The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission advanced draft compliance-testing regulations on Thursday, Nov. 12, deciding six policy questions, including a requirement that testing labs automatically retest failed products before issuing a certificate of authenticity.
The draft rules would take effect six months after promulgation, which is tentatively scheduled for April 2027, according to a commission news release dated Nov. 12. Commissioners are expected to approve the draft in December, and the commission will accept public feedback on the rules beginning in January.
The draft was first released at the commission's Oct. 22 meeting. It creates a new section of 935 CMR dedicated to cannabis testing and carries out new requirements in Chapter 65 of the Acts of 2026. The release says the draft followed an informal public comment period and a public hearing in August, feedback from an earlier listening session with independent testing labs, and meetings with lab owners.
The decisions the commissioners made at Thursday's meeting were:
Require regulatory compliance testing before any sale, whether business to business or business to consumer.
Move to targeted microbial speciation testing for specified organisms of public health concern.
Set standards for independent testing labs to automatically retest failures before issuing a certificate of authenticity, to confirm the initial result and separate actual noncompliance from possible lab error.
Eliminate the Standards Laboratory license type.
Require product labels to say whether a product has been sanitized or remediated.
Make the new testing regulations under 935 CMR 503.000 effective six months after promulgation.
Chair Chris Harding said the regulations are intended to "reduce variability in testing, improve the accuracy and reliability of test results, and strengthen the Commission's ability to identify testing deficiencies and take necessary enforcement actions." Commissioner Anthony Wilson, who leads an internal working group on testing, said the commission expects more updates in 2027, including sampling and pesticides.
Executive Director Travis Ahern said this is the first update of cannabis compliance testing regulations since the commission's founding. The release lists earlier testing steps, among them a THC potency audit that required corrective actions for noncompliant products, a requirement that labs upload digital certificates of authenticity after every test, and a public health and safety advisories web portal where consumers and patients can see products flagged for health and safety issues.
The release does not give a date or location for the January comment process, and it does not publish the regulation text. Separately, it says the commission plans to promulgate the testing regulations and other Chapter 65 updates in early 2027.
