California is not the only state with testing lab trouble. Several others across the nation have had to shut down labs for shady practices as more regulators tighten testing standards.
Oregon, Michigan, Mississippi and Nevada join California in cracking down on testing labs over the last year.
The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission is currently investigating seven testing labs under suspicion of inflated THC results. Those labs were sent letters from the state on Sept. 25, leaving them one month to request a hearing in defense, according to attorney Vince Sliwoski of Harris-Sliwoski.
Those seven all face possible suspensions and/or fines. Three of them could also have their licenses revoked for allegedly allowing cultivators to treat their samples with concentrate or kief before submitting it to the lab, which spikes the detected potency.
Sliwoski is involved in at least one of the cases against a testing lab but did not go into further details when reached for comment. The state was similarly quiet on the matter.
“As those investigations are ongoing and the cases haven’t been settled, there isn’t anything that we could comment on in regards to those,” said OLCC spokesperson Matt Vansickle.
There are currently 15 active testing licenses in Oregon, according to the CRB Monitor database. In order to test cannabis, they must also be certified by Oregon’s Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program, which narrows the total number of state-authorized cannabis testing labs to 11.
Over in Michigan, where the adult-use market has grown to rival that of California, state regulators recently suspended a cannabis testing lab’s license for failure to ensure that products on the market are free of pesticides, excessive microbials and inflated potency rates.
Michigan’s Cannabis Regulatory Administration issued a formal complaint to Lab Link Testing in Madison Heights on Aug. 16. The lab’s employee was allegedly caught on camera testing a sample that a cultivator provided to them, instead of the lab’s staff collecting a sample directly from the crop, as required by state regulation.
By allowing the business to provide the sample, which could have been specifically chosen from a more potent or less-contaminated part of the crop, the lab risked producing an inaccurate test result.
At this point, the state is still gathering additional information and has yet to publicly issue a final ruling on the lab’s license status.
In Nevada, LettuceTest LLC, formerly known as Cannex Nevada, has been facing pressure from the state’s Cannabis Compliance Board over allegedly inflating THC results and passing samples with contaminants.
Nevada’s Cannabis Compliance Board suspended testing lab LettuceTest during its April 18 meeting. The 180-day suspension, which included a $57,500 fine that was scheduled to be paid in monthly installments, comes after several years of legal battles and multiple failed inspections for LettuceTest.
“Without being operational, the payments would be hard to meet. And I think, really recognizing the fact of where the company has come and its commitment to compliance, that’s why we’re willing to move forward without the petition for judicial review,” said attorney Kimberly Maxson-Rushton on behalf of LettuceTest during the April 18 meeting.
Earlier this year, the Mississippi State Department of Health shut down Rapid Analytics, one of just two licensed cannabis testing labs in the state, based on an anonymous tip that the lab was “mishandling pesticide tests.” The state began investigating on Dec. 21, 2023, and continued for about three months before officially revoking the company’s license on March 13.
The closure left the state with just one operating testing lab, Chromatic, doing business as Steep Hill. Since then, three more have received licenses, including Alchemy Analytics, Aardwolf-Certus MS and Magnolia Tech Labs.
Dispensaries were also barred from selling product that had been tested by Rapid Analytics. Those products were placed on an administrative hold until they could be retested, which took place in January.
“Patient safety is our top priority,” said Laura Goodson, director of the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Program, in a January statement announcing the retesting status. “We are tasked with making sure all test results meet the regulatory standards and that approved products are available to those in the medical cannabis program.”
In February, two cultivators, FerrCann Inc. and Sadaju Inc., sued the lab for financial damages they incurred from the product embargo. Representatives from the lab failed to show up to court, so the judge ruled in favor of the cultivators in June and awarded them at total $6.3 million.
Meanwhile, the state has finally started applying new standards for detecting total yeast and mold, as of Oct. 29.
California established new standards for testing contaminants that labs were expected to comply with by Jan. 1. That standard change originally left eight testing labs temporarily unable to test cannabis until they updated their own testing protocols.
At the same time, a Los Angeles Times report uncovered rampant pesticides in California’s cannabis supply that exceeded allowable limits. This revelation led to a spike in product recalls and at least four testing labs losing their licenses.
