[PRESS RELEASE] – NAZARETH, Pa., July 28, 2025 – PackworldUSA, a leading manufacturer of precision heat sealing equipment, highlights the 3400 Series Heat Sealer, designed to meet the demanding standards of precision packaging solutions.

For cannabis applications, this advanced system offers unmatched versatility, cleanroom compatibility, and ease of use. The 3400 Series Heat Sealer is manufactured from cleanroom-friendly materials such as stainless steel and anodized aluminum, ensuring it meets strict sterility requirements. The design eliminates the need for fans, reducing the risk of aerating particulates, and is wipe-down ready for standard cleanroom sterilizing solutions. This makes the system ideal for precision packaging in cannabis applications to preserve sensitive products.

The 3400’s intuitive touchscreen control panel simplifies the programming and monitoring of all sealing parameters, including time, temperature, and pressure. With real-time display capabilities, operators can easily verify critical process parameters, ensuring consistency and reliability in the sealing process. For added security, the 3400 Series includes password protection, preventing unauthorized changes to machine settings or critical process parameters to maintain seal integrity and ensure operation within validated parameters.

The 3400 Series offers a range of features to accommodate various packaging needs. The optional vacuum/purge system allows for customizable cycles, enabling product packaging to be tightly sealed or gently packed to reduce bulk without damaging the product. The system supports multiple cycles of alternating vacuum and purge functions and can be programmed to end on either cycle, offering flexibility to operators in achieving the desired result. Additionally, the compressed air exhaust outlet can be vented out of the room for even more cleanroom compliance.

PackworldUSA’s 3400 Series is powered by the TOSS® PIREG® Variable Resistance Control, a hallmark of the company’s precision heat sealing systems. This technology eliminates the need for thermocouples, allowing the machine to achieve the specified sealing temperature within milliseconds while maintaining precise control throughout the sealing process. Available with single or dual bands, the system can easily accommodate thick films requiring heat from both jaw bars, providing even heating for the most challenging applications.

Ensuring the highest standards, the 3400 Series is fully validatable, ISO 11607 compliant, and offers test ports for verifying the functionality of critical process parameters, such as temperature, time, and pressure. Operators can confidently maintain the integrity of every seal, even in the most demanding applications. The 3400 Series also features the exclusive AUTOCAL function for automatic zero calibration and multipoint calibration, making temperature calibration more straightforward than ever before.

Available in both 16-inch and 24-inch models, as well as custom sizes, the 3400 Series accommodates a wide variety of package sizes. Optional water-cooled jaws allow for faster cooling cycle times, minimizing overall sealing time, and the system is equipped with an emergency stop button for added safety.

The system includes a recipe storage feature that enables quick setup for different materials, ensuring minimal downtime between production runs. A resettable seal counter helps operators track production output and schedule maintenance efficiently. Additionally, graphical displays provide real-time feedback on temperature, time, and pressure, complete with visual and audible alarms to alert operators of potential issues and ensure consistent quality.

PackworldUSA stands behind its products, offering a 30-month warranty on all parts excluding consumables. All machines are fully built to the company’s exacting standards, ensuring they meet the rigorous demands of packaging engineers, process engineers, and quality assurance professionals alike. For more information about the 3400 Series Heat Sealer and PackworldUSA’s comprehensive line of precision heat sealing equipment, visit PackworldUSA.com or watch an informational video here.

A federal appeals court last week sided with a nonprofit attempting to open a supervised drug consumption facility in Philadelphia, reversing a lower court decision and ruling that religious freedom and free exercise protections are applicable to nearly any group claiming a religious motivation for its actions.

In an opinion from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the court remanded the case, Safehouse v. Department of Justice, back to district court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to determine whether the group “has plausibly pleaded” its case under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the First Amendment.

An earlier district court ruling in the case rejected Safehouse’s claim that the group was protected under RFRA, siding with Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers who’d argued that the group’s views on harm reduction were “socio-political,” not religious.  Safehouse appealed that ruling last September.

The new Third Circuit opinion, published on Thursday, says the lower court ruling was a “reversible error.”

“RFRA’s plain text and Free Exercise doctrine are clear that those statutory and constitutional protections extend to non-natural persons, including so-called non-religious entities,” the ruling says, citing past court decisions in favor of the evangelical-owned arts-and-crafts store Hobby Lobby as well as a Colorado baker who refused on religious grounds to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

For those and other reasons, the court said, “we will reverse the District Court’s order that Safehouse is not protected by RFRA and the Free Exercise Clause as a non-religious entity and remand for it to consider whether Safehouse has plausibly pleaded RFRA and Free Exercise counterclaims.”

