Oklahoma’s State-Run Marijuana Testing Lab, Meant To Promote Accuracy In Industry, Aims To Open In February

“We need our own independent testing to double check what’s going on out there in the industry and how the public is being affected.”

By Emma Murphy, Oklahoma Voice

Oklahoma’s medical marijuana regulatory agency is working to open a testing laboratory in February in Oklahoma City.

Renovations for the lab for Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, or OMMA, began the week of November 11 and are expected to last 90 days.

Lee Rhoades, OMMA’s chief science officer, said the Legislature authorized the agency to operate its own lab in 2023 by passing Senate Bill 813.

The Legislature appropriated a total of $4.9 million for the current fiscal year for the laboratory, according to a spokesperson from OMMA. This includes a one-time $3.5 million appropriation for startup costs and another recurring $1.4 million that will pay for operating and personnel expenses.

“Several years ago, we identified the need for a lab to help support product safety in the state of Oklahoma,” Rhoades said. “We were experiencing many of the same issues as several other states were having. Many of the states realized that we need our own independent testing to double check what’s going on out there in the industry and how the public is being affected by the quality of testing that may or may not be present for all products.”

The lab will have two main testing functions, Rhoades said.

“Parallel testing” would test marijuana products that have already gone through commercial testing to confirm the accuracy of the results. “Round robin testing” would send marijuana samples to the private test labs throughout Oklahoma to then analyze the results for consistency and accuracy.

The laboratory, which will be located in leased space at Reno and Meridian avenues, will employ seven or eight people. Rhoades said the OMMA has already hired a laboratory director and quality assurance manager.

“We’ve already begun the process for acquiring all of our analytical equipment and basically all of the laboratory equipment,” he said. “We’re in the process of acquiring our laboratory information system and the computer system we’ll use to support the lab… So we’re moving forward with putting as many things into place before the finish of construction, so that when we can occupy that space, we can hit the ground running.”

Rhoades said the agency wants the lab to work with the privately owned laboratories in the state to come up with “optimal practices” for testing marijuana.

“We generally have had good support from the commercial labs as well,” he said. “They see it as an avenue of perhaps leveling the playing field and making it easier for each of them to operate by addressing the various quality issues that may be out there.”

He said OMMA is planning to seek ISO certification, which means a third party would verify that the lab can perform testing and quality checks.

Amy Jarvis works with Transparent Testing in Tulsa and helps to represent test labs at the Oklahoma Cannabis Industry Association.

She said she is looking forward to having a lab that will regulate the other labs and get rid of “bad actors.” Jarvis said she has some questions about the lab’s operations that she’d like answered, including how OMMA’s lab will be regulated.

“We just are hoping that they have an ISO accreditation,” Jarvis said. “That’s something that is very glaring in the rules and [regulations]. Any laboratory in the state of Oklahoma has to be ISO accredited, but nowhere in the rules and regulations [does it] say that the OMMA lab has to be ISO accredited. So that’s our big question.”

Jarvis said she also hopes that the results from OMMA’s testing will be accessible to the public and patients without any “red tape” such as an open records request.

“The end game in all of this, for everybody that is in this industry, is that we are ensuring patient safety,” Jarvis said.

This story was first published by Oklahoma Voice.