Public Health researches marijuana in California

This week, members of the Department of Public Health's Environmental Health Enforcement Team made their way to California to clear the smoke on cannabis testing.

DPHSS director James Gillan said the team is expected to return to Guam next week with a clearer understanding of marijuana strengths and dosages.

"We want to ensure that what people are buying is what's being advertised," Gillan said. "We'll have to know how to determine effective dosages and strengths, whether it's in edibles, tinctures, oils and so on."

In addition to dosage and quality, Gillan said lab technicians also will be required to be knowledgeable of molds and fungi that might affect marijuana.

The on-site research and learning being conducted by the team will help determine the needs of a future cannabis lab on Guam.

"The lab would have to be a function of some neutral party, preferably the government," Gillan said.

For the first year, Gillan said lab services might need to be contracted, but must be available on island.

"Whether it's government run or contracted, the lab testing needs to happen here," he said.

According to the California Medical Association, California voters passed Proposition 215, also called The Compassionate Use Act, in 1996, which decriminalized the cultivation and use of cannabis by seriously ill individuals upon physician recommendation, becoming the first state to allow the use of medical marijuana.

The team was previously in Arizona to learn from the state's medical marijuana regulatory processes, information systems and legislation.

The draft medical marijuana proposal has not been made public. Gillan has said the advisory board will present the draft to stakeholders, including government agencies and those in the private business community, before holding a public hearing in mid-June.

"The draft could end up being changed substantially," Gillan said previously. "We just want everything ironed out so it doesn't delay the public process."