NY cannabis regulators propose new rules for marketing, packaging and laboratory testing

New York’s Cannabis Control Board approved 16 new conditional cultivator licenses today, as well as draft regulations for testing labs and for the marketing and packaging of marijuana products.

Board members unanimously approved the new draft regulations, which will now go to a 60-day public comment period, after which Office of Cannabis Management staffers could alter requirements before putting up final regulations for board approval.

“These regulations were selected as the first sections for consideration, because they will help ensure that products are safe and tested with appropriate consumer protection labeling,” board Chair Tremaine Wright said.

Draft requirements for testing labs include rules that labs must be ISO 17025 accredited – a universal standard for testing and calibration laboratories – and use third-party firms to select samples that will be tested. The regime would also require a state reference lab, which would review and retest samples submitted by independent labs. The reference lab would either be contracted by OCM, or operated by the state Department of Health.

Proposed regulations on testing labs seem basically in line with other legal cannabis states, said Lev Spivak-Birndorf, chief science officer at Michigan-based cannabis testing company PSI Labs. Some parts of the draft rules address issues that have arisen in the mariuana testing industry like potency inflation, and weed companies lab-shopping for the results they want, he said.

Earlier this year, PSI Labs CEO Ben Rosman told NY Cannabis Insider that the issue of potency inflation at cannabis testing labs is probably the marijuana testing industry’s “worst-kept secret.”

Creating a state reference lab would enable the state to determine whether an independent lab is providing accurate results, Spivak-Birndorf said. If a lab appears to be releasing inaccurate results, a state reference lab could re-test samples, and determine the first lab’s accuracy.

The rules would also require a third-party firm to select the product sample that is tested, which could ensure greater accuracy, Spivak-Birndorf said. Some growers choose specific parts of a batch for testing in an effort to produce results higher in THC and lower in mold and contaminants. In theory, a third-party sampling firm would simply pick a sample for testing that’s representative of an entire batch. [Read More @ Syracuse.com]

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