Industry Analysis
Cannabis Testing Is Broken Across State Lines. State-Run Testing Is the Real Fix
State regulators are spending unnecessary time and money trying to police a private testing model that fails to protect consumers. From Maryland’s newly launched CSQ CLEAR audit pilot to New York’s shutdown of Lexachrom Analytical Laboratory, Michigan’s historic license revocations of Viridis Laboratories, and New Jersey putting out RFPs to audit its testing ecosystem, regulators […]
Maryland Targets Cannabis Lab Shopping with Multi-Lab Audit Program
Maryland regulators are taking direct aim at potency manipulation with a new state audit program designed to identify inflated THC numbers and enforce label accuracy. Starting this October, the Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) is launching a cross-testing pilot alongside Cannabis Safety & Quality (CSQ), an accredited third-party standards and certification body for the cannabis and […]
What Medical Cannabis Packaging Can Learn from Pharma
Medical cannabis companies developing a new product or redesigning packaging for an existing one may want to look beyond today’s cannabis packaging requirements and consider what could be required in the years ahead. Pharmaceutical packaging has spent decades addressing many of the same issues medical cannabis companies face, including child resistance, tamper evidence, and product […]
What Food-Safety Teams Should Ask a Cannabinoid Supplier
The cannabinoid industry has historically focused heavily on manufacturing compliance: GMPs, certificates of analysis, potency testing, contaminant testing, traceability, and state licensing. Those systems are important, and Floraworks has invested significantly in them. But when you begin evaluating an ingredient through established food and dietary supplement frameworks, you realize that manufacturing compliance is really just […]
Can You Reconstruct Your Cannabis Inventory Without the State System?
For years, California’s licensed cannabis operators have tagged plants, scanned packages, reconciled inventory, and paid for the privilege, on the understanding that Sacramento was using the data to identify diversion. On August 4, an Orange County Superior Court judgment confirmed what many operators complained about for years: the system was not flagging irregularities as the […]
Are Pharmacies the New Dispensary Model? Utah Thinks So
Georgia has captured national attention by allowing medical cannabis to be sold through independent pharmacies. Utah has spent the past six years developing another version of the pharmacy model, one designed specifically for cannabis. Utah’s medical cannabis pharmacies do not dispense conventional prescription drugs. They sell cannabis products exclusively, but each location must have a […]
What Does Cannabis Rescheduling Mean for Hemp Beverages?
On April 23, 2026, the Department of Justice placed FDA-approved marijuana products and marijuana products subject to qualifying state medical licenses into Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. But the bigger hurdle- whether recreational marijuana should move from Schedule I to Schedule III- is still being decided. The Drug Enforcement Administration wrapped up its […]
Here Is What to Expect at the Upcoming Cannabis Quality Conference
This year’s Cannabis Quality Conference is being held alongside the long-running Food Safety Consortium, bringing cannabis quality professionals into the same room as food safety experts and creating an overlap between the two industries as they work through many of the same quality, testing, traceability, and safety challenges. That overlap is particularly relevant as cannabis […]
The Overlooked Risks of Hardware in Pipes, Vapes and Dab Rigs
For years, much of the conversation around cannabis quality has focused on what goes into the product: potency, pesticides, solvents, microbial contamination, terpene profiles, and certificates of analysis. That scrutiny is necessary, but it stops one step too soon. Cannabis is burned in a pipe, heated inside a vaporizer cartridge, exposed to a high-temperature surface […]