it is federally illegal, they still have the same federal worker rights and protections every other U.S. worker has including the rights under the Occupation Safety and Health Act of 1972. Under this law, employers must provide a safe workplace, train employees in the hazards of the workplace, and inform the employees of the rights to report work-related injuries. Cannabis industry workers must also be covered by workers’ compensation if they become injured at work.
The lack of awareness about worker rights has likely led to the under-reporting of these injuries. As awareness of worker rights grows, the reporting workers’ compensation claims of these work-related MSD injuries will likely grow too. Pinnacol, Colorado’s largest workers compensation provider, reported that strains were the most common injury reported by cannabis workers in 2018. This should concern everyone in the industry. Cannabis businesses should heed the warning signs and keep their workers safe by developing their own internal ergonomic processes and practices for their operations.
California is in a unique position as when it comes to cannabis and ergonomics. California is the largest producer of cannabis and has more stringent ergonomic standards. If a California company has more than one employee report a repetitive motion injury, they are required to establish an ergonomic program to reduce repetitive motion injuries. These ergonomic programs require:
A worksite evaluation
Control of exposures which have caused the repetitive motion injury
Training of employees
Additionally employers in California are required to have an effective written Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP), to comply with the California Code of Regulations, title 8, section 3203. The IIPP must include procedures to identify and correct health and safety hazards in the workplace and provide effective training to all employees so they can perform work safely.
The cannabis industry is still immature and searching for best practices of operations. While many workers and operators in the industry understand the need for ergonomic standards the reality is that ergonomic standards still need to be defined. This has been the goal of the National Cannabis Risk Management Association (NCRMA) and Dr. Chris Hughes with Atlas Performance Technologies, LLC. They have developed four courses to educate the industry on ergonomics, including: Introduction to Cannabis Ergonomics, Lift Like a Pro, Prune Like a Pro, and Trim Like a Pro. These courses are available through the NCRM Academy and can be found online here: https://ncrma.net/ncrmacademy/ These courses are designed for entry level cannabis workers to inform them of their rights, the ergonomic hazards, proper hazard controls, and best practices to stay safe and increase productivity.
Alex Hearding has an educational and professional background as a water and soil scientist and safety professional. He has legally cultivated marijuana as a medical caregiver and as a facility manager in a licensed greenhouse. He has experience starting marijuana businesses including license application, facility design, construction, operational development, and management. He currently provides services including occupational safety & health services and training and risk management for the cannabis industry.
When the COVID-19 pandemic started to ramp up in the U.S. last March and stay at home orders were being put in place, medical cannabis patients took notice.
I saw it firsthand with my wife who stocked up for three months, not knowing what she was in for and wanted to make sure she had her treatments, just in case dispensaries were closed down. She was not alone, it has been well documented that this stocking upsurge took place and sales increased dramatically over a few months.
But many of these businesses did not close during the shutdown and it was a big milestone that several state governments declared medical dispensaries essential. This was a big statement to make for an emerging new industry that has been saddled with controversy over the years.
Prior to COVID-19, the industry was already going through a reset in late 2019. The large players overextended themselves globally with huge capital investments in facilities and then oversupply hit the market, prices started to decline and the anticipated demand to pull CBD products did not materialize. Add COVID-19, and you have the perfect storm to amplify the reset button.
Consolidation is in the works — restructuring of management teams, companies closing doors because they were not strong enough to start with other factors too. This pushed these businesses over the edge.
As we have been slowly reopening the country, the cannabis industry has the potential to emerge stronger than ever. There might be fewer players, but the ones that have survived will be set for the next push of maturity of the marketplace.
States that do not currently have adult-use programs will most likely look at cannabis as a way to drive new tax revenue into the state to help offset the heavy losses during these several months of lockdown.
When these states do pull the trigger on adult-use, regulation and compliance will be a key issue. The current companies who have been using all the latest tracking platforms, ERP systems, and implementing cGMP standards will be in very good shape to meet the requirements and deliver authentic products that are high quality and safe to consume.
Consumers will want to know the origin of the materials being used to manufacture these products and demand transparency from the brands. New innovative technologies using unique molecular-based tags to apply to the flower, oils, isolates and edible products will help take the industry to a new level of scientific proof of authenticity offering forensic transparency across global supply chains.
