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Cannabis regulator urges quick passage of bill to let agency handle testing material as reference lab comes online
Summary
Michigan’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency told a House appropriations subcommittee its state-funded reference lab is built and staffed but the agency needs a statutory change to possess and transport marijuana for testing; staff also flagged hemp-rule changes, lab fraud risks and the social-equity grant program’s limited tracking of grantee survival.
Brian Hannah, executive director of the Cannabis Regulatory Agency, told the House Appropriations subcommittee the agency’s state-funded cannabis reference laboratory is built, staffed and ready to operate and is intended to set testing standards and audit private labs for fraud. "It is built. It is ready to go. We have full staff for this reference laboratory," he said.
Derek Soba, the agency’s policy and legislative lead, said the agency cannot yet legally possess or transport marijuana in the quantities needed for the lab under current statute and urged lawmakers to pass House Bill 4501 and Senate Bill 704 to explicitly authorize that activity. "There's nothing in the statute right now that explicitly would allow the agency to possess marijuana, certainly in the quantities that we're going to need," Soba said, noting the bills have moved through committee with bipartisan support.
The agency described the lab’s public-health and quality-control roles: conducting…
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