The American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP) has released a highly anticipated monograph on Cannabis, otherwise known as marijuana. Like all AHP monographs, the Cannabis Quality Control publication provides standards of identity, purity, analysis, and quality, as well as information on the cultivation and storage of the botanical and its preparations.
 
The initial idea of developing an AHP monograph for Cannabis came form AHP medical director Aviva Romm MD, who reported that patients, first in her medical residency at Yale and then at Tufts, benefited from cannabis when other medications failed. This was followed by the recognition by 20 states of the medicinal utility of the botanical through passage of medical marijuana laws. Soon after, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a Washington DC-based advocacy organization for the medical use of cannabis, expressed the need for such standards.
 
According to AHP President Roy Upton, “This monograph is historic in that it is the first formal pharmacopoeial monograph on cannabis developed in the U.S. in more than 70 years. The first monograph was introduced into the United States Pharmacopoeia in 1850 and was removed from the 12th edition in 1942. Considering the widespread use of cannabis, it is important for there to be quality control guidance whether used for medicinal or non-medicinal purposes.”
 
ASA’s executive director, Steph Sherer, stated, “The AHP monograph creates much needed quality assurance standards for States that have medical access laws. The adoption of these standards will create confidence in the quality and reliability of cannabis therapies for patients and their physicians.”
 
For more information: www.herbal-ahp.org