Even in the face of a pandemic, cannabis is here to stay! Over 60% of the population is in favor of it for both medical and adult use. The science that has taken place over the last 20 years globally has articulated how the human body can take advantage of the cannabis plant in many ways. And for folks who want to use it as a recreational alternative, they should have the right to do so, of course with responsibility.
There is clear global demand, it still needs to be sorted out and that will happen over the course of the next couple of years as this emerging industry matures into a profitable market segment in the world’s economy.
It is an exciting time for cannabis and as we begin to focus on reopening business across the nation, we are eager to take advantage and to be a part of the opportunities that are ahead.
John Shearman, Vice President of Marketing and Cannabis Business Lead at Applied DNA Sciences, has over 30 years of deep enterprise and advertising agency experience across all marketing, sales and IT disciplines. John’s experience allows him to advise on structuring sound strategies that address business goals and objectives. His extensive technology background stems from working with several leading technology companies throughout his career. John spearheads Applied DNA Sciences Cannabis vertical leading the vision, strategy, and product development for this emerging market. John also oversees the marketing for the entire company driving the marketing strategy for its other core verticals.
The “Helpers” In The Cannabis Industry – Responding to COVID-19
As the entire world continues to navigate through the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, it can sometimes be difficult to see the silver lining. A beloved public television figure known as Mister Rogers famously told the story of how his mother urged him while watching “scary things in the news,” to “…look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
This sentiment rings true for the cannabis industry here in the United States, as cannabis has been declared an “essential business” even during these initial, and most severe, phases of the shutdown. And in recent days and weeks, we are seeing how the cannabis industry itself has stepped up to become “helpers” in various ways, ranging from fundraising efforts to manufacturing hand sanitizer for the community.
As we get through these difficult times together, one day at a time, let’s take a moment to celebrate the efforts of these NCIA members helping to make our world a better place.
Donations Of Supplies And Dollars
Seattle-area company Canna Brand Solutions, a custom packaging supplier and CCEL Vape hardware distributor, has donated 10,000 KN95 masks to local hospitals Providence Everett and Virginia Mason.
They’ve been fortunate to continue serving their adult-use and medical cannabis manufacturing partners who are deemed essential businesses. Through their strong relationships with manufacturers in China, they were able to procure the masks.
Canna Brand Solutions’ CEO Daniel Allen shared, “During this challenging time, we can think of no better way to serve our community than support the people working to keep us safe and healthy.”
Good Chemistry, a Colorado-based dispensary, donated $50,000 and masks. Read more in The Westword.
Kind Colorado is participating in the CDC (Cannabis Doing Good) Gives fundraising campaign.
Cannabis Doing Good (CDG) found nonprofit partners and fellow cannabis collaborators doing incredible work to support the hungry, the unhoused, medical providers caring for our sick, and our frontline workers at dispensaries and restaurants. Together – they created a platform for the cannabis community to contribute.
Many nonprofits are wary to accept cannabis dollars for a host of reasons. However, through relationship development, trust, and transparency, CDG has found 3 community treasures that are willing to work with them. Addressing hunger, Metro Caring, addressing the unhoused, Urban Peak and – one from our very own industry, Friends In Weed, supporting budtenders and the restaurant industry.
CDG Gives: Donations as small as $10 and as large as $5000 are accepted. If this is successful – CDG plans to launch a national campaign so that our sector can contribute on a larger scale. Any amount of participation is welcome.
Technology Perks
Leafbuyer, the cannabis technology company, is giving free texting and loyalty to help non-cannabis businesses get back on their feet!
Because marijuana dispensaries have been considered “essential businesses,” some cannabis businesses have not been hit as hard as other small businesses that have had to shut their doors or scale back. Leafbuyer Technologies, Inc., which serves hundreds of dispensaries, is offering up to $750,000 in free texting and loyalty to 500 small businesses in five cities hit hardest by the coronavirus. Learn more.
Switching Gears: Hand Sanitizer
The Galley is Producing Hand Sanitizer
In early April, The Galley of Santa Rosa, California, joined a wave of cannabis companies’ efforts to support the urgent need for supplies brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Channeling resources at their state-of-the-art manufacturing and production facility, a first run of “Stop & Sanitize” will include 25,000 units for distribution to hospitals, retail shops, grocery, and drug stores. The Galley has been built to FDA and CDPH standards and is capable of meeting high demands in multiple cannabis product categories. Using operational expertise and a cutting edge facility, the company will provide bottles of hand sanitizer to retailers in need.
