New rules implemented in Missouri allow regulators to instruct the state’s certified cannabis testing laboratories to double check the work of other labs – an effort to cut down on so-called ‘lab shopping,’ the Missouri Independent reports. Under the regulations, the state will, up to 10 times a year, instruct labs to test cannabis samples tested by another lab. Then the state will review the test results to make sure they have similar results in THC potency, and that one lab isn’t passing a sample for pesticide residue while another one is failing it.
Kim Stuck, CEO of the cannabis and psychedelics compliance firm Allay Consulting, told the Independent that lab shopping “has been an issue in the industry from the beginning” and that she hasn’t “seen any state really make sure that those testing labs are getting the results they’re supposed to be getting, not yet at least.”
In an interview with the Independent, Anthony David, owner and COO of Green Precision Analytics Inc., pushed back on the rule, arguing that by gathering 10 tests a year for 10 labs – 100 total samples – is “nowhere even close to enough data to know whether someone is an outlier, or whether they’re testing in regulation.”
“Yes, we all want better ways to test. We all want methods that are validated and that everyone can use across the entire United States and testing laboratories. But it’s an obtuse way of thinking for the state to think that they can do it.” — Davis to the Independent
David added that similar rules in Colorado and California, which require the interlaboratory testing twice per year, have done little to stop lab shopping by cannabis companies and that Missouri’s regulations are just another unnecessary hurdle and cost to operators.
Earlier this month, The Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation recalled nearly 63,000 cannabis products produced by Delta Extraction; however, the recall was not linked to failed testing, rather that the products were not tracked through the state’s seed-to-sale tracking system.
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