As cannabis moves closer to a medical regulatory framework, the industry is going to need to upgrade its operations to comply with higher standards and operating procedures. This year’s Cannabis Quality Conference brings cannabis quality professionals into the same room as food safety experts and may also mark the beginning of an annual meeting for the people defining what quality means in cannabis.
Cannabis quality is about to get a lot more serious.
The industry has largely operated without formalized GMP or cGMP certification requirements, as most state regulatory models do not mandate them. Now, federal policy is stepping in and requiring stricter operating standards.
In April, the U.S. Department of Justice rescheduled marijuana as a Schedule III drug, a change expected to bring increased FDA involvement in setting standards and providing regulatory oversight. The action places medical cannabis within a more formal federal regulatory framework, increasing scrutiny of quality, safety, research, and manufacturing practices that will most likely spill over into the adult use market.
That makes the timing of this year’s Cannabis Quality Conference particularly important.
The Cannabis Quality Conference takes place on October 21–23 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia, alongside the 15th annual Food Safety Consortium. The two events are co-located, and attendees can move between the food safety and cannabis programs.
Since cannabis edibles and beverages are food products, manufacturers must adhere to the same core food safety principles as any food producer—clean facilities, reliable ingredients, and the ability to trace and control what goes into every batch. As the industry matures, especially in medical markets, there is also growing pressure to adopt stronger quality systems, more rigorous documentation, and more consistent production practices so results can be reproduced and consumers can trust them.
The Food Safety Consortium has been working on many of these challenges since 2012, building deep expertise in quality systems, regulatory compliance, and risk management that cannabis companies are only beginning to formalize. This year’s event creates a crossover opportunity for cannabis professionals to gain direct access to institutional expertise, while food safety experts gain a closer look at the unique quality challenges emerging in the cannabis industry.
Building Quality Into the Manufacturing Process
The Cannabis Quality program sets the tone with its opening keynote, “Good Enough for Mom — Building a Culture of Quality in Cannabis Manufacturing,” presented by Marie Antoinette Duncan, CSQ, President and CEO of Duncan Life Sciences. Duncan is a veteran quality leader who has built and scaled GMP systems across the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors, with additional experience supporting MSOs in the U.S. cannabis industry.
Her keynote focuses on the mindset and workplace culture shift that cannabis companies need to adopt toward a more structured, systems-based approach to quality management—similar to that used in the pharmaceutical industry. The emphasis is less on rules and more on the organizational and behavioral changes required to embed quality into how people think and work.
Cannabis has traditionally placed heavy emphasis on the finished product. Does it have the labeled amount of THC? Does it pass pesticide testing? Does it meet microbial limits? Does the batch have a COA?
As federal oversight evolves—whether through FDA involvement or rescheduling—the expectation will increasingly shift toward quality systems, including stronger Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) requirements and more robust standard operating procedures (SOPs).
That raises questions such as whether the supplier is qualified. How was the ingredient handled? Was the process controlled? Was equipment properly maintained? Was sanitation documented? What happens when an employee identifies a problem? How is a deviation investigated and corrected?
These are standard questions in food manufacturing that cannabis is still figuring out.
What Does “Federally Ready” Cannabis Quality Look Like?
A particularly relevant session is “From Reactive to Resilient: Building Federally-Ready Quality Management Systems in Cannabis.”
The session is led by Alex Hearding, founder and president of Red Wolf Risk, a consulting firm specializing in cannabis risk management and SOP development. Hearding has worked across cultivation, manufacturing, retail, and compliance for more than 16 years. His four-phase model- assessment, risk identification, corrective actions, and long-term support- integrates ISO 9001 principles, GACP, and EU-GMP readiness into daily operations.
He says SOPs can help operators cut insurance premiums by nearly 40% and become lender- and investor-ready by positioning quality management as a competitive advantage rather than a cost center.
A second session, “Reactive to Proactive: Elevating Cannabis Operations Through Integrated Quality Management Systems,” is presented by Ron Potochar, food safety and system specialist at D.L. Newslow & Associates. His session focuses on integrating GMPs, HACCP, ISO 17025:2017, and Good Laboratory/Research Practices across a cannabis operation, from cultivation to sales, to catch problems before they happen instead of reacting after the fact.
The two sessions differ in approach. Hearding works with individual companies to identify their specific gaps and develop SOPs to address them. Potochar outlines the standards themselves and how to apply them across cannabis operations.
The Food Industry Has Been Working on This for Decades
The crossover between the two conferences gives cannabis operators insight into food safety expertise and gives food safety professionals a firsthand look at where cannabis still needs it.
Cannabis companies already have systems for cannabinoid potency, plant-derived contaminants, cultivation-to-manufacturing traceability, and rules that shift from state to state. What they don’t have is a food-safety regulatory framework built for a medically regulated world that complies with federal standards.
Food safety companies want to understand cannabis’s specific challenges so they can adapt their existing systems and expand into the space, giving cannabis tried-and-true frameworks instead of starting from scratch. The co-located event’s food safety track covers risk management, corrective action investigations, traceability, and audits, plus optional training on FMEA, root cause analysis, audit leadership, and the FSPCA traceability rule- sessions that can help set cannabis companies on the right track for compliance in this new era.
Learn more about the Food Safety and Cannabis Quality Conference taking place in Washington, D.C this October.
