Representative Rhett Mueller introduced House Bill 4501 to allow the Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA) to operate a state reference testing laboratory and for CRA staff to legally possess cannabis for testing.

Derek Sova, representing the CRA, told the committee Michigan now has 17 independent testing labs and said some large producers have incentive to shop for favorable results. “We’re gonna be the umpire calling balls and strikes, going in, doing audits, doing quality checks to make sure…those tests can be relied upon by consumers,” Sova said.

Sova said the lab—funded in fiscal 2024 and under construction and development for about two years—would not replace private labs’ routine testing. Instead, it would audit private labs (proficiency testing), perform shelf audits, support investigations and improve testing methods and consistency. He said the bill’s statutory change is narrow: it would explicitly authorize the agency to possess product for testing because the ballot initiative that legalized possession did not explicitly authorize agency possession for laboratory analysis.

Committee members asked whether the lab could be used to audit hemp beverages; Sova said it could if a regulatory framework for such beverages existed. Members also asked how investigations would proceed if CRA tests contradict a private lab’s results; Sova said investigators would trace the discrepancy to the lab, cultivator or retailer and then undertake enforcement as appropriate.

CRA witnesses said the lab’s purpose is consumer protection and improved science, and that funding for the lab was already provided in FY24. No formal committee vote on the bill was recorded in the transcript.