Nevada Officials Aim to Revoke Testing Lab’s License

Nevada’s Cannabis Compliance Board on Tuesday accused Cannex Nevada LLC (also known as RSR Analytical Laboratories) of passing tainted cannabis products and inflating THC results for clients, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. The company has previously had its license suspended twice since 2017 for skirting state regulations and was the subject of two health advisories in 2019 and 2020 for passing tainted products, allowing them to reach dispensary shelves.

Regulators asked the board to revoke the company’s license, ban it from the industry for a decade, and impose a $62,500 fine, the report says. According to the complaint outlined by the Review-Journal, Cannex had performed unauthorized retesting for clients “with the intent to pass products that should have failed” microbial and heavy metal tests in addition to inflating THC potency.

In all, regulators say they found 232 instances of this unapproved retesting for THC Nevada, Silver Sage Wellness, ACC Industries, and Prime Cannabis and Integral Associates, the parent company of Essence Dispensaries.

“Rather than protecting consumers through accurate and honest testing, Cannex implemented testing processes that were designed to protect the monetary assets of their clients without regard for consumer safety. … Cannex’s microbial retesting practices resulted in the release of multiple cannabis products for sale to the public when they should have in fact failed testing.” – CCB, in the complaint

During an investigation into Cannex last year, regulators said secondary microbial tests of products passed by the company found high levels of mold and yeast, fungus and other contaminants, according to a Review-Journal report from February 2020. The Department of Taxation said at that time that there was “no reason to believe that the dispensaries or cultivators had any knowledge that the products exceeded allowable limits.” That recall affected 19 products at dozens of dispensaries throughout the state.