Nevada Cannabis Regulators Suspend Testing Lab License Over Inflated THC Percentages

Silver State officials began their inquiry into the Certified Ag testing facility after reports of mold and yeast in local weed, but shut down the business after discovering “misleading” THC results.

Spark, Nevada based cannabis testing facility Certified Ag Labs has had their license suspended indefinitely after state regulators concluded that the company had produced doctored certifications reporting “inaccurate and misleading” THC levels. 

The Nevada Department of Taxation (DOT) had first began looking into Certified Ag after a statewide health advisory was issued in September when multiple batches of bud sold at Silver State dispensaries were later found to contain high levels of mold and yeast. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, those investigations spurred more thorough oversight of the entire testing industry, which eventually led regulators to discover artificially inflated potency tests coming out of Certified Ag. 

Once state officials confirmed the THC test results were phony, the company’s license was immediately suspended, and a warning was issued to consumers statewide. 

“Products tested by Certified Ag Labs, LLC may be labeled incorrectly and could contain a different level of THC than what is listed on product packaging,” the official statement read. “The Department advises all legal cannabis users to take caution when using product tested by Certified Ag Labs, LLC and when comparing any similar products of the same potency, as those effects may be greater and/or less than that of the product tested by Certified Ag Labs, LLC.”

In America’s piecemeal legal cannabis landscape, state-licensed testing labs have been an early point of industry contention. Because labs have the ability to pass or fail product, and because high test scores for THC and other cannabinoids often equate to high demand and high prices, state-certified laboratories have been at the heart of controversy across the nation. And with no standardized regulatory agency checking in on testing facilities on a federal level thanks to prohibition, state officials are left to tackle the issue on their own time and dime. 

Certified Ag has not yet commented on the accusations of THC test inflation or the company’s license suspension. And while state regulators have already warned Nevada cannabis customers about products tested by Certified Ag, the DOT did not mention if any of those products had been recalled from dispensary shelves.