Health Canada announced June 14 its final regulations for additional cannabis products, including edibles, extracts and topicals.
The production and sale of these products will be legal under the Cannabis Act starting Oct. 17, 2019, but the items will likely not be available in physical or online stores until mid-December, according to Health Canada’s website.
The regulations impose a 10-mg THC limit on cannabis edibles in the form of solids and beverages, and no vitamins, minerals, nicotine or alcohol may be added to the products. There are also limits on how much caffeine will be permitted in edibles.
For cannabis extracts, the rules impose a 10-mg THC limit on ingested extracts—such as capsules—with a maximum of 1,000 mg of THC per package. For inhaled extracts and concentrates, the rules mandate a 1,000-mg THC cap per package. Extracts can have no added vitamins, minerals, sugars, sweeteners, colors, nicotine or caffeine. The maximum package size for liquid ingested and inhaled extracts is 90 ml, while the maximum package size for solid extracts is 7.5 grams.
The rules dictate a maximum of 1,000 mg of THC per package for cannabis topicals, and topical products can only be used on skin, hair and nails.
The proposed regulations mandate that all cannabis edibles, extracts and topicals be sold in plain, child-resistant packaging, and the label must include the standardized cannabis symbol for products containing THC, a health warning message, the THC and CBD content, an ingredient list and allergens. Edibles packaging muse also include a nutrition facts table. No health or dietary claims can be made on the label, and there can be no branding elements that associate the product with alcoholic beverages or brands.
Licensed producers must submit their proposed products for approval 60 days prior to releasing them into distribution channels, The Georgia Straight reported.
Licensed producer Emerald Health Therapeutics announced June 14 that it is pleased that Health Canada has released its regulatory framework for ingestibles.
“The clarity [that] the final regulatory framework provides is important for Emerald in bringing our new product categories such as vape pens, ingestibles and edibles to market,” said Allan Rewak, VP of communications and stakeholder relations, in a company press release. “We applaud the government for providing this certainty today.”
In anticipation of the regulations on these new product categories, Emerald formed a strategic partnership with the Factors Group to segment its Kelowna-based facility into a separate processing plant. Once fully operational, the Factors Group will be capable of converting up to one million kilograms of biomass into finished products, starting with soft gels, according to the press release. Emerald plans to bring ingestible products to market in December 2019 or January 2020.
