Steep Hill Lab
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Hey rollitup community! Steep Hill Lab is proud to share articles and general news regarding our involvement in the Medical Cannabis movement.
Steep Hill Lab News- California's Premier Medical Cannabis Analysis Laboratory
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Steep Hill Lab
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I believe that the medical cannabis industry is suffering from a level of complacency that is hurting progress. Medical cannabis cultivators have in the last generation honed their art and techniques to produce a flower that has incredible bag appeal and flavor, but is that is no longer enough. The medical cannabis movement is under constant scrutiny and in order for the industry to stand up to the naysayers, participants must recognize the need to implement quality control programs. I appreciate the confidence that growers have in the cannabis they are producing and collective dispensaries are distributing, but patients deserve to know their cannabis is quality assured, meaning tested for potency, microbiological contaminants, and pesticide residue. Third party quality assurance practices are routine in most every other sector which is why the SafeCannabisTM program offered by Steep Hill Lab fills the needs of the industry to create confidence.
I have the daily pleasure of talking with some of the best growers in the cannabis world. Admirably, most believe that their products reign superior to others on the market and they come to our lab because they want to prove it. These growers are also commendably making the choice to differentiate their medical cannabis from the rest by self-regulating and implementing quality control. They are bravely moving past a complacency that has held back the industry for quite some time. Self-regulation is a small and growing movement. My philosophy, which is shared by many of my colleagues, is that cannabis industry people need to be a part of setting the standards that regulate cannabis because we understand more about it than the lawmakers do. By self-regulating we are setting the standard that government regulating bodies look to when they create their local guidelines.
Proposition 19 did not pass and as a result I hear a lot of pleased, cannabis-supporters say that they are happy because legal medical cannabis sanctioned by Propostition 215 is “good enough” and that “if it’s not broke don’t fix it.” In many ways I see their point and was personally disappointed that Proposition 19 did not propose safety/quality standards for cannabis, clear guidelines for running a legal cannabis business, and ways for the small grower to stay in business. But I believe there is an enormous contingent of industry sympathizers who are in denial about the inevitable changes that are coming down the pipeline, legalization or no legalization.
Denial about foreseeable adjustments to the status quo may understandably come from the historical need to balk at the law and go underground in order to participate in the cannabis industry. I respect those who have responsibly pushed the limits of the law in order to provide cannabis, a sacred plant, to patients and I have witnessed that those who have been willing to challenge boundaries imposed by the laws of land or the dominant cultural paradigm are the people who have truly been able to make a difference in the world. However, while the medical cannabis industry players have to be risk takers, no one should have the expectations that medical cannabis patients should be taking a risk just because they are choosing to consume cannabis to alleviate chronic pain, treat appetite loss from cancer, or reduce anxiety. Patients deserve to know their medical cannabis is safe for consumption. No one can argue against safety.
Complacency causes people to have difficulty recognizing change. They rationalize behavior because they think the risk is low and become over confident in their actions. It will be a devastating blow to the progress of medical cannabis if a lack of self-regulation leads to an unanticipated health crisis where someone is compromised. The current participants of the medical cannabis sector will be well served to be a part of a movement to self-regulating now before the government comes in and tells us we have to. There are currently a couple models for medical cannabis quality assurance; dispensaries submit samples for laboratory analysis or growers do the testing before passing on the medical cannabis to a collective dispensary or patient. Ultimately the most logical quality assurance model for the medical cannabis industry is for the growers to contract with a quality assurance laboratory, like Steep Hill Lab, to implement standardized sterile packaging and laboratory analysis before the product reaches the market.
Historically, industries that have self-regulated before the government imposed compliance guidelines have been looked to as resources when regulatory guidelines are ultimately imposed by government oversight. When the USDA implemented organic standards it looked to already established models like CCOF (California Certified Organic Farms) to create their compliance guidelines. In California alone, Richmond, Long Beach, Eureka, Los Angeles, and Stockton have all mandating safety testing and standards for medical cannabis based on the model we have created.
