California Regulators have Taken New Steps to Standardize Marijuana Testing

California regulators have taken new steps to standardize marijuana testing to decrease inconsistencies among 41 cannabis testing labs across the state. According to advocates, the effort will enhance quality and reliability and prevent practices that produce fake test results. Industry officials throughout the country state that various cannabis businesses, from cultivators to distributors, make efforts to help them see what they want regarding THC potency and contaminants.

Critics believe that one of the primary factors plaguing the cannabis testing industry is a lack of standards that threatens to undermine consumers’ trust in cannabis products and makes it more difficult for laboratories to operate.

Moreover, the DCC has opened two laboratories to design operating procedures that will be a blueprint for every cannabis testing lab in the state. The purpose is that cannabis regulators validate methods and testing so that labs have accurate results. Transparency is essential here. In October, governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 544 demanding that the DCC develop firm guidelines and criteria for testing cannabis compounds, pesticides, solvents, and microbiological contaminants. The DCC must design standardized methods and procedures by January 1, 2023.

“There needs to be consistency,” said Jozee Roberto, an advocate and entrepreneur who helped draft bill 544 with D’Angelo, and the bill sponsor, state senator John Laird.