Assured Testing Laboratories agreed to a two-year probationary period, a $300,000 fine, and intense oversight
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 covered: “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.”
The order further stated 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 took effect on July 4, with the order prescribed to remain in place until amended by the CCC or vacated or modified by a court. Assured tried the latter route, its attorneys arguing in Suffolk County Superior Court that the suspension came “without [the commission] affording [the lab] its basic due process rights of notice and opportunity to be heard.” But after that attempt soured, last week the company agreed to a final order and stipulated agreement with the commission “in lieu of further administrative action.”
The agreement, which commissioners approved at the CCC meeting last Thursday, notes that Assured “cooperated with the Commission’s investigation and … has agreed to enhanced Commission oversight for an interim period to avoid any potential risk to the public health, safety, or welfare and as evidence of its ongoing commitment to legal compliance.”
A spokesperson for Assured wrote in a statement: “Assured Testing Labs is pleased to have reached agreement with the Massachusetts CCC so that we can return to operations. While we disagree with aspects of how we got here, we are eager to return to what we do best: delivering scientific, evidence-backed testing with industry leading cannabis expertise.”
The related public health and safety advisory
The suspension of Assured impacted more than just cultivators and operators. Less than a week after the CCC issued the aforementioned initial order, the agency released a “public health and safety advisory due to the identification of contaminated and potentially contaminated Marijuana flower and Marijuana Products that were tested [by Assured] between April 1, 2024 and April 15, 2025 and noted in the Summary Suspension Order (SSO) issued on June 30, 2025.”
The advisory seemed to provide more questions than answers; namely, If this was such a major problem, why weren’t the products recalled? The notice simply stated: “Consumers and Patients are urged to check the labels of any adult- or medical-use Marijuana and Marijuana Products in their possession to determine whether those products were tested during the relevant period … If so, please refer to the Commission’s Public Health and Safety Advisories portal for more information about impacted Metrc Package Tag/Batch numbers.”
Details of the final agreement with the suspended testing lab
Per the final CCC agreement with Assured (which the commission has not yet published on its Enforcement Announcements page at the time of this writing), the company “neither admits nor denies the Commission’s findings.” Those include a failure to report “the actual results” of 7,183 lab samples that had microbial panels with high Total Yeast and Mold (TYM) counts, as well as unreported results with disqualifying levels of “bile-tolerant gram-negative bacteria” and “arsenic” (one of each).
Also, “From April 1, 2024, to April 15, 2025, neither [Assured] nor its clients reported the results for the 544 failing lab samples … Rather, the [TYM] failures were either omitted or input as zero or ‘not tested’.” “Further, during June 2024 and between December 2024 to February 2025, [Assured] reported pesticide and mycotoxin results … as ‘passed’ before testing was complete.”
As a stipulated remedy, Assured agreed to pay a $300,000 fine over the next six months. In addition, the agent registration of the company’s CEO and founder Dr. Dimitrios Pelekoudas will be suspended for a year.
“We will appoint a new CEO, adding another experienced professional to our management team,” the Assured spokesperson added. “Together with our agreeing to hire an independent auditor to conduct quarterly quality assurance studies, we believe that these steps will ensure that we maintain the company’s high standards and science-driven culture. We remain committed to being one of the most transparent and trusted labs in Massachusetts.”
The summary suspension order that was issued on July 4 will be rescinded on Sept. 15, or even sooner provided that Assured quickly contracts with a CCC-approved independent auditor who “shall be responsible for reviewing and reporting [the company’s] raw testing data and ensuring that said data is accurately reported.” That’s in addition to a new quality control manager they have to hire.
The lab also submitted to a two-year probationary period, during which it must “deliver bi-weekly reports of failed lab samples to the [CCC], including the number of tests performed, the number of failing results received, and the number of failures as a percentage of the total number of tests it has performed during the reporting period.”
Jeff Rawson of the Institute of Cannabis Science contributed to this summary. Stay tuned to Talking Joints Memo for his upcoming analysis of this final suspension order.
