Maryland Targets Cannabis Lab Shopping with Multi-Lab Audit Program

Maryland regulators are taking direct aim at potency manipulation with a new state audit program designed to identify inflated THC numbers and enforce label accuracy.

Starting this October, the Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) is launching a cross-testing pilot alongside Cannabis Safety & Quality (CSQ), an accredited third-party standards and certification body for the cannabis and hemp sectors. The initiative, called CSQ CLEAR, takes retail flower samples and tests them across four independent licensed labs, benchmarking those results against the state’s official reference facility. By using forensic statistical modeling to cross-reference retail products against their original Certificates of Analysis (COAs), regulators aim to catch statistical outliers and root out testing fraud across the supply chain.

A History of Tampering: The High-THC Payday

The industry has called out the unethical practice of lab shopping for years—where cultivators steer business toward testing facilities willing to report higher THC percentages. All of this is driven by consumer hyper-fixation on THC potency, forcing dispensary buyers to buy high-potency flower to keep shelf space moving. Adding an extra 5% to 10% on a COA can significantly raise a harvest’s wholesale value. And if a lab refuses to play along, cultivators will pull their testing accounts and take their business down the street.

Labs rely on a few methods that are commonly used to artificially boost numbers:

• Baking Out Moisture: Because THC percentage is calculated against dry weight, labs can over-dry flower samples prior to testing. Removing water mass automatically drives the THC ratio up on paper.
• Manipulating Calibration Baselines: Operators can alter the standard reference values used to calibrate testing equipment. An artificially lowered baseline makes the tested sample appear significantly stronger by comparison.
• Fudging Sample Weights: Technicians can extract 0.3 grams of flower but input 0.2 grams into the testing software. The machine measures the full THC mass, but the formula divides it by the smaller logged weight, instantly inflating the final percentage.

Statistical audit programs like CSQ CLEAR are designed to catch these exact discrepancies by flagging lab results that fall outside normal scientific baselines.

The Flaw of Fee-for-Service Testing

Should states eliminate third-party commercial labs entirely and run testing through state-operated facilities?

Under a state-run model, state laboratories would handle testing directly rather than private facilities. Cultivators would pay standard fees to meet state-mandated compliance testing requirements, removing private business deals, profit motives, and lab competition from the equation.

Until states take over testing operations directly, audit programs like CSQ CLEAR serve as the primary line of defense against bad actors.

Enforcement sweeps across state markets show why state-run testing is the only real path forward:

• New York Shutdown: State regulators forced the closure of New York-based Lexachrom Analytical Laboratory after an audit uncovered systemic data integrity violations and unverified test results. The lab surrendered its operating permit, triggering product recalls across the state for untested inventory.
• Multistate License Revocations: Regulators in California, Arizona, and Massachusetts have suspended or revoked testing permits over falsified data logs, sample tampering (such as dusting flower with THC distillate), and manipulating moisture content to artificially boost potency metrics. Previous industry audits indicate flower THC numbers in regulated markets are routinely inflated by as much as 25%.

Looking Ahead

Maryland’s CSQ CLEAR pilot will conduct round-robin testing through the fall, with compiled anonymized findings scheduled for public release in December. If effective, the audit model could give state regulators a standardized framework to verify label claims and restore credibility to dispensary testing protocols.

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