There are safety standards for everything, from the beauty products you use to the food you eat.
With more legal marijuana stores opening for recreational use, there are standards for that too.
“I think to the average person, it is a surprise how much actually goes into it,” said Bill Nichols, the technical director of cannabis at Biotrax Testing Laboratory.
Since November, Nichols has tested hundreds of marijuana samples.
“When it starts and it’s catalogued, it looks like this. Then it changes to look like this,” said Nichols as he compared two marijuana samples.
Biotrax is one of 12 approved cannabis labs across New York state.
“Everything’s controlled step by step,” he explained.
That makes sure when New Yorkers smoke or eat cannabis, it’s not contaminated.
“Whatever it is they specialize in, they need testing," said Nichols. "If you're making an edible for instance, you're going to have to follow good manufacturing practices, or GMP, just like you would if somebody was making a yogurt.”
With more licenses being handed out, more tests are flowing in.
“It’s starting to grow quite a bit,” Nichols said.
It's a more complicated process than you might realize.
“The testing process to go through all of this on our end may take anywhere from five to eight business days," said Nichols. "Well, if they're expecting to sell it from a retailer a month from now, they want that stuff now tested and ready to go because they don't want to wait.”
While there’s no way to predict how much the industry will grow, one thing’s for sure: standards will stay.
“We have limits for everything from heavy metals, pesticides, to microbials to potency, and everything else in between,” explained Nichols.
Samples come in to Biotrax from all over the state. More tests are flowing in.
“From Hudson Valley through the Southern Tier, Rochester, Central New York, everywhere,” Nichols added.
There's equipment measuring everything, from moisture content and bacteria, to pathogens like salmonella or aspergillus.
“This is an indicator of a positive aspergillus test," said Nichols, looking at some test results. "For this individual, they would have the option to either not sell their stuff and destroy it, or [...] go through some sort of remediation, such as using UV light or ozone or something to try to kill off the pathogen.”
Testing isn’t just for pointing out dangers though. It’s also for finding out how strong a product is.
“This would be a potency sample," said Nichols as he moved on to the next step. “This one's the pure sample. This is where we secondary dilute it into methanol.”
It's the final step of the process.
“That's going to grab onto your THC, your CBD, CBG,” said Nichols.
But we still remain in the first steps of this industry.
“Everybody is so excited that New York state is now doing this," said Nichols. "So that excitement comes over into the job, which is nice.”
These labs are under emergency regulations. That means testing requirements could change down the line.
“This is what our final report looks like, for now,” said Nichols, pointing to a printout.
The motivation for Nichols though remains the same.
“Cannabis is an outlet for people not to use things like opioids and stuff," said Nichols. "But when it comes to that, though, people still want to make sure that they have a safe product and that's what we're here for.”
Testing for full New York state compliance at Biotrax costs $820.
Right now, growers are able to group together different kinds of marijuana plants, as long as they're harvested at the same time and meet other prerequisites.
That "line testing" makes testing faster, easier and cheaper.