Annie Holman, CMO of The Galley, shares, “It’s our civic duty to do what we can to save lives. Our “Stop & Sanitize” hand sanitizer is made with great care in a sterilized setting and we want to contribute in some way to help people & our community in this crisis.”
Director of Operations Cheriene Griffith comments on manufacturing practices stating, “We have followed the strict FDA temporary guidelines for this purpose and our plant to ensure the product is safe.”
CGA Packaging of Santa Rosa will provide donations of labels and packaging for the “Stop & Sanitize” product. Wherefour, a local Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) technology company, will donate services to support expedited production.
Anresco Labs began manufacturing ethanol-based hand cleansing solutions.
The company’s intention is to donate as much of this material as possible to those most in need. For each bottle purchased, an equivalent bottle will be donated to a non-profit organization.
At a time when we need it most, it’s uplifting and encouraging in these dark times to see the cannabis industry stepping up and giving back to a community in need, and these values are part of what our industry represents: Community. Health. Well-being. Innovation. And generosity.
As we come together to solve new problems and face new challenges, we’re also grateful for the various educational blogs and other resources with advice and expertise regarding COVID-19 that NCIA members have contributed during this time.
If you are an NCIA member that has given back to the community in response to the COVID-19 crisis, we want to hear about it! Email me your story at Bethany@TheCannabisIndustry.Org.
Member Blog: How To Expand Or Renovate Your Cannabis Facility While Observing Social Distancing
Keeping employees safe is on everyone’s mind, as we continue to operate under social distancing protocols. Even as our communities open, we still need to be mindful of disease transmission when constructing any facility — especially cannabis industry real estate. Cannabis is an industry under endless scrutiny; the COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to show the world our true colors, as respectful and responsible business operators. The most visible way this responsibility shows up is in dispensaries, where across the U.S., cannabis companies have shown true innovation in shifting how they distribute product to customers — and continue to improve their facilities — while complying with social distancing requirements.
We can lead by example for other industries by continuing to build on the momentum we have, without sacrificing worker safety. Most cannabis companies are in ‘grow or die’ mode, understanding that opening new facilities and expanding operations is essential to survival in this rapidly evolving business.
Let me be clear: you don’t need to interrupt your forward progress, even if it may take slightly longer to deliver. From new licensees that have committed funds to build their first dispensary, to established cannabis companies with capital to expand operations, the good news is that construction activity is still going strong. We are currently renovating cannabis facilities in more than nine states, continuing to achieve operational milestones despite the necessary restrictions of social distancing measures.
Here are some ways cannabis companies can keep everyone working and shopping in your facility safe, while also making sure your building or renovation projects make progress:
1.Practice social distancing best practices on the job site.
Regardless of state-by-state differences in social distancing regulations, it simply makes sense to be ‘better safe than sorry’ right now. If you are renovating, construction workers will in most cases be working within your facility; this location means that they will have to comply with all the rules for your facility in general as well as with construction regulations and best practices. Your contractors should be clear about the social distancing practices they have put in place; you can cross-check to make sure that they are also in compliance with other guidelines and regulations you are required to follow within your facility.
2.Plan for scheduling that allows for less workers on-site at one time.
Generally speaking, placing workers six feet apart means you’ll need to have less workers per shift. When you can have fewer workers on-site at once, you’ll need to either extend your timeframe or make allowances for longer days. At our firm, we’ve implemented staggered shifts to keep the number of workers on a cannabis facility job site low; sometimes this means we arrive before the start of the day for the cannabis company employees then a second crew leaves long after the retail or cultivation workday is done.
3.Cleaning and disinfecting are essential; signage is key to ensuring success.
Special attention should be applied to more stringent disinfecting and cleaning processes needed during this pandemic. The cannabis company, the contractor, or both should ensure the availability and use of hand sanitizer. Additionally, signage will remind people to develop habits that keep everyone safe. Proper signage with construction site guidelines (e.g., signs urging trade partners employees cut employees to wash their hands, maintain six-feet distance, etc.). To ensure our teams are compliant, we’ve created a “safety bucket” that goes to all our job sites and is restocked regularly with updates to its safety guidelines binder; safety signs, first aid kit supplies, caution tape, blue tape, hand sanitizer, face masks and gloves. It also contains a fire extinguisher, so we are covering general safety as well as doing our best to contain the COVID-19 spread.
