Arizona marijuana regulators flag major testing lab for multiple violations Arizona regulators flag marijuana testing lab for violations

A prominent national marijuana testing lab is in hot water with state regulators in Arizona who last month found fault with the lab’s ability to detect contaminants and flag hemp-derived THC, public records show.Following annual inspections in March, the Arizona Department of Health Services on April 24 informed Kaycha Labs, which holds licenses to test cannabis in seven states, of more than a dozen alleged “deficiencies,” including problems with the lab’s potency testing and pesticide and microbial detection methods.

ADVERTISEMENT It’s the latest example of regulators taking action against a cannabis testing lab for potential failures to detect contaminants and produce reliable potency results after years of complaints of questionable lab results from across the industry.Regulators in California last month suspended at least two labs’ permits to operate, the latest in a crackdown that began last year.

And it comes amid claims from operators in states such as Colorado and New York that unscrupulous parties are introducing hemp-derived THC oil produced outside regulated channels into the legal cannabis supply chain, an example of the practice known as “inversion.” ‘Repeat findings’ for largest marijuana testing lab Kaycha, which claims on its website to be the “largest Multi-State operator” in cannabis testing, may face separate, as-yet unknown “civil monetary penalties” for the alleged violations in Arizona. ADVERTISEMENT That’s according to the April 24 notice signed by Mary Graham, who leads the Arizona Bureau of State Laboratory Services’s certification and licensing office.

And this is at least the third time Arizona regulators have found fault with Kaycha.Several alleged violations noted by the Department of Health Services (DHS) in its April 24 “report of findings” were “double repeat findings” also cited by the agency d...