The American Council of Independent Laboratories was formed to increase awareness and outreach on best practices and quality standards for the industry on behalf of independent cannabis testing laboratories in California.
The group was formed under the guidance and principles of ACIL, an 84-year-old trade association that represents over 1,000 independent laboratories in various industries, across the country.
In the late 2000’s, ACIL worked closely with California’s
Environmental Lab Accreditation Program (ELAP) to implement TNI
standards in environmental labs across California. This allowed ELAP to
regain accreditation status and become one of the most successful
state-run accreditation programs in the country.
Like the cannabis industry today, these standards were needed to minimize the various approaches to testing and eliminate lab shopping for results. Lap shopping practices were a threat to public health, and we recognize a similar opportunity to help standardize cannabis testing in California.
ACIL has partnered with Mieko Hester-Perez to compile a panel of medical directors, cannabis regulators and executives to discuss the need for standardization in cannabis testing and how critical it is to the medicinal market.
Mieko went public with her son’s success with
medical cannabis in 2009 and has used her combination of over 20 years
of legal experience and special education knowledge to guide countless
families through this tricky process.
Beyond the legal hoops, Mieko was
quick to understand the importance of lab testing while dosing her son
and understands that safe and accurate products are the only way to
gather the proper data to find the most appropriate regime for a
patient.
Her work has earned her special recognition from the United States Congress and the trust of medical directors in Southern California and across the globe.
On Tuesday, October 12th, ACIL will be hosting a cannabis panel discussion at their annual meeting during the national ACIL Cannabis Working Group sessions. Participants thus far include, California Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Chief Christine Sotelo and a distinguished group of medical directors and professionals dedicated to improving the bridge between healthcare and cannabis in their fields.
Dr. Vincent Nguyen (Director of Palliative Care, Hoag Hospital) Dr. Robert Chesne (Director of Cardiology, Centinela Hospital), Turk McBride (Retired NFL Football Player & CEO of Global Research Ventures) and Dr. Daniel Piomelli (Director, University of California Irvine Center for the Study of Cannabis) all believe that proper regulation and transparency are critical to introducing patients to cannabis and have dedicated their careers to influencing hospitals and patients to adopt the best policies to accomplish those goals.
