As more states pass medical and recreational cannabis laws regulations requiring potency and safety testing be performed by third party testing labs are being included. Despite this important step in the maturation of the cannabis industry a number of scientific and economic challenges still remain for cannabis testing laboratories. Many of these regulations require that laboratories test for pesticides, microbial contaminants, residual solvents, and heavy metals despite the fact that there are no peer reviewed validated methodology for any of these procedures available in the scientific literature. Due to the schedule I status of cannabis and cannabinoids academic and state sponsored research into this area is limited. From an economic perspective the costs of developing and validating the methodology required by state law is a daunting task for small businesses. In this talk I would like to discuss some of these challenges and propose ways to move the industry forward.

Scientific and economic challenges facing cannabis testing laboratories

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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