Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | August 21, 2023 | Worcester Business Journal 15 Member FDIC UniPay, UniBank's online payment solution, is designed to make accepting online payments fast, easy, and secure, while providing "pay anytime" convenience to your customers. Simple. Efficient. Secure. Kristy Genga AVP, UniPay Relationship Manager 508.849.4245 Kristy.Genga@unibank.com 877.227.1157 · www.unipaydirect.com Visit us online at unipaydirect.com or contact Kristy to get started today! Mold limits for medical cannabis, by state Expressed in colony-forming units per gram of cannabis Yeast and mold limit States (colony-forming units per gram) Connecticut, Florida, Maryland 100,000 Alabama, Colorado, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington D.C., West Virginia 10,000 Illinois, Minnesota 1,000 Delaware 400 Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Vermont, Utah Test for specific molds Arkansas, Oregon, Washinton, Iowa No specified limit Source: Medical Genomics, Individual State Regulations "I saw a lack of response and concern for their impacts on the industry, on companies, and people trying to invest," said Moore, who introduced legislation with state Rep. Daniel Donohue (D-Worcester) to create an independent auditor at the CCC, similar to the oversight of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. e legislation is in committee and doesn't have a specified date for a vote, said Moore. Moldy marijuana At ProVerde's testing facilities in Milford, the primary concern for consumer safety is mold in products. e CCC's required testing, a PCR test that detects genetic materials for certain organisms, works well for specific types of microbes but not others, said Christopher Hudalla, founder and chief scientific officer at Proverde. is means certain types of mold spores are well detected, and therefore their products are prevented from being purchased by consumers. However, other types of mold spores can still be present in products and not detected, resulting in a false negative test, said Hudalla. ose false negatives mean consumers of cannabis in Massachusetts may be purchasing and ingesting products containing harmful mold spores. Culture-based tests of marijuana products would be more accurate, said Hudalla, but testing companies are discouraged from using more stringent tests, as it hurts their business. Massachusetts has 13 CCC-approved cannabis testing facilities. If one or two start testing more stringently and reject a higher percentage of a marijuana company's product – and thus causing the company to throw out that product – then marijuana companies will use the less stringent testing facilities, Hudalla said. is is how worst practices easily turn into standard practices, without sufficient oversight and implementation of regulations, said Ianuzzi. Another concern is a lack of a scientific expert among leadership at the CCC, said Hudalla. "For them to not have a microbiologist on staff is a problem," said Hudalla. e issue of mold in products is a concern, too, to Michael Kahn, founder and CEO of MCR Labs in Framingham. ere is not enough clarity from the CCC about which tests labs should use to be on equal footing with one another and produce the most accurate results. e issue of lab shopping, in which wholesalers will seek out labs that will provide negative mold test results at higher rates, bringing their accuracy into question, is what has ProVerde and MCR concerned about the impact on business. Labs using less accurate tests, with more false negatives, can be more appealing to wholesalers trying to turn a profit. "e root of the problem is that the regulations and enforcement provide zero incentive for accuracy in testing," said Kahn. Proposed new CCC testing rules CCC, for its part, is willing to acknowledge it may be overdue for a reexamination of regulations to catch up with the science and the industry, said O'Brien. Conversations about changing how labs are regulated are already Continued on next page State Sen. Michael Moore (D-Worcester)

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