Invitation to Present at ASTM International’s Conference on Empowering Diversity in Global Cannabis Industries

ASTM International has opened an invitation to participate in its conference, Overcoming Barriers to Entry in Cannabis Industries: Views from Around the World (1). The conference will take place in Cape Town, South Africa from January 27–January 28, 2025, and is sponsored and organized by ASTM Committee D37 on Cannabis (1). Abstract submissions are due March 31, 2024 (1). The conference language will be English (1).

Founded 125 years ago, ASTM International is a non-profit organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus standards for materials, products, systems, and services while also providing a forum for their formation (2). The ASTM Committee D37 on Cannabis, founded in 2017 and comprised of over 700 members, develops and maintains standards for promoting the health and safety of various participants in international cannabis industries (2).

Recognizing that though cannabis industries and stakeholders have historically been diverse, several groups have been and continue to be marginalized in national and international markets, this conference is promoted as a place for discussion, learning, and collaboration to foster inclusion and fairness (1).

According to a conference overview, the tentative schedule for the two-day event is as follows (1):

Day 1

1. Listen to legacy, indigenous, women and other underrepresented groups that have been marginalized and disenfranchised from the international cannabis (and all its end uses, including industrial hemp) market.
2. Learn from those impacted by prohibition. Learn from these mistakes so we can avoid making them in the future.
3. Reflect upon the shared stories and challenges to better understand how to empower groups to overcome barriers to entry.

Day 2

1. Identifying specific barriers to entry impacting legacy, indigenous, women and other underrepresented groups from accessing the international cannabis (and all its end uses, including industrial hemp) market.
2. Embracing philosophies for overcoming barriers to entry.
3. Learning about actions that can be taken to overcome barriers to entry.
4. Uncovering tools that are available to assist with overcoming barriers to entry and ones that are needed.

In order to feature as many diverse perspectives as possible, the overview states, video submissions explaining the positive impacts of cannabis are also being accepted until June 30, 2024 (1).

Information on how to become a sponsor for the conference can be found here (3).

Find more details on the upcoming Overcoming Barriers to Entry in Cannabis Industries: Views from Around the World conference here (1).

References

1. ASTM Conference on Overcoming Barriers to Entry in Cannabis Industries: Views from Around the World https://na.eventscloud.com/website/61638/astm-d37-conference-2025/ (accessed Feb 28, 2024).
2. ASTM Committee D37 on Cannabis https://na-prod-aventri-files.s3.amazonaws.com/html_file_uploads/5a8bb8fe3ccfb3fce3c0b445f6345b28_ASTMD37OnePager_SA.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3Bfilename%3D%22ASTM%20D37%20One%20Pager_SA.pdf%22&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&AWSAccessKeyId=AKIA3OQUANZMGCIZWZ6F&Expires=1709171230&Signature=pV7vATXBc1dxLvAsM17LFa26D9g%3D (accessed Feb 28, 2024).
3. ASTM Committee D37 on Cannabis https://na-prod-aventri-files.s3.amazonaws.com/html_file_uploads/949bbff976b4d5846305ba303413ac06_ConferenceSponsorshipInformationEXT.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3Bfilename%3D%22Conference%20Sponsorship%20Information%20EXT.pdf%22&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&AWSAccessKeyId=AKIA3OQUANZMGCIZWZ6F&Expires=1709166915&Signature=4MWQbe%2FZFmopBEhoiSghIc08hnE%3D (accessed Feb 28, 2024).