A2LA Today l March 2017 l Number 134
By Roger Brauninger, A2LA Biosafety Program Manager
Although the name of the conference may imply otherwise, this was not a conference on gemstones. A2LA CEO, Lonnie Spires, and A2LA Biosafety Program Manager, Roger Brauninger, traveled to San Diego, California on February 2-4, 2017 to attend and exhibit at the 3rd annual “Emerald Cannabis Conference” sponsored by Emerald Scientific. The 2017 event theme was “Exploring the Science of Cannabis.” The 3rd annual conference attempted to focus on the issues of hard cannabis science and a significant number of the participating organizations were A2LA-accredited. Session topics included “Science and Horticultural Practice” and “Analytical Testing and Sample Schemes.” Many speakers advocated the use of accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 in their presentations, including Cindy Ludwig of AOCS, Shawn Kassner of Neptune, Jahan Marcu of ASA and Sue Audino, A2LA assessor.
A2LA found the Emerald Cannabis Conference to be of great benefit, as the technical sessions and additional events surrounding the conference provided valuable information related to this rapidly expanding market. A2LA looks forward to attending again in the future.