In a statement sent to supporters, Safehouse leaders said they “are gratified that the Third Circuit acknowledges that Safehouse is entitled to the full protection of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment.

“Today’s decision is an important milestone not only for Safehouse, but for all community-based organizations that save lives by evidence-based, compassionate harm-reduction strategies,” the group said. “The Court’s opinion recognizes what we have always believed: The law safeguards our mission to preserve human life in an unprecedented overdose crisis.”

The appeals ruling does not itself allow Safehouse to open its supervised consumption facility in Philadelphia, though it allows the group to continue its challenge against the federal government’s assertion that the prospective site would violate federal law.

In August 2023, when the case was still in district court, 35 Christian and Jewish faith leaders from 19 states submitted an amicus brief in which they supported the nonprofit’s establishment of overdose prevention site under RFRA, saying that Safehouse’s board members’ mission to reduce harm aligns with sincerely held religious beliefs.

DOJ had argued, meanwhile, that “maintaining a place where Safehouse would invite drug users to consume illegal drugs would violate 21 U.S.C. § 856(a)(2).”

That law, in relevant part, makes it illegal to “manage or control any place…and knowingly or intentionally…make available for use, with or without compensation, the place for the purpose of unlawfully manufacturing, storing, distributing, or using a controlled substance.”

DOJ has previously argued that the religious exemption does not apply because Safehouse itself is not a bona fide religious organization. But the religious leaders asserted that the group’s board members are nevertheless motivated by a faith-based understanding of their obligation to prevent unnecessary drug overdose deaths.

As to whether RFRA would allow an exemption to Controlled Substances Act (CSA) itself, the federal drug law does say that “any person may apply for an exception to the application of any provision of this chapter,” but DOJ lawyers have argued that the provision allows only “an exception to particular CSA regulations,” not an exemption from the statute itself.

Safehouse first announced plans to open a Philadelphia safe consumption site in 2018, during the first Trump administration. DOJ sued to block the facility, arguing that it would violate federal drug laws. The district court in that matter sided with Safehouse, but the ruling was later overturned by the Third Circuit.

The case continued under the Biden administration, with DOJ officials continuing to push back against the site. The Supreme Court rejected a request to hear a case on the legality of the Safehouse facilities in October 2021.

While the Philadelphia facility was being held up in the litigation, New York City opened the first locally sanctioned harm reduction centers in the U.S. in November 2021, and officials reported positive results saving lives.

A 2022 study published by the American Medical Association (AMA) found that the New York City facilities decreased the risk of overdose, steered people away from using drugs in public and provided other ancillary health services to people who use illicit substances.

Separate research published AMA the following year found that New York City’s first drug overdose prevention centers (OPCs) did not lead to increased crime despite a significant decrease in arrests.

Rhode Island, while Minnesota and Vermont have also authorized overdose prevention centers (OPCs) at the state level.

Earlier this year, however, the Minnesota plans were put on pause, with state officials citing concerns about federal law.

Last October, a group of doctors argued that overdose prevention centers—where people can more safely use illegal drugs in a medically supervised environment and are typically connected to a host of other services—“represent a wise, cost-effective, and necessary use” of state opioid settlement funds.

The centers can “save lives, improve public health and advance racial equity,” said the paper from the advocacy group Doctors for Drug Policy Reform (D4DPR), adding that the sites have been operating in Europe for almost four decades and have existed in North America since 2003.

“These sites have reduced overdose morbidity and mortality, improved injection safety, and increased access to addiction treatment without raising crime rates,” the group said, adding: “For many individuals who use drugs, these centers are often the only places where they are treated with dignity and respect.”

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) put out a pair of requests for applications in December 2021 to investigate how safe consumption sites and other harm reduction policies could help address the drug crisis.

In August 2023, a U.S. congresswoman from New Jersey was among a number of speakers who called for support and expansion of OPCs at a Drug Policy Alliance event held ahead of International Overdose Awareness Day.

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), who in 2021 sponsored a bill to federally decriminalize all drugs, said during Monday’s webinar that OPCs are an “important part” of a “necessary shift” away from punitive drug policies and toward a more health-centered approach.

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Nora Volkow in 2022 also tacitly endorsed the idea of authorizing safe consumption sites, arguing that evidence has effectively demonstrated that the facilities can prevent overdose deaths.

