Pubdate: Mon, 19 Jun 2017
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2017 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248

CALIFORNIA POT CZAR EXPECTS LAG TIME FOR TESTING NEWLY LEGAL WEED

The state has put out new rules for testing marijuana planned for
medical use.

With businesses expected to get state licenses in January to sell
marijuana in California, the top regulator said Thursday that they
will be given up to six months to comply with a requirement the pot be
thoroughly tested by a licensed laboratory.

State pot czar Lori Ajax said it may take months for enough testing
labs to be properly screened and licensed to handle the supply of
marijuana expected to be sold in California starting next year. In
addition, many existing medical marijuana dispensaries will have
untested supplies when licensing begins, she said.

As a result, dispensaries and shops that can't get testing that
complies with state standards will be allowed to continue selling
products for up to six months as long as they are labeled untested,
Ajax said during a conference on marijuana sponsored by Capitol Weekly
in Sacramento.

"Day one we are not going to have all the testing labs licensed at
once, and they are going to need time to get all their testing
procedures in place to test under the very stringent requirements we
have in the regulations," Ajax said.

In addition, she said some testing labs will have to be issued
provisional licenses to operate while they go through an 18-month
process of being certified by a joint technical committee of the
International Organization for Standardization and the International
Electrotechnical Commission.

"We don't want everything to come to a screeching halt when we start
issuing [sales] licenses," Ajax said. "We want to make sure that
supply chain still flows.''
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MAP posted-by: Matt