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Montana grower outlines cultivation practices, testing protocols and urges support for cannabis bills
Summary
A Montana cultivator described greenhouse production practices, Metrc seed-to-sale tracking, mandatory testing and public-safety concerns about black-market synthetic products, and asked senators to support four bills from the interim committee.
Antoinette Lininger, co-founder and chief executive officer of Sacred Sun Farms, told the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation that responsible greenhouse cultivation, living-soil practices and mandatory laboratory testing are central to providing safe cannabis products (committee meeting, date not specified).
Lininger described her operation's growing methods, employment and quality-control procedures and urged support for interim-committee legislation: House Bill 49, Senate Bill 27, Senate Bill 74 and Senate Joint Resolution 5. "We are required to use Metrc to track the life of the plant and product," she said, describing seed-to-sale tags, video-surveillance requirements and testing protocols that block sale of untested product.
Lininger detailed production practices used at Sacred Sun Farms: living soil amended with certified organic inputs, greenhouse light deprivation to induce flowering, a 9- to 10-week flowering period, and manual harvest and trim processes that produce cured flower subject to mandatory laboratory tests for mycotoxins, molds, pesticides, moisture and cannabinoids. She said the farm employs 36 people at peak season and that testing is conducted on cured flower in roughly 5-pound batches; each 5-pound sample is taken to a certified laboratory in a sealed container.
She described regulatory controls the industry follows: Metrc tracking of clones, plant tags and packages; integrated point-of-sale recording of package tags; video-recording retention (she said 60 days for surveillance and 30 days for recorded waste-disposal events); and refusal of sale for product that fails or lacks testing. Lininger told senators the industry's most significant external risks are stigma and the prevalence of untested synthetic-THC black-market products that are untaxed and widely accessible.
On policy, Lininger said the Economic Affairs Interim Committee had drafted three bills and a joint resolution for consideration this term and asked the committee to support those measures. She said the Cannabis Control Division (CCD) has improved oversight since 2021 and described CCD as "a serious, competent, and strategic agency." There were no formal committee votes following her remarks.
Committee members asked brief follow-ups about hemp production and cross-pollination risks; Lininger said hemp is a variety of cannabis, noted the crop's drought tolerance and manufacturing challenges, and recommended neighbor-to-neighbor coordination to limit pollen issues.
Lininger closed by offering to answer questions and by asking senators to back the interim committee bills to "provide the people safe access to the products they voted for."
