Testing backlog is latest bottleneck for Minnesota’s recreational marijuana market

Minnesota quietly marked an important milestone last week on its long and fraught journey toward launching a recreational marijuana market: the first legal sale of cannabis flower grown by a new state-licensed cultivator.

But that Feb. 12 sale was preceded by a seven-week wait while the product was tested for potency and contaminants such as mold, bacteria and pesticides by St. Paul-based Legend Technical Services. The site is one of only two fully operational state-licensed testing facilities.

Two-and-a-half years after Minnesota legalized recreational cannabis, dozens of new marijuana businesses are opening. That means potentially thousands of new smokable, vape-able and edible products will need to be tested for safety by a licensed Minnesota lab before they can be sold to consumers. Cannabis business owners say lengthy testing delays have created a new obstacle to getting marijuana onto store shelves.

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Roseville’s Frostbite Dispensary was the retailer that made the Feb. 12 sale. Jacob Affeldt, who owns the business with his wife, Abigail, said it’s “a constant battle” to find product that has been tested and is ready for market.

“That’s really a huge bottleneck for people like me,” Affeldt said. “Because if [cultivators] can’t get product through testing, we don’t have anything to sell.”

Last month, a mutual acquaintance introduced Affeldt to Andy Gruber, co-owner of the Greenest Pastures, the new state-licensed cultivator that supplied Frostbite with flower, Affeldt said. Gruber already had two cannabis strains tested, a process that took 49 days, according to the strain’s lab report.

Minnesota’s cannabis and hemp testing standards require that state-licensed labs complete tests for microbials – including mold, bacteria and yeast – within five days of receiving a small portion of each batch of marijuana, in order to “maintain the integrity of the samples.” All other potency and contaminant testing must be completed within 10 days.

In a written response to questions, Legend Technical Services said it typically begins testing samples within two days of receiving them. When testing is completed can depend on a variety of factors, though currently it can take 2½ weeks or longer, the company said.

Legend declined to say how many customers or product samples it has awaiting testing, citing client confidentiality agreements. It attributed the delays to the “increase in sample volumes and the amount of scale-up that would be needed to meet this unknown testing need of the rapidly growing market.”

“Our current turnaround times are longer than we would like,” the company said. “We have plans in motion at Legend to shorten the turnaround time, such as adding more staff and instrumentation to meet the demand.”

Several messages left with ChRi Labs, the other state-licensed facility authorized to perform “full panel” potency and safety testing in Minnesota, received no response.

Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) spokesman Josh Collins said in a statement that regulators are aware of the testing backlog.

“While delays in testing can be frustrating to market participants, state-licensed testing facilities are central to a safe, well-regulated market,” Collins said. “Like most states early in their market launch, Minnesota’s cannabis testing capacity is currently less than the demand.”

Collins noted that the Legislature updated the law last year to make it easier for new testing facilities to begin operating by allowing them to be licensed while they work toward accreditation. Unlike other license types, the office is also accepting applications for testing facilities on an ongoing basis.

Asked what could help bring down wait times, Legend said “more laboratories are needed.”

There are currently 10 additional labs in the final stages of licensing, according to OCM data. Another facility, Fina Analytics, is licensed to perform potency testing only, but is working toward adding testing capacity, Collins said.

Randy Beuc and his wife, Sasha, own Aurora Cannabis, a licensed microbusiness authorized to cultivate, process and sell recreational cannabis products from the company’s Prior Lake location. The couple recently harvested their first crop of cannabis flower. When Randy submitted 40-gram samples for each of three strains to Legend on Feb. 11, he said he was told it would take about six weeks to get results back.

Aurora is not selling adult-use marijuana products from any of the Minnesota tribal nations that have entered the cannabis industry or from the state’s two former medical cannabis companies, Beuc said. The company has operated at a loss for nearly three years, he said, but he expects to harvest roughly 10 pounds of cannabis flower per month going forward.

While he is optimistic that the company is about to turn a corner and become profitable, he said they invested everything they have in the business.