NCIA Committees: Quarterly Update And A Look Ahead

NCIA committees are an opportunity for members to get directly involved in specific industry issues and sectors. These volunteer-driven efforts engage members’ expertise and passion to drill down in areas of expertise and passion to effect change, provide professional development opportunities, and develop best practices and guidelines that will shape the future of our industry.

We recently checked in with these various committees to learn more about what they’re up to and what projects they’re working on this term. Get updated on their activities below.

Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC)

SAC is comprised of practicing scientists, physicians, and other scientific field professionals. SAC’s vision is to disseminate educational materials to NCIA members on scientific topics in the cannabis industry and to advise other NCIA committees as they work to develop standards and guidelines, ensuring that any formal recommendations produced are scientifically sound, sustainable, and legitimate.

SAC is currently working on five projects, all of which are in the outline or first draft phase:

1) Blog on the science behind why ‘sativa’ and ‘indica’ are no longer the best way to classify cultivars.
2) White paper on how cannabis may help the opioid crisis with a review of scientific studies that show how cannabis can be an alternative for pain management.
3) Blog calling doctors to action in the cannabis industry and why it is important for doctors to get involved.
4) Blog on the vaping crisis from a physician’s point of view. 5) General audience and technical white papers on the Endocannabinoid System.

Marketing & Advertising Committee (MAC)

The MAC coalesces the talents of 20 of the industry’s top-tier marketing and communications professionals around three focus areas: Education, Advertising Access and 2020 political goals. We use our personal, professional and business skills and networks to help build a responsible, legal cannabis industry. The committee is producing best practices, webinars, workshops and social media campaigns to aggregate and generate support from NCIA members, the public, media, government and business leaders.

In our first quarter, our Education Sub-Committee began creating a Speakers Bureau to provide qualified experts for conference organizers and media who will address topics of interest and concern in the industry.

Our Advertising Access Sub-Committee is completing best practices for advertising, making presentations to media groups and expanding Advertising/Labeling Do’s and Don’ts from five states to all legalized states.

Our 2020 Sub-Committee is driving awareness around policy change through panel presentations, preparing a campaign supporting pro-cannabis candidates and is encouraging professionals from the cannabis industry to run for office.

Cannabis Cultivation Committee (CCC)

We are working on producing our first podcast episode, which will feature top-notch farmers who are doing great work employing sustainable practices in indoor facilities.

There will be more podcast episodes to come on other hot cultivation topics.

State Regulations Committee (SRC)

The State Regulations Committee has been hard at work on a number of exciting pieces of work-product that should be available soon. For example, we hosted a webinar on December 3, 2019, in which the expert members of the Committee break down what operators need to know about Michigan’s adult-use market’s rules before it launches in 2020.

The State Regulations Committee has work-product in the pipeline on a number of topics of great importance to members. That includes a recurring guidance series on social consumption in markets across the nation, posts analyzing challenges in local/municipal regulation, a focus on the crucial questions of promoting social equity, and much more.

Cannabis Manufacturing Committee (CMC)

The Cannabis Manufacturing Committee is focusing on reviewing existing business practices and state regulations of concentrates, topicals, vaporizers and, edibles ensuring the manufacturing sector is helping shape its destiny. In this approach, we have published our first blog using lessons learned from the e-cig sector. We are also engaging with NCIA’s Safe Vaping Task Force.

CMC has created three sub-committees; GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices), Testing (from the operator’s view), and Nomenclature (providing clarity to industry language). GMP has its first draft complete and will be ready for publication in November. Nomenclature has a concrete draft to review for publishing its first part of a multi-piece series.

Packaging & Labeling Committee (PLC)

The PLC has 4 subcommittees: Honesty & Labeling, Sustainability, Security, Next Generation Packaging. Each subcommittee has set a goal of producing 3 or more blogs and 1 webinar. We have a very motivated and strong group this year. Our biggest vision for the year is to use our data, blogs, white papers, webinars, and PLC members’ knowledge to create a document reflecting the industry views on what federal policy should be around packaging and labeling.

PLC members are speaking in Boston at the Northeast Cannabis Business Conference on a panel titled “The Future of Cannabis and Packaging.”

Retail Committee (RC)

The Retail Committee is working on a compilation of SOPs for retail compliance to turn into a white paper and webinar series, combining efforts from various retailers in several states/markets in order to be most useful to the national audience.

Facilities Design Committee (FDC)

As a new committee, we have established a mission statement: To provide access to resources for the NCIA community and regulators that will inform the design and use of GMP-driven, sustainable and operationally efficient facilities to position our industry to compete in the global marketplace.

We have established two sub-committees: Standards and Sustainability. The Standards Sub-Committee is linked through membership to ASTM’s D37 committee on cannabis. 

Banking & Financial Services Committee (BFSC)

Our vision is to provide reliable, actionable and current information to NCIA’s members via committee member videos and a monthly newsletter. The committee will also be coordinating “NCIA Panels” at Bank and Credit Union conferences throughout the country to spread awareness to the issue and bring these institutions closer to the industry.

Lastly, the committee will be contributing language to the Policy Council for revision of the current version of the SAFE Act.

We will keep the NCIA updated as the Bank and Credit Union panels are confirmed. The committee will continue to pair any operator with the best banking option based on a myriad of factors, free of charge.