4.PPE is no longer optional.
Wearing protective face coverings (masks) and using gloves where they make sense is no longer a “nice to have.” Cities and states across the United States are enforcing social distancing rules and apparel requirements; job sites are at risk of being shut down if construction firms don’t comply. Additionally, since cannabis companies are so visible to many regulators, practicing over-compliance in this area will ensure that your overall compliance remains buttoned-up and inspection-ready.
5.Make as much progress working remotely as possible, before, and during onsite work.
It is clearly advisable to delineate between activities that can be done remotely versus on the job site. We’ve found that nearly the entire pre-construction process can take place via video conference calls. That includes conversations around budget, constructability, timeframe, and most design dialogues. Allowing the design and construction teams to collaborate together from the beginning encourages joint problem solving and streamlines communication throughout the project—an essential element because unusual circumstances like the pandemic nearly always require real-time troubleshooting.
Cannabis leaders’ and employees’ resourcefulness during the COVID-19 pandemic is a testament to the resiliency of this industry. While situations beyond the control of cannabis companies like a more conservative funding environment may damper capital outlay in the short-term, the continued strong demand for product even in times of great upheaval means the future is bright. Construction, like cannabis, is open for business and standing by to help support your long-term expansion goals.
Andy Poticha is principal at Cannabis Facility Construction. Since 2015, CFC has been involved in more than 30 cultivation facilities, processing centers, and dispensary projects in nine states, making them one of the longest-operating design-builders in the cannabis industry.
Now that COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders have eased restrictions for businesses to re-open across the country, employees and employers alike will have questions about returning to workplaces. Each city, county, and state will have its own specific requirements as to when and how you can re-open your business so you should be sure to check your own regional and municipal requirements. Whether you are getting ready to re-open or have been operating, we provide some FAQ’s to help facilitate a safe and compliant operation for your cannabis business in this new COVID-19 era.
Do my employees have to come in?
The short answer is yes, with caveats. You have the right to request that your employees return to work where the local rules allow for it. Please keep in mind that your re-opening must comply with local guidelines in order for you to require your employees to return to work. However, simply notifying them to return to work is only the start of the process. If they qualify for certain leaves, they can take that. Remember that the new Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) will be effective until December 31, 2020. If they require accommodations, these need to be considered. Otherwise, if an employee has no special consideration and you need them in order to operate, you can take action if they refuse to return.
The practical reality is that many people are hesitant and afraid to return to work, especially without knowing how they will be protected. Most employers are being flexible about when and how they are bringing employees back to the workplace, especially if employees have been successful with working from home, have childcare issues, or are in a vulnerable population. If you are creating a workplace protection plan (see FAQ #2), consider sharing that plan in advance with your employees to ease their minds and make sure everyone knows what to do when they return to work.
Always remember, there is a difference between someone saying that they don’t want to return to work because they are generally afraid and someone saying specifically “I’m afraid to come back because I am immunocompromised.” And remember that an employee does not need to specifically ask for an accommodation. Simply advising that they are immunocompromised triggers your requirement to engage in the interactive process, which could result in modified hours, a special mask, moving a workspace, continued telecommuting, different job duties, or a leave of absence.
How can you keep employees safe?
With a pathogen as contagious and lethal as the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, employees will rightly want to know how they will be protected. To reassure employees, create a workplace protection plan that addresses the identification and isolation of sick employees, social distancing, workplace hygiene, and workplace cleaning. Share all safety steps that are being taken to maintain a safe work environment with your employees. Of course, each workplace is unique and will require different policies tailored to their specific sites.
General policies you should consider adopting include enforced safe distancing policies, temperature and/or daily question screenings, continued education on the importance of frequent hand-washing, cleaning and sanitizing of workspaces, minimal face touching, staying home when sick and self-monitoring of symptoms. Some examples to help maintain a safe worksite include having ample hand sanitizers available throughout the worksite, keeping office doors closed, wearing appropriate face coverings, marking off the 6-foot spacing with tape or other indicators, designating hallways and stairways as one-way, propping open doors to eliminate the need to touch handles, adding Plexiglas barriers at workspaces. Employers may also consider closing common areas or limiting the number of people who may use such spaces at a time.
