On Tuesday, the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) announced the release of a paper providing extensive guidance on how cannabis should be regulated at the federal level. The paper highlights the need to have a clearly defined regulatory approach and structure prepared as the nation moves closer to making cannabis legal for adults, and identifies the existing agencies best suited to regulate the wide variety of cannabis products available in state-regulated legal cannabis markets.
The full paper, which was produced by NCIA’s Policy Council, is titled “Adapting a Regulatory Framework for the Emerging Cannabis Industry” and can be found here.
The variety of products that contain cannabis means that a “one-size-fits-all” regulatory framework would be ineffective. Under such a framework, some products would be overregulated, while others might be underregulated. Instead, different regulatory structures, or “lanes,” should be utilized based on the characteristics and intended uses of the products to leverage existing federal regulatory expertise. This will lead to an effective and efficient review process for existing government agencies, specifically the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), that avoids unnecessary bureaucracy, costs, and delays for cannabis companies or the government.
Read more at newcannabisventures.com