The medical cannabis industry has operated in a certain way for a long time and when you have done something one way it is hard to change but not hopeless. Already, hundreds of collectives are implementing quality control and safety standards, growers are using sterile, standardized packaging to ensure that their product does not degrade before it reaches the patient, and most importantly, thousands of patients are consuming medical cannabis that they can feel confident is safe cannabis. It takes effort to develop news procedures and change old ones but once a behavior is consciously changed it will not take much effort to sustain.
-AnnaRae Grabstein is the CEO of Steep Hill Lab, California’s premier cannabis analysis laboratory.
I have the daily pleasure of talking with some of the best growers in the cannabis world. Admirably, most believe that their products reign superior to others on the market and they come to our lab because they want to prove it. These growers are also commendably making the choice to differentiate their medical cannabis from the rest by self-regulating and implementing quality control. They are bravely moving past a complacency that has held back the industry for quite some time. Self-regulation is a small and growing movement. My philosophy, which is shared by many of my colleagues, is that cannabis industry people need to be a part of setting the standards that regulate cannabis because we understand more about it than the lawmakers do. By self-regulating we are setting the standard that government regulating bodies look to when they create their local guidelines.
Proposition 19 did not pass and as a result I hear a lot of pleased, cannabis-supporters say that they are happy because legal medical cannabis sanctioned by Propostition 215 is “good enough” and that “if it’s not broke don’t fix it.” In many ways I see their point and was personally disappointed that Proposition 19 did not propose safety/quality standards for cannabis, clear guidelines for running a legal cannabis business, and ways for the small grower to stay in business. But I believe there is an enormous contingent of industry sympathizers who are in denial about the inevitable changes that are coming down the pipeline, legalization or no legalization.
Denial about foreseeable adjustments to the status quo may understandably come from the historical need to balk at the law and go underground in order to participate in the cannabis industry. I respect those who have responsibly pushed the limits of the law in order to provide cannabis, a sacred plant, to patients and I have witnessed that those who have been willing to challenge boundaries imposed by the laws of land or the dominant cultural paradigm are the people who have truly been able to make a difference in the world. However, while the medical cannabis industry players have to be risk takers, no one should have the expectations that medical cannabis patients should be taking a risk just because they are choosing to consume cannabis to alleviate chronic pain, treat appetite loss from cancer, or reduce anxiety. Patients deserve to know their medical cannabis is safe for consumption. No one can argue against safety.
Complacency causes people to have difficulty recognizing change. They rationalize behavior because they think the risk is low and become over confident in their actions. It will be a devastating blow to the progress of medical cannabis if a lack of self-regulation leads to an unanticipated health crisis where someone is compromised. The current participants of the medical cannabis sector will be well served to be a part of a movement to self-regulating now before the government comes in and tells us we have to. There are currently a couple models for medical cannabis quality assurance; dispensaries submit samples for laboratory analysis or growers do the testing before passing on the medical cannabis to a collective dispensary or patient. Ultimately the most logical quality assurance model for the medical cannabis industry is for the growers to contract with a quality assurance laboratory, like Steep Hill Lab, to implement standardized sterile packaging and laboratory analysis before the product reaches the market.
Historically, industries that have self-regulated before the government imposed compliance guidelines have been looked to as resources when regulatory guidelines are ultimately imposed by government oversight. When the USDA implemented organic standards it looked to already established models like CCOF (California Certified Organic Farms) to create their compliance guidelines. In California alone, Richmond, Long Beach, Eureka, Los Angeles, and Stockton have all mandating safety testing and standards for medical cannabis based on the model we have created.
The medical cannabis industry has operated in a certain way for a long time and when you have done something one way it is hard to change but not hopeless. Already, hundreds of collectives are implementing quality control and safety standards, growers are using sterile, standardized packaging to ensure that their product does not degrade before it reaches the patient, and most importantly, thousands of patients are consuming medical cannabis that they can feel confident is safe cannabis. It takes effort to develop news procedures and change old ones but once a behavior is consciously changed it will not take much effort to sustain.
-AnnaRae Grabstein is the CEO of Steep Hill Lab, California’s premier cannabis analysis laboratory.