Does the company have the right to ask about employee health history and take temperatures?
Yes. Employers are allowed to ask about coronavirus-related symptoms and take the temperatures of employees under guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and some states now require it. The EEOC also permits employers to mandate that employees be tested for the virus before entering the workplace under certain circumstances, such as known exposure to someone already infected by the virus.
Testing should be administered in the least invasive way possible, like utilizing temperature guns or forehead temperatures. Testing should take place at the earliest possible opportunity at the workplace, to protect employees who have made it through already. Consider staggering start times, so that lines do not form. If a medical professional or person with medical training is available, have them administer the temperatures. If somebody with medical training is not available or onsite, the company should consider whether managers or HR employees may be trained to administer and read the test results.
If temperature taking at the workplace is mandated, the time spent being tested and waiting for a test should be considered part of the workday, and the process should be well thought out to eliminate crowding. If an employer requires the temperature be taken at home before coming in to work, the employer should consider allotting a few minutes on employees’ time cards for doing so. Consideration must also be given to providing notice to employees of the temperature screening process, data being collected and kept (if any) and the consequences for failing a screening. Please note that any data collected must be kept securely and separate from employees’ personnel files.
If an employee is sent home after screening, can employers require temperature testing or a doctor’s note to confirm they are no longer infected?
Yes. If someone has been sent home due to symptoms, administering a temperature test before allowing the employee to return to work is appropriate as the CDC recommends individuals be fever-free for at least 24 hours to ensure they have recovered. The CDC also recommends that anyone who recently had close contact with a person with COVID-19 should stay home for 14 days. The CDC, therefore, recommends that potentially exposed employees who do not have symptoms should remain home for 14 days. In such situations, please refer back to the FFCRA for requirements regarding paid leave.
Additionally, the EEOC has clarified that the ADA permits employers to require employees returning to work to provide a doctor’s note stating they are fit for duty because the inquiry would not be disability-related and/or because confirming that an employee is no longer contagious is a legitimate business necessity. The EEOC notes, however, that “doctors and other health care professionals may be too busy during and immediately after a pandemic outbreak to provide fitness-for-duty documentation. Therefore, new approaches may be necessary, such as reliance on local clinics to provide a form, a stamp, or an e-mail to certify that an individual does not have the pandemic virus.”
Can employers require employees to wear masks or other personal protective equipment?
Yes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the use of “cloth face coverings to slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others.” Many employers are making face coverings part of the work uniform, especially for jobs that require physical proximity. Some states and localities have required face coverings in order for businesses to re-open. Be sure to check your specific region for your own requirements. However, keep in mind that employers may be required to either provide employees with masks or other personal protective equipment or reimburse them for the expense if required to do their jobs.
Also consider whether or not to require your customers to wear masks. There may or may not be a local requirement to do so, but customers are an additional COVID-19 vector that should be considered when preparing for your employees to return. Just like employers may deny service to customers without a shirt or shoes, they can deny service to customers without a facemask.
What happens if an employee gets sick with COVID-19? What happens if someone in an employee’s family gets sick with COVID-19 and the employee is the caregiver?
Employers need to understand state laws and federal programs which have been enacted to deal with this pandemic. The FFCRA provides paid sick leave for people affected by COVID-19, as well as paid emergency family leave under certain circumstances including when the employee’s child care is unavailable for reasons relating to COVID-19 or when the employee must care for someone subject to a quarantine order or advised by a healthcare provider to self-quarantine. The United States Department of Labor has issued a helpful summary of FFCRA.
What if a co-worker gets sick?
Privacy rights must be maintained, but employers must also maintain a safe workplace and the law allows for them to do so. If temperature screening reveals a fever, that employee should be immediately sent home with return-to-work instructions. The employer should follow up with the employee regarding who they worked with, all the locations they worked and any other information to be able to notify all individuals who the employee came into contact with and comply with the most current local, state, and federal public health recommendations. If an employee calls in sick specifically with COVID-19, the employer should do the same. Actions may include closing the worksite, doing a deep cleaning, and/or requiring employees to work from home for a period of time. If deep cleaning is called for, the CDC recommends hiring professionals.
Under no circumstances should sick employees be identified by name. Notification to affected employees must not reveal any personal health-related information of an employee.
