Colorado marijuana manufacturers would no longer be allowed to choose which product samples they send for mandatory laboratory testing under a new regulatory proposal discussed at a policy forum Friday.
Instead, the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division may require independent laboratories or outside vendors to collect product samples for required testing before businesses can sell their products to ensure they are free of contaminants.
The change would address a long-standing complaint by some marijuana manufacturers that bad actors are cheating the system. They say some companies select samples that can pass testing while sending dispensaries products that may be contaminated with chemical solvents, fungi or pesticides.
An investigation by the Denver Gazette and ProPublica last month showed that the testing system for marijuana products relies on an honor code open to manipulation.
In 2024 alone, Colorado authorities discovered two dozen cases in which companies violated testing rules, often by submitting different samples than those the companies sold in stores or using unauthorized chemical treatments, according to a media review of enforcement actions taken. State rules on sample selection require that what is turned over to a lab be representative of what marijuana companies actually deliver to dispensaries for sale to consumers.
“Tampering of samples is a common violation,” Kyle Lambert, deputy director of the division, said at the policy forum. “It’s something we benefit from addressing more holistically based on what we see on the ground.”
Colorado officials have long taken pride in creating the nation’s first regulated recreational marijuana market, but media reports have noted that the state has fallen behind as other states have adopted stricter regulations.
The Denver Gazette and ProPublica highlighted how a popular brand of vapes contaminated with a toxic chemical ended up in marijuana dispensaries. In this and other cases, regulators found that manufacturers were swapping marijuana distillate, the liquid used in vapes, for chemically processed products from much cheaper hemp, which is banned in Colorado. The Ware Hause Company has surrendered its marijuana manufacturing license. Its owner declined to comment Tuesday.
The Marijuana Enforcement Division first revealed it was considering a new sampling system in January. The state’s decision marks a change: Last year, the state fought a lawsuit by a marijuana grower seeking to force the division to revise its testing rules. The lawsuit, filed by Mammoth Farms, also pushed the division to ban manufacturers from selecting product samples for testing. Attorneys for the division said in a court filing that such a review would be “impractical.”
A Denver judge threw out the lawsuit on technical grounds in May, saying the company should have first asked regulators to change the rules. After the dismissal, Mammoth Farms requested rule changes from the Marijuana Enforcement Division. The division agreed to begin requiring more chemical testing this summer, but did not adopt a proposal to overhaul how samples are collected.
Learn more
Dominique Mendiola, senior director of the division, said in a statement that the decision to consider changes stemmed from concerns raised by marijuana companies last year.
“The division is committed to further research on this topic and to lead the facilitation of this dialogue with stakeholders to analyze the details and operability of what it would take to implement the recommendations to move to third-party test batch collection requirements,” she said.
Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia require laboratory personnel to collect samples to ensure that manufacturers are not cherry-picking products for testing while withholding contaminated products.
Over the next few months, the state will hold discussions with testing labs, marijuana cultivators and manufacturers and industry experts to develop a formal proposal, Lambert said. He added that he expects the division to consider specific policy recommendations this summer.
State officials want to assess the cost, Lambert said, and make sure they develop effective regulations. The state is also considering who would collect the samples — licensed laboratory personnel or third-party samplers that the state would accredit.
Kareem Kassem, director of SC Labs, which has a testing laboratory in Colorado, said at the forum that all sampling should be done under video surveillance and that vehicles transporting the samples should be equipped with a GPS monitoring system.
Other industry representatives stressed that changing testing regulations could prove costly and that those costs would be passed on to consumers. They also pointed out that other states have had marijuana testing scandals, even when lab staff were taking samples.
Stephen Cobb, co-owner of marijuana maker Concentrate Brands, pointed to sample collection scandals in California and said the problem was only resolved after regulators intervened.
“We can solve sample fraud,” Cobb said, “but only if there is a massive investment in regulatory oversight on it. Otherwise, it’s just passing the buck.”
The Marijuana Enforcement Division said cost and budget issues would be part of the discussions.
Still, Justin Singer, CEO of Denver-based cannabis company Ripple, applauded the division’s decision.
“I think sample fraud should be a death sentence for a licensee,” Singer said at the policy forum. “Right now, it’s a $15,000 slap on the wrist.”
He tracked the division’s enforcement actions and provided the Denver Gazette and ProPublica with a spreadsheet and links to those cases. Ripple’s analysis shows that, from the start of 2023 through today, half of the state’s 135 final enforcement actions against marijuana companies involved self-sampling and testing issues.
Singer is also proposing a legislative overhaul of the state’s marijuana testing regime, which would shift oversight of testing to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and create a program where state regulators would randomly test dispensary products to ensure they are not contaminated.
“I hope we can all agree that if we don’t give consumers as an industry what they think they’re buying, then we’re destroying our own industry from the inside out,” Singer said. “Sample and test fraud is a cancer on our industry. It’s a cancer on companies trying to do good work. It’s a cancer on labs trying to be honest.”
