Medical cannabis safety commission

I was invited to my first MCSC meeting on Thursday. The focus of this group is for the cannabis industry to come up with self regulations. As an industry, we should create regulations before the legislators enforce their own regulations on us. Their goal is to come up with regulations from seed to patient and address safety concerns every step of the way. Their main question is what self-regulation should we adopt? What we don't want is to regulate ourselves out of business at the same time keeping in mind what is important policymakers and how do we appease them and make our industry batter. Our concern is public image.

This organization started in Northern California, and the Bay area, and focused firstly on edible packaging and handling standards.

Areas of focus are:

-safety

-potency [lab testing, etc.]

-naming [currently there is patient confusion and randomness. Goal standardized names]

-contamination [pet hair, molds and mildew, etc.]

-environmental concerns [grosgrain runoff, etc.]
this organization will be made up of individual with experience in growing, transporting, dispensing, consuming, food handling, concentrate making, doctors, lawyers, and patients]

in attendance at this meeting was an attorney in LA, a vendor, a doctor, a criminal lawyer, a disabled vet who runs a delivery service, dispensary operators, a patient who considers himself a freedom fighter and also runs the orange county caregivers delivery service, the Northern California MCSC organizer, a Southern California and CSC organizer and me (a patient student activist).

Immediate goal:

to create working groups by September 1 for Southern California. There are 18 groups that will be focusing on specific areas of interest. Those areas of interest are:

-defined proper classification names for cannabis medicine [tinctures, hash, oil, etc.]

- define a list of contaminates, such as fertilizers, pesticides, bacteria, no dues and molds that are not acceptable In cannabis medicine

-determine the safety of various methods used to produce cannabis medicine [growing/venting, etc.]

-develop standardized naming guidelines for cannabis medicine [strain names]

-develop safety and handling protocols for production methods used in growing whole plant medicine (WPMs )

-bring ingestibleplant medicine (IP Ms/edibles) kitchen/production areas into compliance with Appicable state and/or local safety and handling protocols [the group has already done a lot of work in this area and it's nearly complete]

-bring concentrated medicines cooperatives (CMCs) production areas into compliance with applicable safety and handling protocols

-develop a training curriculum to teach propped her safety, preparation, dosage management, and handling of ingestible plant medicine (IPM s) production methods

-develop a training curriculum to teach proper safety, appropriation, dosage management, and handling of concentrated plant medicines (CPM s) production methods

-design a bill of lading/quality assurance reports (QAR) for patient colt invading cool operatives, ingestible medicine cooperatives and concentrated medicines cooperatives to attach to cannabis medicine for dispensaries to evaluate and ensure that safe prediction methods have been used

-develop a scientific method for dispensing quality-control staff to use to detect contaminants on whole plant medicine, ingestible plant medicine calmer and concentrated medicine cooperatives using available methods such as by sight, magnification, smell and feel

-work with analytical lab to test whole plant medicines, ingestible plant medicine calmer and concentrated plant medicines for contaminants such as fertilizer, pesticides, bacteria, mildew and molds

-develop a scientific method to systematically bioassay cannabis and rate the potency of whole plant medicines, ingestible plant medicines, and concentrated plant medicines

-work with analytical lab to test for potency of THC and other cannabinoids, and other active ingredients such as Turkey and its calmer in whole plant medicine, ingestible plant medicine and concentrated plant medicine

-create standards for safe and sanitary handling procedures for whole plant medicine, ingestible plant medicine, and concentrated plant medicine at dispensaries, from the point it is taken in by a dispensary Entebbe is given to patient members

-develop packaging standards for whole plant medicine, ingestible plant medicine, and concentrated plant medicine

-training and outreach

-develop research to determine efficiency of individual genetics, cannabis Turkington, and other active ingredients like THC, in whole plant medicines, ingestible plant medicines, and concentrated plant medicines and helping specific medical conditions and or specific patients


IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN HELPING TO DEVELOP SELF REGULATIONS IN ANY OF THESE AREAS PLEASE RESPOND
NEXT MEETING SEPTEMBER 11, 2009 11 A.M. - 2 P.M. AT THE PATIENT ID CENTER




interesting information about Organic
during the meeting the concept of "organic" came up and it was brought to my attention that for the item to have organic on its label were to be considered organic it has to meet certain governmental standards which means the government has to approve the "organic" seal. And we all know how the government feels about our products so there's another designation that does not require the government's involvement and does not require us to misuse the term "organic" and it's called CleanGreen. This is a concept the group will be looking into.