State crime lab: can identify cannabinoids but lacks equipment to quantify THC; requests instruments and staffing

Amanda Thompson, director of the North Carolina State Crime Laboratory, told the council the laboratory system can identify cannabinoids (including delta‑7, delta‑8, delta‑9 and delta‑10 as well as some synthetic compounds) but currently lacks the instrumentation to provide quantitative measurements needed to determine whether a product is below or above statutory thresholds.

"We can identify THC... but we cannot determine the amount present," Thompson said, explaining the distinction between qualitative identification and quantitation. The crime lab estimated it would need three quantitative instruments (speaker estimate: "approximately 300 to 350 apiece" as stated in testimony, meaning $300,000–$350,000 each in the transcript's context), recurring consumables and maintenance funding (recurring costs estimate roughly $500,000/year), and roughly 10 additional drug chemists; training for a new chemist was described as approximately nine to ten months.

Lab leadership said procurement and accreditation would take time: acquiring instruments typically requires months under state procurement processes and total implementation, including validation and accreditation scope expansion, is likely to take about a year to 18 months. The lab also noted some sample types (vape cartridges) are hazardous and require careful handling, and that toxicology divisions already perform quantitative work for impairment cases while drug chemistry currently performs qualitative identification.

Lab officials framed the capacity expansion as essential for both criminal prosecutions and any regulatory testing infrastructure the state might create, and they urged that any policy that requires batch or regulatory testing account for procurement, staffing and recurring testing costs.