Good production practices (cannabis)

A buyer of a licensed cannabis business meets good production practices in the facility’s written procedures and in what Health Canada has found on inspection. The rules are federal. See buying a cannabis cultivation facility in Canada.

What the rules say

Part 5 of the Cannabis Regulations is headed Good Production Practices. Section 80 says cannabis and anything used as an ingredient must be produced, packaged, labelled, distributed, stored, sampled and tested under standard operating procedures designed to ensure those activities meet the applicable requirements of Part 5 and Part 6; sections 79.1 to 79.3 set out where Part 5 or parts of it do not apply. Under section 19, a holder of a licence for processing must retain a quality assurance person with the training, experience and technical knowledge related to the requirements of Parts 5 and 6 that apply to the class of cannabis under the licence, and section 19(1.1) requires another individual for edible cannabis if that person lacks it. Health Canada publishes a guide for federal licence holders on meeting Part 5.

What to check or ask

• Ask for the written standard operating procedures and who approved them.
• Ask whether Health Canada has inspected the site and what, if anything, it raised.
• For a processing licence, ask who the quality assurance person is and whether that person is staying.
• Check the current Regulations, since Part 5 can be amended. See also the cannabis cultivation licence entry.