Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 18, September 16, 2024
(a) To ensure the
safety of consumers, a cannabis business shall provide upon request of the
Commission one or more samples of usable cannabis or cannabis product to the
Commission during announced and unannounced inspections for product quality
control, including, but not limited to:
1. A
sample from a batch of usable cannabis from the first harvest of a new
cultivar; and
2. A unit or units of
packaged usable cannabis or cannabis product available for distribution to
consumers.
(b) To
implement the requirements at (a) above, the Commission shall:
1. Collect soil and plant samples and samples
of usable cannabis or cannabis product from the cannabis business, as
applicable;
2. Place the license
number of the cannabis business on each sample container;
3. Label the sample containers with the date
of the sampling, the name of the cultivar/strain, and the quantity of its
contents by weight;
4. Seal the
sample containers;
5. Have a member
of the cannabis business staff and Commission staff initial each sample
container; and
6. Have Commission
staff transport all sample containers in a lockable box to the New Jersey
Department of Health's Public Health and Environmental Laboratories (PHEL) or a
licensed testing laboratory for testing.
(c) The Commission shall maintain
documentation of the chain of custody of any sample taken in accordance with
this chapter.
1. The Commission shall provide
a receipt for any collected sample to the license holder representative of the
cannabis business.
2. The
Commission shall maintain an accounting of all collected sample containers for
control purposes, including the Medicinal Marijuana Testing Laboratories
Specimen Submittal form, incorporated herein by reference, as amended or
supplemented, and found on its website at
http://www.nj.gov/health/phel/documents/ECLS/CTL-1.pdf.
(d) The Commission shall use PHEL
or a licensed testing laboratory to test samples.
1. Sample testing may include tests for,
among other things, cannabinoid content, the presence of pests, mold and
mycotoxins, mildew, heavy metals, and pesticides to ensure the accuracy of
labeling.
2. PHEL shall conduct
testing according to the following "Laboratory SOPs for Medicinal Marijuana,"
which are incorporated herein by reference, as amended or supplemented, and
found on its website at
http://www.nj.gov/health/phel/env-testing/chemical-terrorism-lab/:
i. Standard Operation Procedure for
Qualitative and Quantitative Determination of Major Cannabinoids in Cannabis
Plant Material;
ii. Standard
Operating Procedure for the Screening of Marijuana for Toxic Metals by
Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry; and
iii. Assessing Presence of Aflatoxins and
Ochratoxin A in Medical Marijuana Using HPLC.
3. The Department shall issue written reports
of the results of its testing to the cannabis business.
4. The cannabis business shall pay the
expenses for the testing.
(e) The first harvest of a new cultivar shall
be segregated until the cannabis business receives the written report that the
sample meets specifications, and the batch may be released for
distribution.
(f) A written report
that the sample does not meet specifications shall yield further testing by
PHEL or a testing laboratory of that batch or lot and other batches from the
same growth area or lots from the same manufacturing area and may yield a
recall and destruction of the usable cannabis or cannabis products, as
determined by the Commission.
