Oregon’s more stringent cannabis product testing rules have caused supply disruptions and, according to dispensary owners, have forced a 40 to 50 percent decrease in concentrate and edible sales, the Coast River Business Journal reports.
The new rules, which took effect on Oct. 1, have created a burden for state-certified testing laboratories, who cannot keep up with the demand. The issue is compounded by the fact that there are simply too few labs statewide to test cannabis products.
Omar Guerrero, co-owner of Clatsop County’s The Farmacy, called the last two months “a nightmare.”
“We didn’t have edibles or extract because of the new lab test requirements. It delayed everything. We suffered,” he said in the report. “We had all the products then we had nothing for a little more than a month.”
Oscar Nelson, co-owner of the Sweet Relief Dispensary in Astoria, estimates he has lost 33 percent of his edible and concentrates stock, causing “customer volatility.” He anticipates the market will stabilize, eventually, but not until “St. Patty’s Day 2018.”
“You’ve got less producers, fewer people bringing product to the market and that same product is going through a much more stringent funnel,” Nelson said. “It’s like we’ve got several bottlenecks back-to-back.”
Both Nelson and Guerrero are worried that the Oregon Health Authority is overwhelmed; Nelson said that the agency is beleaguered by producer applications making it tough to focus on the backlog.