Volkow declined to say specifically what she believes should happen with the ongoing lawsuit, but she said safe consumption sites that have been the subject of research “have shown that it has saved a significant [percentage of] patients from overdosing.”

Read the full Third Circuit ruling in Safehouse v. DOJ below:

Photo courtesy of Flickr/Marco Verch.

Cannabis rescheduling is not a top priority of President Donald Trump’s newly sworn-in Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) administrator, Terrance Cole, despite the promise he made three months ago.

After he was sworn in as the agency’s head on July 23, Cole released a list on July 25 of his top eight strategic priorities that “reflect a renewed focus on enforcement, partnership and public safety to meet the evolving threats of the global drug crisis.”

Absent from that list was reviewing where the DEA stands on a proposed rule to reclassify cannabis from a Schedule I to Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), something Cole said would be “one of my first priorities” during his Senate confirmation hearing in April. Cole told U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee members that “it’s time to move forward” with the rescheduling hearing process that’s been delayed by an interlocutory appeal since January.

RELATED: DEA Provides No Cannabis Rescheduling Update After 180 Days

However, it appears Cole has changed his order of operations.

Instead of listing the cannabis rescheduling process as a top priority, Cole placed an urgency on fighting foreign terrorist organizations, from targeting drug traffickers to dismantling Mexican cartels and disrupting the supply chain for illicit fentanyl manufacturers.

These strategic priorities reflect Cole’s 22-year career as a DEA special agent, before he retired from federal service in 2020 and, in 2023, began serving as Virginia’s Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security under Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

“As I once again walk through the doors of DEA, I am reminded of the passion and commitment I carried as a special agent, the same passion that drives the men and women in this agency,” Cole said in a July 25 press release. “The gravity of DEA’s mission was clear as I stood witness to President Donald Trump signing the Halt Fentanyl Act surrounded by angel families holding onto the memories of those they lost. They are the reason we remain focused, determined and unwavering.”

The Halt Fentanyl Act permanently classifies fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs under the CSA. While cannabis is currently listed among heroin, LSD and ecstasy as the most controlled drugs with a Schedule I status, fentanyl is listed as a Schedule II drug. Despite its deadly nature, fentanyl has a currently accepted medical use in the U.S.

“The cartels and foreign terrorist organizations fueling this crisis are global in reach—and so is the DEA,” Cole said. “With the support of the Trump administration, the Department of Justice [DOJ], and our international, federal, state, local and tribal partners, we will dismantle these violent cartels and make America safe again.”

While Cole omitted any mention of cannabis in the July 25 swearing-in announcement, that doesn’t mean the DEA administrator won’t live up to his promise: to merely review where the DEA is in the administrative process to reschedule cannabis.

While Cole said in his April confirmation hearing that “it’s time to move forward” on the delayed hearing process—to debate the merits of the DOJ’s Schedule III proposed rule—he never committed to following through on the proposal. Also, he said that he was unfamiliar with where the administrative law judge hearing stood, other than that it was delayed.

“If confirmed, I will give the matter careful consideration after consulting with appropriate personnel within the Drug Enforcement Administration, familiarizing myself with the current status of the regulatory process, and reviewing all relevant information,” Cole said in May in response to written questions for the record.

Most recently, John J. Mulrooney II, the DEA’s chief administrative law judge tasked with overseeing a fair and transparent hearing process, announced July 23 that he is retiring on Aug. 1, upon which time he will no longer have jurisdiction over the rescheduling hearing.

Mulrooney’s successor will pick up full jurisdiction over the hearing process only if Cole fixes a briefing schedule to allow for the hearing’s designated participants to weigh in on the interlocutory appeal, which stems from claims by pro-rescheduling participants that the DEA colluded with anti-rescheduling participants through improper ex parte communications.

Separately, a pro-rescheduling party that was denied participation in the hearing process exposed the DEA for sending “cure letters” to several anti-rescheduling entities, providing them the opportunity to submit supplemental information showing that they met the “interested person” status under the Administrative Procedure Act to participate.

After Cole sets a briefing schedule and allows designated participants to weigh in, he can entertain oral arguments, “if he desires,” and then can issue a binding written decision to Mulrooney’s successor on whether the hearing process should resume. Again, Cole indicated during his April confirmation hearing that resuming the process was his intention.

However, the DEA head also said that it’d be one of his “first priorities,” which no longer seems to be the case.