Cannabis regulators suspend cannabis testing license over mold, yeast concerns
The Cannabis Control Commission is headquartered in Worcester's Union Station.
Cannabis regulators have ordered one of the state's independent testing labs to suspend operations, alleging a "pattern of failing to accurately report" marijuana test results and "an intentional effort to conceal those failing results."
The Cannabis Control Commission said an investigation led by its new Investigations & Enforcement Taskforce determined that Tyngsborough-based Assured Testing Laboratories was not accurately reporting the results of tests for yeast and mold in cannabis to the commission or to Metrc, the seed-to-sale tracking system CCC licensees must use.
Cannabis samples tested by Assured were 90% less likely to fail because of the presence of yeast and mold than the industry average, the CCC said. Regulators alleged the lab's operation "undermines the Commission's ability to ensure compliance, and posed an immediate or serious threat to public health, safety, or welfare."
"The Cannabis Control Commission (Commission) remains vigilant in its efforts to ensure consumers and patients have access to fairly and accurately tested products in the marketplace," a CCC spokesperson said. The statement added that the investigation was "focused on improving product testing as part of the Commission’s mission to oversee a safe, equitable cannabis marketplace in Massachusetts."
The license suspension order dated June 30 requires the lab to cease all operations by Friday, a delay in the order's effective date that CCC officials said is to allow the company time to wind down operations and complete any open testing orders.
Reached by phone Wednesday morning, a person who identified himself as the lab director at Assured said the company was in the process of preparing a statement and would have no comment until then. The company is entitled to appeal the suspension within 21 days.
The CCC said Assured's lab tested 22,531 marijuana products from 61 different marijuana establishments between April 2024 and April 2025, roughly 25% of the cannabis yeast and mold tests conducted in the state during that time.
Results that Assured submitted to Metrc showed that just 10 samples out of 17,565 failed for containing total yeast and mold in excess of state limits, a 0.05% failure rate. The CCC said the state's average yeast and mold fail rate is 4.5% of samples.
Regulators at the CCC have zeroed in on issues in the testing space, including with a November public listening session to hear concerns from independent testing labs and the creation of its investigatory task force. The CCC said it has been in regular contact with the 11 independent testing labs that operate in Massachusetts since the November meeting.
Assured was one of nine companies named in a lawsuit filed by Framingham-based MCR Labs in February, which claimed alleged manipulation of testing results was causing harm to both consumers and MCR’s business.
The CCC is now also requiring testing labs to upload a digital certificate of analysis after every product test to document the methods used to ensure products are in compliance with state regulations, and is eliminating the past practice of allowing marijuana companies to select more than one independent testing lab to perform required testing.
In the fall, Megan Dobro, founder and CEO of SafeTiva Labs aired to lawmakers her concerns with the CCC's structure for ensuring all cannabis products sold in Massachusetts are tested by an independent testing lab like hers before it can be sold. Having each lab interpret the CCC's regulations differently leads to variability in the testing process, as does the use of different equipment in different lab facilities, she said.
"When there's variability in the results, the producers are shopping for labs that are going to give them results that allow them to sell their products for more. So they're shopping based on THC numbers being high. They're shopping based on safety checks passing," Dobro told the Cannabis Policy Committee in October. "And so that means ... the labs that are passing the most and the labs that have the highest THC are getting the most business. And so we are selecting out the labs that are trying to do things the right way."
Before Travis Ahern took over as executive director at the CCC this spring, he told MassterList that shoring up the integrity of cannabis testing was among his early priorities.
"There's [also] a short-term answer needed on testing, because it's important for the market, it's important for consumers to understand that they're consuming safe products, and it's really important for the CCC's image in the state, and more nationally, [that it's] known that testing is being done correctly and that we have good control on that," he said in January.
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