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Colorado's state auditor released a new report evaluating marijuana product safety in the state, and found local regulations to be lacking.
Overall, the Colorado Office of the State Auditor said the state's established framework provides some assurances toward safe products.
"However, we identified deficiencies and gaps in the state’s marijuana product safety framework that limit its effectiveness to identify and respond to health and safety risks , which increase the risk that consumers may ultimately use contaminated products," the report said.
Key findings include:
- Colorado’s regulatory framework lacks a fully functional state reference lab to assist with testing marijuana products. The state’s inability to provide independent and comprehensive product testing impacts its ability to effectively enforce safety requirements.
- Current rules for marijuana product testing and marijuana facility record retention, combined with the Department of Revenue’s Marijuana Enforcement Division’s (MED) limited and inconsistent monitoring, limit MED’s ability to identify product safety risks and help ensure that licensed marijuana businesses meet product safety requirements.
- MED could take additional steps to issue health and safety advisories more timely when it has identified safety issues with marijuana products and improve the effectiveness of its communications to consumers and other stakeholders to better support public safety.
- The Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE) should improve its oversight of the private labs that conduct routine marijuana product testing to ensure that these labs produce consistent and accurate results.
The full report is available here.
