One of Montana’s few in-state laboratories that had participated in the roll-out of the recreational and medical cannabis programs said that it has closed its doors, largely based on concerns the owners have with the scientific accuracy of testing the formerly banned substance.
Stillwater Laboratories owners Ron and Kristine Brost said they’re concerned that a software program the state uses may inadvertently approve large lots of cannabis without complying with the state’s testing standards, leading to a market that has increased the volume of cannabis without a commensurate increase in testing. Furthermore, they told the Daily Montanan the huge increase in sales statewide since the implementation of recreational cannabis should have resulted in an equally large jump in testing, but they said those numbers don’t match.
However, Kristan Barbour, the director of the state’s cannabis program with the Department of Revenue, said that while the initial launch of the state’s recreational program, which happened after it was legalized for medical card-holders, had some bumps as it transitioned from the state’s Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Revenue, that testing is tracking with sales, and the department is in the process of hiring more staff to keep tabs on the budding industry.
One of the former lab owners’ most pressing concerns is that the state has made the laboratories the de facto cannabis police. “They’ve used the labs as proxy regulators because they don’t want to touch the stuff,” Kristine Brost said. “They don’t want to touch cannabis because of the federal ban.”
The problem has been documented in other states that have had legalized cannabis programs longer than Montana, like Colorado and California, where large batches have escaped testing, leading to uncertainty about the drug’s potency.
Read more at dailymontanan.com