A2LA Today l June 2017 l Number 135
By Roger Brauninger, A2LA Program Manager
On May 3, 2017 A2LA was pleased to issue its first ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation for cannabis testing in the State of Washington. This was a scope expansion recognizing the competence of the Washington State Department of Agriculture – Chemical and Hops Laboratory, located in Yakima, WA in performing multiresidue pesticide analysis of this difficult matrix.
The A2LA Cannabis Accreditation Program establishes a standard of quality for the testing of cannabis and cannabis-derived products; including hemp, oils, and hash concentrates. Currently, nearly half of states where cannabis has been legalized for recreational and/or medical use, now either directly specify or encourage laboratory accreditation to the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025. This is due at least in part to the cannabis team’s efforts in reaching out to state legislators and regulators in supplying proposed regulatory language (which tend to vary a bit from state to state). Thus, A2LA’s focus is to work with state regulators to establish consistent regulatory requirements and then to assess the laboratories to these requirements. These efforts help to ensure that A2LA accreditation offers the highest level of recognition and provides the most value to the laboratory and to users of these products.