Work With PFC
Working with PFC to provide compliance oversight of the medical cannabis industry can help ease the potential knowledge gap between cannabis industry and regulatory agencies, while also easing the financial and staffing burdens of regulators. PFC works directly with regulators and industry trade groups across the country to coordinate the ongoing and evolving development of medical cannabis industry regulations and standards. PFC provides regulators with access to some of the industry’s best technical experts, delivering consistent services with the highest levels of integrity, while providing patients, health care providers, and regulators confidence that the program’s participants meet the highest levels of product safety and quality available.
PFC Services
Legislation and Regulation Development
Americans for Safe Access has over 12 years of experience working with lawmakers to adopt and improve medical cannabis legislation and regulation, including the adoption of model legislative language and the submission of comments to assist in the development of pending regulation. ASA continues to facilitate support for medical cannabis in Congress and administrative agencies and has organized many prestigious advisory boards to assist policy makers and other stakeholders on the science of medical cannabis.
Model legislation for medical cannabis
ASA’s model legislation for medical cannabis and medical cannabis facilities can be found online at https://www.safeaccessnow.org/model_federal_legislation. ASA model legislation is based on ASA’s 12-plus years of experience assisting state and local governments in the development of medical cannabis laws and regulations and is focused on not only sensible policy for the operation of medical cannabis operations but also on the needs and safety of the patients using medical cannabis and cannabis-derived products.
Sensible regulations based on the AHPA and AHP guidelines
These comprehensive guidelines serve as a tool, to be taken in sections or in whole, for the sensible regulation of the medical cannabis industry. Together, these guidelines act to regulate medical cannabis from plant propagation to cannabis and cannabis-derived product consumption. Local and State governments have increasingly utilized these guidelines as the foundation for sensible regulatory development.
Pre-licensing certification
Companies interested in the PFC program but not yet licensed can engage in the PFC program and begin the audit process prior to license approval by providing PFC with a 50% deposit. In this case, the company must be able to show verification that all staff, as identified on the application, have successfully completed the PFC Training and that the company has successfully completed a document audit of all proposed SOP’s and Employee Manuals by an assigned PFC auditor. As with other document audits conducted for PFC, the assigned PFC auditor will create a detailed audit report for the company outlining any corrective actions necessary for the SOP’s to meet the standards of the PFC program. All corrective actions must be successfully implemented prior to receiving PFC approval from the assigned auditor. PFC will then provide the company with a letter of engagement verifying that the provided documents are of adequate content to show that the company has implementable procedures ensuring compliance with local and state laws, and AHPA and AHP guidelines. Companies engaging in this PFC pre-licensing opportunity are held to a rigid timeline for completion of the certification process upon receiving a State approval of license.
Certified Training Management
As state governments continue to pass and amend medical cannabis laws that include mandatory industry training, PFC courses are continually updated to meet or exceed each state’s requirements. A national leader in medical cannabis education, PFC currently holds the first government-issued educational permit from the District of Columbia to provide the required staff trainings for the District’s legal medical cannabis providers. PFC offers a comprehensive array of ready to use and implement training programs designed to train industry staff, health care practitioners, government, regulators, auditors, and consumers in a variety of subjects pertaining to medical cannabis. PFC training courses are available for instruction in two very accessible formats: 1) Online on our website , and 2) In-person instruction conducted by a PFC Certified Instructor. Corresponding educational materials, ranging from state legal guides to patient handbooks, can be found online at http://www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org/publications.
Training services to licensed facilities in compliance
Local and State government and regulators can confidently look for the PFC seal of approval displayed at cannabis businesses to verify that each staff person engaged in the companies operations has been adequately trained. PFC companies are required to successfully complete the program’s required staff training courses, which are specifically designed to ensure company compliance with state and local regulations, as well as the AHPA and AHP guidelines.
Program Oversight
The PFC program verifies state and local compliance protocols as well as product safety and quality standards through the PFC training programs and the PFC independent auditor services. By working with the PFC program, government and regulatory agencies, can reduce the oversight burden and cost of implementing medical cannabis programs.
Compliance protocols
Government and regulatory agencies can now look for the PFC seal of approval to verify that medical cannabis operations are compliant with all local and state laws and regulations, as well as the AHPA and AHP guidelines. By working directly with PFC, government and regulatory agencies can focus on the development and updating of medical cannabis laws and regulations, leaving the compliance verification to Patient Focused Certification and other third party auditor opportunities.
Audit services
PFC Auditor Training programs provide a comprehensive training opportunity for qualified individuals interested in becoming PFC independent auditors, as well as for government and regulatory agency staff requiring cannabis specific auditor training. Government and regulatory agencies can also engage PFC independent auditors to conduct state and local mandated compliance audits in all disciplines of the medical cannabis industry.