A Federal Standards Handbook now includes weights and measures for marijuana

Through Johanna Skopl

As a result of a vote held by state and local officials at a conference last week, a federal government handbook on weights and measures was released, which mentions marijuana standards in a new section. The example includes a section “Cannabis Potency Measurement, Packaging, Labeling” among other topics related to cannabis products.

At the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM) annual meeting, held in early January, conference members already considered a number of cannabis proposals, three to be precise.

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The NCWM Laws and Regulations Committee was the one that proposed all three measures, which then received votes from the House of Representatives and the Bicameral House of Delegates, Marijuana Moment reported.

Finally, last week, two of those three measures that had reached voting status were rejected, but one will now be included in federal guidance from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Standards for measuring the potency of cannabis products, packaging and labeling

The approved measure states that “state regulators have the authority to begin drafting regulations to create standards for measuring potency of cannabis products, packaging and labeling requirements, and appropriate variances in cannabinoid content.” In addition, it includes “Authorities to determine allowable variations in the amount of marijuana or hemp due to loss or gain of moisture.”

The two failed measures concerned “establishing a uniform, federal definition for cannabis and cannabis-containing products and developing a guideline for the water activity range of marijuana”. However, a separate approved measure recommends that “state officials who oversee commercial weighing and measuring equipment have the authority to establish individual cannabis standards for their respective jurisdictions.”

These measures received enough votes in the House of Representatives, which is also being integrated by NCWM-affiliated regulators, but it was not enough to be included in the handbook, “the measures came up just short in the separate House of Representatives, which consists of 52 voting members, all 50 States and two U.S. territories are represented,” the statement said.

In the meantime, however, the measures have been referred back to the committee so that they could be taken up again in the January 2023 meeting. If members decide to reconsider them, they could likely come into force next July and be included in NIST’s 2024 handbook.

In relation to the above, the section on granting powers relating to cannabis will be included in the next issue. of the NIST handbook, which will be published in January 2023.

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This is just the beginning

Government agencies that oversee weights and measures are not required to adopt cannabis standardization guidelines. In addition, some states have already delegated this responsibility to other agencies by law.

“There was a pattern in terms of states choosing to abstain from voting on the failed cannabis standardization proposals,” said Charlie Rutherford, a co-chair of the NCWM cannabis task force. “The CBD-only states, or the states that don’t allow flowers, were the first to abstain.”

However, the addition of marijuana language to the federal handbook is another sign of the normalization of the cannabis industry in states across the country.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.