rewrite this title and make it good for SEOMass. cannabis lab shuttered for testing allegations reopens

The first cannabis testing laboratory in Massachusetts to be suspended for alleged testing fraud is now the first to attempt to recover its reputation – and its business – following scandal.

Tyngsboro-based Assured Testing Laboratories, which reopened Sept. 15 following a settlement with state regulators that avoided litigation but included a fine, tested as much as 25% of the cannabis in the $1.6 billion market before its July 1 suspension.

Though it might be some time before the lab can recover that business – or trust with consumers and its former customers – the extra scrutiny imposed by the state Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) as part of the settlement might work in the lab’s favor, interim CEO Tom Moore told MJBizDaily.

“It’s a strange position to be in, obviously,” Moore said in a recent phone interview. “We were the biggest lab in the state.”

Though it’s only been a few weeks, Moore claims the company is “being pretty well received” by former customers, including some who have already resumed testing with Assured.

“We’re here to make it right,” said Moore, noting that Assured must now meet extra stringent standards to stay in business.

“I can say with all confidence that if anybody is giving results consistent with what the CCC wants, it’s us.

“The reality is, we will be the standard-bearer.”

First lab suspended for alleged misbehavior returns

After years of complaints that labs are inflating THC potency and signing off on contaminated cannabis to please customers, state regulators across the country have cracked down, punishing allegedly unscrupulous operators in the commercial testing laboratory space.

After suspensions and other punitive actions in Arizona, California, New York and other states, the situation in Massachusetts may be the first instance of a lab attempting to return after alleged misbehavior.

The CCC’s allegations were serious.

According to the CCC’s suspension order, Assured recorded a fail rate for yeast and mold 90 times lower than the statewide average of 4.5% between April 2024 and April 2025.

The lab failed only 10 samples out of 17,565 despite Massachusetts having some of the strictest standards for contaminants in the country, the CCC alleged.

Other alleged violations, including not reporting failed samples to regulators and reporting that samples passed testing without completing the tests amounted to an “intentional effort to conceal those failing results and only report the favorable results on behalf of its clients,” the CCC alleged.

Assured sued to recover its license but dropped litigation ahead of its stipulated agreement with the CCC, in which it did not admit wrongdoing but agreed to pay a $300,000 fine.

In addition, the lab agreed to:

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, which in turn must be reported biweekly to the state.
Hire a quality control manager.

Extra regulator scrutiny, denial of dry labbing

Part of the stipulated agreement means Assured lost control of the narrative, said Moore, who denied the lab engaged in shady practices as the CCC had alleged.

“When you settle something like this, you don’t get to tell your side of the story,” he said.

“We’re saying, ‘Look, we get it. You didn’t like the things we’re doing. We may disagree with that, but let’s settle this and open back up.’”

Specifically, Moore denied Assured engaged in “dry labbing” as the CCC alleged.

“I can tell you 100% of our samples were tested,” he said. “We have all the documentation for that.”

He also rejected the idea that Assured posed a threat to health and safety, as the CCC claimed.

“If we had, they would have shut us down in 2024,” he said.

He chalked up the lab’s problems to “past practices” in place before a December 2024 CCC administrative order that, among other requirements, directed labs to update their standard operating procedures (SOPs).

“That clarified a lot of what happened,” he said. “That clarified how they expected us to do things.”

For example, Moore said, retesting a failed sample – to confirm the initial failure was accurate – was “allowed back then” prior to the directive.

But now that the lab has strict SOPs approved by the state – and results reported directly to the state – the situation will be different, he said.

Returned Massachusetts cannabis czar vows lab crackdown

Few might disagree with Moore on that front – among them state regulators.

Extra scrutiny of the state’s cannabis testing laboratories is one of recently returned CCC Chair Shannon O’Brien’s top priorities, she said during a public meeting Wednesday.

O’Brien returned to her post last month after a controversial removal and subsequent legal battle. The lab problem worsened in her absence, some observers say.

Going forward, state regulators will wield stronger oversight over labs, O’Brien said. And the state will require standardization of lab testing methods, she said.

But being the first to suffer scrutiny and punishment in a competitive field may prove challenging for Assured, said Jeff Rawson, the president of Massachusetts-based Institute of Cannabis Science.

Rawson has publicly criticized Pelekoudas, Assured’s suspended CEO, for appearing “unrepentant in interviews.”

“I believe they have an uphill path to recovering their business,” Rawson told MJBizDaily.

“With Assured operating under a stipulated agreement that exposes them to enhanced scrutiny, how will they convince clients to return?”

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