User:Shawndouglas/sandbox/sublevel10

If you're reading this guide, you most likely believe that data management software and laboratories make for a good marriage, and you want to know what the next steps are. Know that you're not alone in that belief. At its heart, this guide has the informed conviction that a flexible laboratory informatics solution like a laboratory information management system (LIMS), when properly implemented and maintained, has the potential to improve cannabis testing workflows, reduce long-term operational costs, and support standards- and regulations-based compliance. But before be we can begin talking about what makes for a well-designed and implemented cannabis testing LIMS, we have to first understand what drives cannabis testing, as well as the workflow involved.

This first chapter begins with a brief overview of the cannabis industry in the United States, giving a quick and concise review of where cannabis use, regulation, testing, and research have been and where they are now. It also argues the value of analytical testing of cannabis, not only from the standpoint of ensuring quality products for patients turning to cannabis products but also research and development (R&D) labs creating or improving those products marketed for both medical and recreational use. The next chapters will then get into the specifics of analyzing and reporting on the myriad constituents and substrates/matrices that make up cannabis products; determining the informatics requirements of cannabis testing; and acquiring, implementing, and maintaining an informatics product like a LIMS in a cannabis testing laboratory. But first, a little historical background ...