Lab testing of homegrow

One of our lodestars at HCANY is patient-centered homegrow policy. Medical patients are getting a little bit lost in the rush for revenue that is accompanying legalization of cannabis. One way that is manifesting is in the lab regs. Med patients can’t rely on commercial cannabis to sell the strains that they need, (Drop by our friday roundtable for a discussion of this), so they need accurate testing of the strains that they grow.

The lab testing regs were published in the State register of August 31 on an emergency basis. (OCM is rushing out lab regs so that a CAURD license holder can get open before the end of the year… talk to my friends at the NYCCIA if you are interested in the ins and outs of retail). Emergency basis means (among other things) that even though they go into effect right away, we will still have a chance to comment. Since we have a chance to test them out while they are still open for discussion, we thought we would try to see if we could get some homegrow tested.

It hasn’t been going that well so far.

Before we get into the details, I want to be clear that this is as much a test of the policy as it is an effort to get some weed tested. Testing is available, if you know who to ask, or you can also test at home with the internet and a little science aptitude. No one should need that, though. The most rule following patient, the furthest from the cannabis culture and community - the person with the least access to cannabis testing labs in the whole state - that person should be able to get their weed tested, safely, easily, and for a reasonable price. Because that person deserves access, as much as anybody who is in the loop. And if that person has access, everybody else does too.

Anyway - this post is getting a little long. Will follow up on my outreach to the 4 labs in future posts!