rewrite this title and make it good for SEOMass. marijuana testing lab at center of scandal will reopen after $300K fine

The Massachusetts marijuana testing lab at the center of the biggest product in recall in state history will reopen next month after paying a $300,000 fine under an agreement with state regulators approved Thursday.

Assured Testing Laboratories, which tested roughly 25% of the cannabis in the state between April 2024 and 2025, had been out of business since July 4 after the state Cannabis Control Commission suspended its license.

Assured had a fail rate for yeast and mold 90 times lower than the statewide average, according to a June 30 CCC suspension order.

That triggered a recall of 7,605 “packages” of product, 509 of which were still in the supply chain, according to the CCC.

Legal cannabis sales in Massachusetts topped $1.6 billion in 2024.

The lab sued regulators in Suffolk County Superior Court soon after its suspension recover its permit while also seeking a hearing.

Under a final order and stipulated agreement approved at the state CCC meeting Thursday, Assured can reopen on Sept. 15.

Massachusetts marijuana lab agrees to punishment after testing scandal

The episode is the first example of Massachusetts regulators cracking down on an allegedly unscrupulous cannabis testing laboratory after years of accusations nationwide that labs are able to skirt rules with impunity.

Labs across the country are coming under increased scrutiny after years of complaints of wrongdoing from competing labs and the public.

Critics claim that labs routinely inflate THC potency and clear contaminated product for sale to please clients and maintain market share without serious consequences.

For a two-year probationary period, Assured will report test results to the commission every two weeks.

The lab will also:

Pay a $300,000 fine in $100,000 bimonthly installments, starting in two months.
Suspend the lab’s CEO and minority owner Dimitrios Pelekoudas for one year.
Contract with an independent auditor that will review the lab’s raw testing data.
Hire a quality control manager.

In a statement to MJBizDaily on Thursday, a spokesperson for the lab said Assured is “pleased to have reached an agreement with the Massachusetts CCC so that we can return to operations.”

“While we disagree with aspects of how we got here, we are eager to return to what we do best: delivering scientific, evidence-backed testing with industry leading cannabis expertise,” the statement said.

Pelekoudas will be replaced with a new executive, according to the statement.

The spokesman declined to address further questions.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the CCC said the agency “remains vigilant in its efforts to ensure consumers and patients have access to fully tested, safe products in the legal marketplace.”

As for cultivators that tested their product with Assured and which labs they switched to once Assured was suspended?

The CCC “cannot comment on individual business decisions,” a spokesperson said.

Marijuana testing lab accused of dry-labbing, faking results

It’s not clear exactly how much of the $1.6 billion of cannabis sold annually in Massachusetts was tested by Assured during the yearlong period examined by the CCC.

But according to results that Assured submitted to Metrc, the state’s seed-to-sale tracking software, only 10 samples out of 17,565 were failed for containing total yeast and mold in excess of state limits.

That’s a 0.05% fail rate, or 90 times below the state’s average fail rate of 4.5%, the CCC said.

A later state investigation found that Assured Testing had actually recorded 544 tests of cannabis in excess of the state’s 10,000 colony forming units-per-gram limit – but did not report those failures to the state, as required by law.

According to the CCC, Assured also allegedly engaged in “dry-labbing,” a practice in which results are reported without performing any tests.

Assured allegedly “reported that marijuana samples passed pesticide and mycotoxin testing before actually completing said testing,” the settlement approved Thursday reads.

Critics say punishment ‘may feel a little unsatisfying’

Lab watchdogs said Friday the penalty is substantial.

“$300K is smaller than the revenue they gained from fraudulently reported testing, so it might feel a little unsatisfying at first,” said Jeff Rawson, the Massachusetts-based president of the Institute of Cannabis Science, which advocates for better testing standards and data transparency.

However, the lab must rebuild a client base back from zero – and will do so while under close scrutiny from the CCC, he added.

Assured is one of several labs accused of wrongdoing in a lawsuit filed by competitor Massachusetts-based MCR Labs.

That suit made allegations of wrongdoing “which this settlement substantiated,” Rawson said.

Chris Roberts can be reached at chris.roberts@mjbizdaily.com.