The “decision to report favorable retest results … undermines the Commission’s ability to ensure compliance, and posed an immediate or serious threat to public health, safety or welfare.”
On June 30, the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission issued a summary order suspending the license of Assured Testing Laboratories, an Independent Testing Laboratory (ITL) regulated by the agency.
The directive covers: “the immediate suspension of all agent registrations associated with [Assured], and the cessation of all licensed operations having determined that [Assured] established a pattern of failing to accurately report Total Yeast and Mold test results to the Commission and in the Seed-to-Sale System of Record, Metrc (herein, “Metrc”).”
The order further states that the ITL’s “noncompliance poses an immediate and serious threat to the public health, safety, or welfare of the Commonwealth and undermines the Commission’s confidence in Respondent’s ability to uphold its regulatory obligations.”
The suspension will take effect on July 4. The order will remain in place unless it is amended by the CCC or vacated or modified by a court. In the meantime, “Respondent may finalize the testing of any in-progress lab samples in its inventory prior to the effective date of the suspension.”
A CCC spokesperson wrote in a statement: “The Cannabis Control Commission remains vigilant in its efforts to ensure consumers and patients have access to fairly and accurately tested products in the marketplace.
“The Summary Suspension Order (SSO) issued this week follows an investigation led by a new Commission task force focused on improving product testing as part of our mission to oversee a safe, equitable cannabis marketplace in Massachusetts. Through this task force, the Commission will continue to verify the practices of Independent Testing Laboratories and take necessary action to ensure products sold through the adult- and medical-use markets are safe.”
Commission findings and violations of state law
In detailed bullet points that present the commission’s findings, the order, signed by CCC Executive Director Travis Ahern, notes: “From April 1, 2024, to April 15, 2025,” tests conducted by the Tyngsborough-based Assured “represented approximately 25% of all the Total Yeast and Mold tests analyzed by Independent Testing Laboratories.”
It continues: “During that same timeframe, [Assured] reported in [the state’s required seed-to-sale tracking system] Metrc that only 0.05% of lab samples it tested for Total Yeast and Mold—10 out of 17,565 lab samples—failed due to contamination results exceeding the regulatory limit.”
The CCC juxtaposes: “When compared to the industry average, lab samples analyzed by [Assured] were ninety times less likely to fail for the presence of Total Yeast and Mold.”
A list of resulting violations follow, including: “[Assured] failed to report to the Commission the true value of 7,183 lab samples—39% of the lab samples performed microbial panel tested—it analyzed that produced a numerical value for Total Yeast and Mold that was … in violation” of Mass law.
Also, Assured “failed to report to the Commission the results of 544 lab samples it analyzed that produced a numerical value for Total Yeast and Mold that exceeded” the allowable limit.
Those findings considered, the commission determined that the ITL’s “failure to report test results showing contamination exceeding 10,000 CFU/g for Total Yeast and Mold—as required by statute and regulation—and its decision to report favorable retest results at zero or non-detect undermines the Commission’s ability to ensure compliance, and posed an immediate or serious threat to public health, safety or welfare.”
Update: In response to the order, on Thursday, July 3, Assured filed a complaint in in Suffolk County Superior Court against the CCC arguing that the suspension came “without [the commission] affording [Assured] its basic due process rights of notice and opportunity to be heard.” The lab’s CEO and founder Dr. Dimitrios Pelekoudas also provided the following comment through an attorney:
“There is a fundamental principle in this state and in this country that before you lose everything at the hands of the government, you have a right to appear in some forum to defend yourself. Assured Testing Laboratory, a locally run business with 33 employees, did nothing wrong here, posed no threat to the public, and ensured that no contaminated products reached the market. This is a simple disagreement about how data was being reported. In fact, the CCC’s regulations were so unclear on this specific testing issue, that it reissued regulations that became effective as of April 1 of this year. At all times Assured Testing Laboratory complied with all active regulations and orders.”
Assured and the lawsuit between Independent Testing Labs
Ten days before the CCC issued its suspension order for Assured, the company submitted an argument to Suffolk County Superior Court for seemingly related litigation to be dismissed. In January, MCR Labs filed a lawsuit against eight other Massachusetts ITLs including Assured for alleged “violations” of the state’s cannabis law, including “intentional interference with advantageous business relations” and “unjust enrichment.”
The MCR complaint reads, in part: “Defendant Labs’ unfair, unlawful, and deceptive conduct is twofold. Defendants (1) artificially inflate Total THC Potency in tests of their customers’ cannabis products; and/or (2) ignore “safety fails” in test results—manipulating tests for product batches that contain contaminants such as yeast and mold, lead, and pesticides that are banned or restricted under Massachusetts law, so that the test results will not show the presence of these unlawful contaminants.”
The MCR lawsuit is especially harsh on Assured, alleging that it “has been one of the most aggressive inflators of THCa results in Massachusetts.” “By the second quarter of 2024,” the complaint charges, “Assured Testing held the position of lab with highest average THCa results by a large margin—approximately 14.5% higher than Massachusetts’ average for the quarter.”
The CCC’s findings appear to support at least some of the MCR claims: “Respondent’s practice of requesting additional Marijuana lab sample submissions for failing Total Yeast and Mold results is an intentional effort to conceal those failing results and only report the favorable results on behalf of its clients contradicts Commission regulations and the Protocol putting the health of Patients and Consumers at risk. These actions posed an immediate or serious threat to public health, safety or welfare.”
