As the legal marijuana market takes off in the United States, labs have sprouted to regulate the safety of the products now available for sale. Of course, this field is necessary for the well-being of consumers, but labs across the country have faced shutdowns, stripping of licenses, and other adversities due to shady results. An independent cannabis testing lab in Massachusetts is the latest in the long line to be told to suspend operations due to alleged failures to report valid test results.
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The Cannabis Control Commission’s Investigations and Enforcement Task Force led an investigation and determined that Assured Testing Laboratories wasn’t accurately reporting test results for yeast and mold to the CCC. The Tyngsborough lab allegedly also failed to get results to Metrc, a required cannabis compliance tracker.
According to the commission, ATL’s samples were 90 percent less likely to fail the yeast and mold tests compared to the industry standard, leading regulators to allege that they intentionally concealed failures—a clear public health violation. ATL submitted results in which only 10 samples out of 17,565 contained yeast and mold. This 0.05 percent fail rate comes in contrast to the 4.5 percent rate in all of Massachusetts. The lab was ordered to cease operations on June 30 and has until July 21 to appeal the suspension.
Nationwide lab fraud
For a while now, labs around the nation have been flagged and/or shut down for similar testing complaints. In May, Kaycha Labs in Arizona was accused of a dozen “inefficiencies,” including inaccurate potency testing.
In the months before, BelCosta Labs and Flavor Galaxy—labs based in California and Michigan, respectively—faced similar accusations of missing records, inaccurate product labeling, and potency inflation. Labs in states like New York, Washington, and more have faced similar difficulties.
These shutdowns have resulted in a growing sentiment of mistrust for labs within the cannabis industry. Paradoxically, widespread legalization has contributed to the phenomenon of lab fraud as legal markets scramble to meet strict regulations around quality and potency.
“Experts say that lab corruption is widespread because the incentives to cheat are too high and enforcement is mostly ineffective,” said Lester Black. Stronger weed sells for more, and as the legal market struggles to turn a profit, labs are willing to fudge results for a chance at more revenue.
As a result, consumers often find themselves in the unsafe position of not knowing what they’re buying or ingesting. They’re caught between a rock and a hard place: the legal market has a big lab fraud issue, but the illicit market is also known for its constant failures to keep customers safe from being laced with other substances. Unfortunately, Assured Testing Laboratories is a mere piece of a greater puzzle, not an exception to the rule.
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While legalization is exciting, we in the cannabis industry must remember that above all else, we owe each other safety. There’s no point in fighting for access to the plant if we’re not able to enjoy it, and no matter how counterintuitive it is, sometimes waiting longer for the right results is the way to go.
*Editor’s note: This article was updated to correct information about allegations against Kaycha Labs.