In a state where cannabis testing labs are already hard to come by, one lab just got their license suspended, bringing the total number of testing labs in Michigan from six down to five.
According to the Detroit Free Press, last week, Michigan’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA) filed a formal complaint against Iron Labs, based in Walled Lake, “for, among other things, finding marijuana that tested above the legal limit for various contaminants but not reporting those test results in the state’s tracking system. The lab allegedly also didn’t report edibles that tested above the state’s potency limit for THC, the psychoactive substance in marijuana that produces a high.”
The formal complaint filed by the regulatory body said that Iron Labs lacks “integrity, moral character and responsibility or means to operate or maintain a marijuana facility.” While no reports of health issues associated with products tested by Iron Labs have surfaced, the state is still urging patients to reconsider using products tested by the lab in question.
In a statement last week, MRA Executive Director Andrew Brisbo said he wants his agency to focus on protecting patient and consumer safety. “It is imperative that our licensees follow the rules and laws, especially regarding the testing of medical marijuana product,” says Brisbo. “We are intensely focused on making sure that the marijuana product in the regulated industry meets established safety standards.”
Because the issues are still under investigation, the regulatory body will not comment on how much cannabis is potentially contaminated and how much of the market has been using Iron Labs as an analytical testing partner.
Typical bureaucratic response. When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So they hammer away, and like a stupid, knee-jerk response, to “send a message,” they suspend the license, rather than look to real causes, like a weak system that THEY developed. “Kill the messenger.” Having dealt with bureaucracies most of my life, I know there are some inherent weaknesses in any system, especially a new one, like cannabis testing. And “investigators” being usually STUPID, will use the first thing they can find to issue a public statement, and JUSTIFY THEIR OWN EXISTENCE, not because they seem to care about “public safety,” but to adhere to the secrets “rules of a bureaucrat.” Rule #1- is “First, Protect the bureaucracy.”
So, by making a large pronouncement, like this, they do nothing to improve the system. They just hit someone over the head, then go on about their now “justified” existence, while patting themselves on the back for a “job well done,” while offering nothing to IMPROVE the system that allowed the error to happen in the first place. How can they verify that the grower, or the dispensary for that matter, didn’t add or change the product AFTER the testing was performed? This is an unknown, or probably likely unexplored possibility, because the bureaucrats are too stupid to think of such possibilities. So kill the lab….that’s the easiest target. Just be at the gallows in Central Square at noon so the King can demonstrate his Godly power and as he cuts off some heads! Watch the heads roll! but certainly not those of the largely useless “investigators,” because hey…your tax dollars at work, and all that.
I highly recommend the work of W Edwards Deming. He talked all about such idiocy, and is the man largely responsible for you driving a Toyota today. When I think of bureaucrats, I think of the BTK killer, who stopped killing after he became a code enforcement officer…. a “legal” way to get his torture jollies.
What are the names of the other surviving 5 test labs?