CDX Analytics LLC CEO Brian Stransick said the state has scheduled a final inspection with his Salem-based cannabis product-testing lab for Wednesday, Nov. 7. Barring any issues that require correcting, the inspection would allow CDX to begin testing recreational cannabis products, a necessary step before adult-use cannabis products can be sold.
“(The state will) come in, they check a list of things we had to do, and they sign off on it, and I believe we’re good to go after that,” Stransick said.
A spokesperson from the Cannabis Control Commission, which oversees the regulation of the Massachusetts cannabis industry, did not respond to a request for comment.
The inspection doesn’t mean legal nonmedical pot sales can begin — the state still needs to conduct a final inspection of a recreational marijuana dispensary. But the lab inspection would clear what has been considered one of the last remaining roadblocks to the launch of the recreational marijuana industry in Massachusetts.
So far, four businesses — two labs and two dispensaries — are expected to receive final inspections, having received final licenses from the state earlier this month. After businesses receive final license, they must badge their employees, train employees on the seed-to-sale tracking software Metrc, and for dispensaries, tag and input all marijuana plants into Metrc. A final inspection checks to make sure tasks such as those have been completed.
In addition to CDX Analytics, Framingham-based MCR Labs LLC could also have an inspection as early as next week, MCR CEO Michael Kahn said.
“I’m working with the commission trying to time the whole thing,” Kahn said. “What we don’t want is for them to perform an inspection where we fail something because we haven’t had a required training here or registration there.”
Sam Barber, CEO of Cultivate, which is one of the two dispensaries that have been licensed for recreational-marijuana sales by the state, said Cultivate has been checking its own boxes as it waits for the test labs to receive their final inspections before moving forward with a final inspection of its own facility. “We’re still getting some things done,” Barber said.