From The Hill: Lawsuit to Challenge Industry Exclusion from SBA COVID-19 Relief Revving Up
For many businesses struggling during the COVID-19 induced shutdown, assistance from the Small Business Administration (SBA) through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is the difference between lifeline and economic ruin. But for thousands of professionals serving state-legal cannabis businesses, including non-profits like NCIA and innumerable small businesses alike, access to PPP money remains elusive. A group of lawyers is in the process of developing a legal challenge to this unjust treatment.
The SBA Policy Notice on April 3, 2018, precludes any company that has received anyrevenue from a marijuana business from receiving SBA assistance, including service providers like lawyers, accountants, or consultants which provide counsel to thousands of legitimate cannabis businesses around the country. This SBA guidance has prevented many firms from applying for PPP loans and casts doubt as to whether firms that received loans but have done work for cannabis clients will have their loans revoked.
A coalition of law firms led by Yetter Coleman LLP is seeking to raise $150,000 for a legal defense fund to strike down the guidance. The lead plaintiff will likely be a law firm whose PPP application was denied because of this rule. If successful, the challenge would benefit the industry going forward by removing the “Indirect Marijuana Business” guidance from SBA’s eligibility determinations. But time is of the essence with the PPP program winding down and the forgiveness rules are already likely being drafted.
In a recent letter to Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza, the American Bar Association (ABA) requested the SBA to clarify eligibility under the business loan program to allow access to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES Act) funds through the PPP for lawyers and law firms that provide services to cannabis businesses operating legally under applicable state laws. According to the ABA, of the 1.3 million attorneys practicing in the U.S. in 2019, approximately 78% are in jurisdictions where marijuana sales are permissible under state law. Under the current guidance, the ABA is concerned that many of these lawyers and their firms could be unfairly disqualified from receiving PPP assistance.
“The ABA supports amending federal law to ensure that lawyers do not face the threat of criminal charges when they represent clients in states that have legalized marijuana,” the June 5 letter states. “Even before those changes are made to federal law, lawyers should also not be penalized for providing legal services to cannabis-related businesses that comply with state laws.”
In a March 22, 2020, Twitter post in response to a Washington-based cannabis business owner, the SBA publicly confirmed that cannabis businesses are not able to access the SBA funded programs even though cannabis businesses are as equally harmed by the coronavirus pandemic as other law-abiding, tax-paying small business operators. To date, the SBA has not formally addressed the eligibility of cannabis businesses for the broader Paycheck Protection Program.
Back in March, several industry and advocacy groups, including NCIA, issued a letter to congressional leaders seeking to limit restrictions and allow cannabis businesses to obtain the same relief available to other legitimate industries. Among other things, the letter cites the unfairness of ineligibility for SBA relief for cannabis businesses given their obligations to follow federal employer requirements and the disproportionate impact ineligibility has on small businesses.
The legal U.S. cannabis industry is projected to top $20 billion in annual sales in 2020 and now employs nearly 250,000 workers. One would think access to SBA loans that support businesses in keeping this significant workforce employed during the coronavirus crisis would be an economic priority for policymakers in Washington DC. Time will tell if this goal becomes a reality.
If you are an ancillary business interested in either donating to the legal fund or willing to offer your professional support, please email Shane Pennington of Yetter Coleman LLP at spennington@yettercoleman.com.
Committee Blog: Practical Tips for Cannabis Businesses Impacted by Theft and Property Damage
As the country continues to grapple with the murder of George Floyd and its aftermath, we have seen reports that numerous cannabis dispensaries in California, Illinois, Oregon, and elsewhere have been the victims of theft and property damage. A number of shops have been hit multiple times in successive days, with many reports indicating that businesses are being targeted by organized groups not involved in protests.
The owners of these dispensaries, like many of the other business owners around them, are likely asking themselves: Is my insurance going to cover this? The good news is that, for many of them, it is likely that they will have coverage for at least some of the losses that they have suffered. What losses are ultimately reimbursed can depend on a number of factors, including what an impacted business owner does in the immediate aftermath of an incident. Thus, we provide below an outline of the steps that businesses should follow in the unfortunate event that your shop has been damaged:
File a police report.
Immediately report the loss to the relevant cannabis regulatory authority (check both state and local regulations to ensure full compliance).
