Federal and state officials work closely together
Establish standards for marijuana products
Marcus Stuart (MS)May 8, 2025
Federal, state and local officials convened this week for a national conference where members discussed and put forward proposals for setting standards for marijuana products that could later be formally incorporated into a federal manual.
Two National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM) committees had cannabis-related items on their agendas. If any of them are adopted at a meeting later this summer, they would be included in a federal handbook from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
The NCWM Laws and Regulations Committee discussed proposals to establish a definition for cannabis and cannabis-containing products, develop a guideline for the water activity range of marijuana, and standardize packaging and labeling requirements.
The first two items were accepted and given voting status, meaning NCWM members will have an opportunity to include them in the NIST handbook when they meet again in July. The latter proposal, which specifically related to the creation of a national standard for the weight of packages containing marijuana, was not given voting status at this interim meeting and will continue to be considered in the future.
The NCWM Specifications and Tolerances Committee, meanwhile, put forward a proposal to develop requirements for the suitability of scales for the direct sale of bulk marijuana to dispensaries in legal states. However, this proposal is still a work in progress and will also be revised at subsequent meetings.
"As states have legalized the sale of cannabis in its various forms, the need for uniform standards of suitability of quantities has arisen," reads the proposal's rationale. "Consistent requirements from one state to the next will strengthen each jurisdiction's ability to effectively regulate the industry in a fair and equitable manner. Uniform standards also provide expectations for the industry, regardless of jurisdiction, thereby reducing potential conflict or confusion.
The purpose of this week's interim meeting was to discuss the proposals, gather comments from stakeholders and decide whether to put them to a vote at the NCWM annual meeting in July.
"These regulations are urgently needed," Matthew Curran, director of food safety for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, who attended the conference, told Marijuana Moment. The proposals "have the potential to become the first national standard - not a federal standard, but a national standard through a national consensus organization to which virtually every state subscribes".
"Having national standards allows for harmony across state lines," he said. "Without them, each state can do its own thing, and so you end up with maybe 50 boutique markets, which makes it very difficult to regulate and grow the industry."
NIST, a federal agency that has separately addressed marijuana issues and has worked to develop testing standards, has provided analysis of the NCWM proposals through its Office of Weights and Measures, but has no role in voting on acceptance of conference topics .
In comments filed ahead of this week's conference, Florida officials said they "discovered several inaccuracies in [the NIST] analysis" and that their "recommendations on the areas of consumer protection, market equity and regulatory accountability fall short ".
It's not that NIST is opposed to standardizing marijuana policy, but the agency lacks the experience that regulators overseeing state marijuana programs have developed over the years.
"This was a chance to have the first harmonized national standard," Charlie Rutherford, co-chair of the NCWM cannabis task force, told Marijuana Moment. "I really applaud the work they have done to bring these important issues to a point where we may be months away from something that will make compliance much easier for operators, especially multi-state operators can be done by harmonizing at least some of the rules."
In this context, NIST announced a cannabis testing program in 2020 to ensure that products purchased from retailers and dispensaries are correctly labeled.
Last year, the agency also invited labs to participate in a large-scale study to evaluate their ability to accurately analyze marijuana and hemp samples for their cannabinoid profile and possible contaminants.
