The USP recently published a scientific paper with recommendations for cannabis testing in the Journal of Natural Products, and Senior Scientific Advisor at Health Canada’s Food Directorate noted “the Canadian government may consider these guidelines as legal requirements for medical cannabis.”
The paper is not an official monograph, but only because cannabis remains federally illegal in the US. In an official statement, the USP said the paper was written by a panel of experts “while still employing a rigorous process similar to the one typically used by the organization to formulate its quality standards.”
Perhaps the most significant change in the USP’s guidance on cannabis testing is the inclusion of testing for four pathogenic species of Aspergillus (A. flavus, A. fumigatus, A. niger, and A. terreus). The document also concludes that qPCR methods are “by far the most sensitive” for detecting pathogenic Aspergillus, while conventional plating methods are “very difficult”.