Reported by Michigan Information & Research Service (MIRS), February 19, 2026
The Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA), which oversees and enforces Michigan’s marijuana regulations, could soon have its own lab to inspect private weed testing labs.
In some instances, private labs have been accused of prioritizing profit over honest testing.
This morning, the Senate Regulatory Affairs Committee heard testimony on SB 704 by Senate Majority Floor Leader Sam Singh (D-East Lansing). Last term, legislators set aside $4.4 million in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 budget for a CRA-run lab, with $2.8 million covering equipment and construction expenses and $1.6 million for continual personnel and operational costs.
Derek Sova, the CRA’s policy and legislative specialist, said that labs within today’s system make money from growers and processors who bring their products in to be tested.
“What is happening now more and more is we are seeing some growers and some processors basically saying to the labs, ‘Give me the test results I want, or I will take my business to another lab that will,'” Sova said. “Labs have been forced into the situation where they either give passing results to products they know are contaminated, and these are things like mold, metals, pesticides, Aspergillus, microbials…or they risk losing that business.”
Sova said that in some cases, the CRA has seen labs go out of business because of the issue.
According to the CRA’s December 2025 report, licensed adult-use establishments in Michigan oversaw more than $269.2 million in sales for that month alone, including around 122,693 pounds of flower.
At the same time, the CRA received 88 complaints and opened 77 investigations.
Sova said the CRA is absolutely not trying to take over from what the labs are doing, as it won’t have the same capacity as the 17 labs with 200 to 300 employees altogether. Meanwhile, Sova said the CRA has “one lab, five people,” essentially playing an “umpire role,” calling balls and strikes as labs compete.
“At this point, the lab is ready to go. It is built. It is equipped. It is staffed. We are just waiting for the ability to bring marijuana in, to start running it through the machines and to get the certifications and accreditations that we need,” Sova said. “You have two labs. One says it passes. One says it fails. We don’t know which one is right…unless there is someone who truly has no stake in the game to come in and say ‘OK, we’re going to test it and tell you what it was.'”
The bill was backed by Amber Middlebrook, the business development director in Michigan for ACT LAB, one of the largest cannabis and hemp testing laboratories in the United States.
Middlebrook said the market has become driven by total percentages of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the psychoactive cannabinoid responsible for the “high” sensation in weed.
With consumers purchasing based on potency, there’s an incentive for operators to seek the highest reportable numbers to remain competitive, Middlebrook described.
“When some laboratories lack integrity in how results are generated or reported, they gain an economic advantage, while laboratories that refuse to compromise standards are placed at a disadvantage,” Middlebrook said in a letter. “Laboratories must either sacrifice ethics to survive or risk losing business. Meanwhile, transparent operators struggle to compete, and ultimately consumers bear the risk through inaccurately labeled or unsafe products.”
She referenced Viridis, a marijuana testing lab that previously had operations in Bay City and Lansing. In December 2020, the CRA started reviewing the labs’ results and testing methods following accusations of THC potency levels being purposefully inflated by workers, as well as of weed products wrongfully getting passed and inappropriate sampling techniques.
Nearly 64,000 pounds of marijuana tested by Viridis was recalled by the CRA in November 2021.
It was in August 2025 that the CRA announced a settlement with Viridis and the revocation of the labs’ licenses.
“The regulatory action and recall involving Viridis Laboratories demonstrated how complex and prolonged enforcement processes can become once concerns are raised. By the time investigations move forward, significant market disruption and potential consumer exposure may have already occurred,” Middlebrook said.
Sen. Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia), the committee’s majority vice chair, said that the more she hears about the industry, “just from people actually in it, it’s just such the wild, wild West right now, and it’s a shame.”
Claire Patterson, who will direct the new state cannabis reference laboratory, said with there being so much testing and product going through today’s industry, “it’s inevitable that some of it is slipping through the cracks.”
