State regulators in Maryland are looking to deflate THC levels by taking action against lab shopping. This October the Maryland Cannabis Administration is joining forces with Cannabis Safety & Quality (CSQ) to launch the statewide CSQ CLEAR Lab Assessment Program which will involve every testing lab in the state. The CLEAR program, which stands for Collaborative Laboratory Evaluation of Accuracy and Reproducibility, will source flower directly from retail stores and will send samples to each testing lab in the state and the state’s own lab for testing. The state will publish the testing results from all labs to assess accuracy. The state and CSQ will withhold the identities of the four testing labs and there will be zero punitive measures against any lab with inaccurate results. CSQ is testing the program itself to confirm if it will be a reliable measure that can be used in other states.
“We created the CSQ CLEAR Program as a more cost-effective, robust, transparent, and iterative approach to solving the problem of ‘lab shopping’ than what is currently available,” CSQ technical director Darwin Millard said in a press release. “The pilot we are conducting in Maryland with the MCA, will provide a proof of concept the CSQ CLEAR Program is a reliable model that can be replicated in other states.”
The Program will use a modified P-BAT approach and forensic statistical analysis to out any instances of testing manipulation or fraud. Studies across several legal markets have shown that THC levels are routinely inaccurate and are being inflated by as much as 25%. Maryland regulators and CSQ hope the CSQ CLEAR Program will identify any discrepancies and allow them to address systemic issues impacting data integrity and the trustworthiness of laboratories.