Florida Regulators Fine Two Cannabis Labs For Testing Violations
Regulators in Florida have fined two cannabis testing companies, ACS Laboratory and Method Testing Labs, for thousands of dollars.
The labs allegedly reported false information on their certificates of analysis (COAs).
Two labs, four fines
As first reported by Marijuana Business Daily, the fines were issued on July 26 and August 12 by the Florida Department of Health.
According to documents made available to MJBizDaily, ACS Laboratory came afoul of a $5,000 fine on July 26 for not notifying the health department that a batch of vaping cartridges produced by Trulieve Cannabis had failed testing.
On August 12, the state department issued two more fines, worth $3,000 and $2,000, to ACS for providing inaccurate or false information on five COAs for flower products that were also produced by Trulieve Cannabis.
This “false information” on the COA stemmed from the flowers’ potency being calculated at dry weight and the total milligrams of THC being reported at wet weight; Florida regulations require that “usable whole flower potency” is reported at the same moisture content.
“ACS Laboratory follows strict standards and protocols for all of its testing and is committed to providing timely and accurate results to its clients,” a representative from ACS told Analytical Cannabis in an email.
“ACS made two recent clerical/administrative errors, including a product failure notification outside of the required timeframe to the state as well as a missing figure totaling all cannabinoids listed on a COA, resulting in a fine. Products from the grower that were tested by ACS and failed to meet passing criteria, were destroyed by the grower and were never available for purchase.”
“The COA error was corrected immediately and for all other COAs for clients. At no time were any medical patients in danger. ACS has earned its gold standard industry recognition through its continued unwavering ethical standards and commitment to rectify any issues, including this recent occurrence. Any fraudulent intent is simply unsubstantiated.”
Also on August 12, the health department issued Method Testing Labs with a $6,000 fine for reporting inaccurate information on six COAs.
Similar to the charge given to ACS, this “inaccurate information” concerned the preparation weight reported on the COA, which was adjusted to dry weight. Again, this violated the requirement that “usable whole flower potency” be reported at the same moisture content.
“We take regulatory violations very seriously and we have updated our Certificate of Analysis to bring it back into compliance with the requirements from the state of Florida,” Keith Browning, CEO of Method Testing Labs, told Analytical Cannabis in an email.
“It is important to note that after a full review of our data packages by the State, the accuracy of our data, processes and analytical methods were not called into question.”
This article was updated on September 1, 2022, to include a response from Method Testing Labs.
