I’m not really sure why it matters what CRC standards are used when every state in the country, and I’m focusing specifically on cannabis legal states and legal licensed entities producing products in those states, has its own specific set of testing criteria in order to bring a product to market.
How are you going to address the fact that end use product specifications on the state level are so different in how stringent the testing criteria is for each state? Who cares if I do shitty CRC or not if my end use product passes the state required testing and is allowed to be sold? Now, don’t get me wrong, obviously as a producer my goal is to ensure I am producing the best quality I can but at the same time, I’m running a business. Why would I jump through extra hoops for something that has no impact on my bottom line? I can still have a shitty CRC process, get cGMP certified or SQF certified (if I’m focusing on infused edibles/beverages) and still have my products pass state required testing thus according to the state, it is safe enough to sell to consumers of that state. Obviously there is a whole different discussion that could be had surrounding each state’s testing requirements but that is outside the focal point of this thread.
I can still get my facility GMP certified, or SQF certified to show that my procedures in place are adequate against those standards, and like you said those things don’t look at actual specific processes, but are more about the overall quality system of the business and those procedures to ensure the quality system is functioning properly.
I have to agree with some other users here that have said this sounds just like extra paperwork and and hoops to jump through.
Unless you get to the point where your certification is recognized on a state or federal level to be used in cannabis and it is specific to cannabis type processes, I don’t really see what benefit this would bring to a business who can already just go get a cGMP or SQF certification for their facility.
Don’t take this response as me thinking this is a bad idea, I think it has potential. I just have trouble understanding where it fits in the overall scheme of things and how you will actually get this to hold some real weight.
Moreover, in standards groups that I’ve been a part of starting or a member of, the group is usually a conglomerate of individuals from a certain percentage of competing companies. It’s not a private, for profit entity but it does take in fees (etc) for costs incurred. That way they can all make standards for industry and help alleviate the mistrust factors you’re eluding to here.
That said, foundationally this has merit across all industry. But it needs to have some distance between itself and another entity that profits off it being co-mingled.
I’ve been employed as lab supervisor at some big “cGMP and Certified organic” companies.
Seeing what i saw go down at this supposed “certified” labs, I can confidently say that if the GLGc program goes as well as i expect it to, the GLGc cert will mean mountains more for me to see on a product than some other cert.
Certs at the end of the day are only as good as your weakest link, but cannabis focused certification is a move in the right direction.
Sure, but just because I get a GLGc and I get audited once a year, why can’t I still be that shitty business that also breaks the cGMP or Certified organic rules?
I’ve worked most of my life in big pharma or pesticide manufacturing/formulation. I’m aware there are plenty of bad apples. There is no certification, anywhere from any body, that would prevent people from having their shit together during the audit and then breaking the rules the other 51 weeks of the year.
Does it have to be federally recognized out of the gate for it to be good for industry? Or can it be a starting point to springboard issues we all can agree have needs for?
I think we should keep this discussion on the basis of assuming people who get any kind of certification, cGMP, GLGc, SQF, etc… are going to do their best to maintain those standards. We can always point out people who get them and don’t keep up with them, etc… but I think that detracts from the point of where this post is going.
The other thing I’d like to point out, as a licensed entity in Michigan we are required to have GMP certification for beverage manufacturing. Many companies I have spoken to are happy to audit us against GMP standards even though cannabis is federally illegal. Furthermore, there are other standards out there (SQF as I have mentioned earlier) that are not necessarily founded on US federal guidelines and are either European based or general world wide accepted guidelines that are equivalent or even more stringent than federal GMP guidelines.
If you can’t get a GMP certification, there are definitely other certifications out there, already available to people in the cannabis industry that will support ensuring you have a quality system in place that meets said standards and with the state of what is currently accepted as “this business is doing things right”, it’s going to take a lot of work before GLGc gets to the point where it is universally recognized and actually means something outside of people who work on cannabis specific processes.
That’s exactly the point. You can make shitty unsafe CRC products, pass the limited state testing requirements, and legally have unsafe products on the shelf.
When the consumer see’s what looks to be the same product next to it, but is able to follow the QR code that comes with a GLGc stamp to the website that explains why this specific CRC product is in fact safer than yours, whose product do you think the consumer would choose?
Do individuals with equity at uL have equity at companies that sell uL listed equipment? I’m sure they do.
I don’t have a “large equity position” at any cannabis or hemp company. I have 10% of Future Compounds and 3% of the parent company that Confetti operates under.
I would argue that this is well outside the scope of your general consumer. Sure there’s probably a few people here and there but I personally don’t know anybody who ever scans a QR code on ANY product they buy to learn more about it or figure that out. We have to remember, we’re not selling products to the 10% of the “cannabis cannoisseur” (see what I did there?), we’re selling products to the 90% of the general population who are just hoping to enjoy a high recreationally or fix their sleep issues, etc… and don’t even know what CRC is let alone understand the differences between CRC.
You’re competing against standards that have already set themselves down as quality certifications. That’s really all I’m trying to point out. It’s a massive uphill battle and as a business who is in the processing and manufacturing sector of the industry, I would need a very valid reason to spend my time doing this when I can just go through cGMP and SQF certifications which are already recognized across the US as industry standards of quality.
Yes absolutely but that’s because “organic” is already a universally recognized term that is supposed to imply a certain level of quality. You are also a consumer who is clearly interested in knowing where your products come from and how they are made.
I don’t have any actual data to back this up except anecdotal but I would be hard pressed to find more than a handful of people that I know who would actually spend the time to look up where their food comes from and learn about its production.
Again this is really the point I’m getting at. GLGc needs to get itself to be universally recognized and in a position to actually hold weight and credibility against the standards that are already out there and prevalent before it would be something that would be worth pursuing.
As I mentioned, I definitely think it is a great idea. I just think there is a LOT of work to do before it’s something that actually has any true meaning.
edit And for what its worth, even “organic” or “non-gmo” are terms that I think most people don’t even truly understand. You can grow organic crops and still spray them with pesticides so long as those pesticides are OMRI certified by the EPA. I would bet most people who purchase “organic” labeled food assume that its grown with out pesticide applications and things of that nature. So again it comes down to consumer education and a universally recognized nomenclature or standard that holds weight.