Get in contact with your insurance provider and file a claim immediately. Once filed, you will receive a claim number and an assigned claims adjuster who you will work with from the very beginning to the end of the claim.
Ensure your place of business is well protected (even after the loss). Do your very best to continue to protect what you can after a loss.
Document everything. Take photos, save and review your video surveillance. Your insurance company will ask for this when you file a claim
Begin taking inventory of everything that has been damaged, destroyed, and stolen. Your insurance company will need this as well.
Review your insurance policy again and speak with your insurance professional.
Does your insurance policy cover civil unrest, theft, or vandalism coverage? Is it excluded? Is it not listed at all? Many cannabis businesses operate under property insurance policies that will cover losses for property damage and theft that occurs during a public disturbance.
Some insurance policies, however, contain “protective safeguard” endorsements creating certain requirements that the cannabis business owner must follow or a claim can be denied. Many of the requirements include a central burglar alarm, cameras, an approved vault or safe room, and other similar risk mitigation measures. Pay special attention to these protective safeguard requirements, and ensure that all are met. This can be particularly important for businesses that have already been the victims of crime. If the safety systems in question have been damaged or are otherwise inoperable as a result, make sure to put your insurer on notice of this fact and, ideally, get them to approve a temporary accommodation relieving your business of the relevant protective safeguard.
Policies may also be “sublimited” for certain types of property coverage, meaning that limits for particular types of loss are lower than the overall policy limits. Impacted businesses should look for a page entitled “Property Optional Extension Endorsement.” The types of coverage that might be sublimited include:
Employee Dishonesty;
Money and Securities;
Outdoor Property (Fences, Radio/TV Antennas/Satellite Dishes and Signs Outdoor Property (Trees, Shrubs or Plants);
Personal Effects and Property of Others (relevant if a dispensary has not taken title to product): and
Valuable Papers and Records (Other Than Electronic Data).
In addition to taking these actions, dispensary owners in cities where civil unrest is ongoing should give consideration to reducing their store hours or even closing entirely until conditions change in order to keep their staff safe. For those concerned about leaving product in their stores and having it stolen, some states, including California, allow for licensed cannabis dispensaries to remove product from a licensed facility in the face of a public disturbance or emergency. Nonetheless, businesses should always consult their state and local regulations and/or consult with an attorney before removing cannabis products from their facilities in any way that would normally be impermissible under applicable laws.
In sum, while cannabis dispensaries unfortunately appear to be attractive targets for opportunistic criminals, there are a number of steps these businesses can and should take right now to help them begin to pick up the pieces.
This site uses cookies. By using this site or closing this notice, you agree to the use of cookies and our privacy policy.
by Madeline Grant, NCIA’s Government Relations Manager 
by Carol Welch & Jim Gerencser
Author Jackie Berg is the publisher of the 
Product safety isn’t an endpoint, it’s a journey. That’s what we told you in the 
Melissa Hafey is the Director of Human Resources for Blackbird. Blackbird is a software and services company that provides marketing tools and transportation solutions for cannabis operators. Melissa is a passionate advocate for creating meaningful work in rewarding work environments. Her experience includes change management, benefits administration, HRIS implementation, recruiting, workplace diversity initiatives, and human resources management across multiple states including California.
Eric Sklar is an entrepreneur, Napa Valley vineyard owner and public official. He and his family have been growing grapes in Napa Valley for 40 years and he planted his first licensed cannabis garden in 2018. Eric is the CEO and co-founder of 
As a country, the U.S. is experiencing what can best be described as the “age of distrust.” While public distrust in institutions has been escalating for at least a decade, according to the annual Edelman Trust Barometer which has tracked trust in media, governments, businesses, and nonprofits since 2000. Social unrest and a global pandemic have escalated this distrust. Never has the public eyed institutions or businesses with such suspicion. 
Tara Coomans is the CEO of 
Gary Paulin is VP of Sales and Client Services at 
Bobby Combs is National Account Executive at 
Samantha Vanegas retains a MBA from the University of Florida Warrington College of Business. 
Alex Hearding
As the entire world continues to navigate through the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, it can sometimes be difficult to see the silver lining. A beloved public television figure known as Mister Rogers famously told the story of how his mother urged him while watching “scary things in the news,” to “…look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” 
Andy Poticha is principal at 
