Cannabis: testing: quality assurance

The law expands the Department of Cannabis Control’s ability to check products already on retail shelves and evaluate laboratory practices. It also makes certificates of analysis available to customers on request.

What the law does ​

• Requires cannabis retailers and other retail-sale licensees to provide a product’s certificate of analysis to a customer or the department upon request.
• Requires retail-sale licensees to let the department obtain or access products held or offered for sale for off-the-shelf laboratory testing.
• Allows the department to subject licensed testing laboratories to performance testing to promote consistent results across laboratories.
• Allows retesting when a test was compromised by equipment malfunction, staff error, or department-authorized circumstances, when the department requires retesting, or when it authorizes a request.
• Requires licensed testing laboratories to comply with department requests to evaluate their testing practices.

Who it affects ​

• Cannabis retailers, microbusinesses, and other licensees authorized to sell cannabis or cannabis products at retail.
• Licensed cannabis testing laboratories.
• Cannabis consumers.

Context ​

The Department of Cannabis Control administers California’s commercial cannabis licensing and testing rules.