Starting Nov 2020, AZ Dispensaries Will Be Required to Test All Marijuana

The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) has begun the initial steps to implement regulations for required testing of medical marijuana in the state. Arizona’s new Medical Marijuana Testing Advisory Council has been created and is discussing how to regulate mandatory testing of medical marijuana products sold at dispensaries.

Senate Bill 1494, signed into law by Gov. Ducey in June, will require that all Arizona dispensaries begin testing medical marijuana for toxins starting on Nov 1, 2020, KJZZ reported. The ADHS will license third-party testing labs to perform the tests.

SB 1494 reads, in part, that dispensaries must test “marijuana and marijuana products for medical use to determine unsafe levels of microbial contamination, heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, growth regulators and residual solvents and confirm the potency of the marijuana to be dispensed.”

The ADHS’s Office of Laboratory Licensing and Certification indicated that updated testing methods will be needed due to the multiple forms of medical marijuana products that will need to be tested.

“If these labs can’t get accredited in time, if DHS can’t get everything together in time, that creates a situation where patients may not have access to the medicine that they normally have access to on an ongoing basis,” said Medical Marijuana Testing Advisory Council member Joe DeMenna.

The council is going to review best practices from other cannabis states for guidance in creating and operating marijuana lab testing standards.

AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus