How SafeTiva is Setting a Higher Standard for Cannabis Testing

“I was playing with my son over winter break and I got a letter in the mail that said that I had gotten tenure,” Megan Dobro told The Green Letter. That was in 2019. She was Professor of Biology at Hampshire College. “For an academic that's like the peak career goal.”

That same year, the college announced it would not be taking a full freshman class, and rumors circulated that the school could close. Hampshire eventually rebounded, but it was the spur Dobro needed to launch her second career leading a cannabis testing lab. 

Existing cannabis testing labs in Massachusetts were hindered by outdated technology, slow turnaround times, and few standards. There was a gap in the market. 

To offer faster, two-day turnaround to clients and set a higher standard for cannabis testing, SafeTiva brought in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing with microarray analysis, a process for rapidly copying a segment of DNA and quantifying that DNA with sensitive fluorescent detectors.

According to the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) of Massachusetts, the United States Pharmacopeia currently recommends independent testing labs present results for products “as received.” On offer is a standard formula for calculating THC and CBD levels in products; however, there are no requirements for reporting levels of other cannabinoids, other ingredients, or water activity, which determines how susceptible products are to microbial contamination.

With frequent regulatory changes which vary nationally and from state to state, Dobro and the SafeTiva team are on a mission to help standardize and futureproof cannabis testing while creating a safer and more transparent experience for consumers.

Dobro sat with The Green Letter to discuss safety in the cannabis industry and her own experience as an entrepreneur. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What types of clients does SafeTiva primarily serve, manufacturers or growers?

Both. Our technology allows us to test a variety of product types including beverages, infused products, concentrates, and of course flower. Some clients come to us with a mission to gain specific testing results, and others have stuck with us from the beginning. Some new clients understand the market has increasing regulation enforcement and oversight, and they’d like to ensure they’re providing accurate data to their customers.

What has the growth trajectory been like for your company?

Slower than I had hoped and planned for. We suffer in the market when compared to other labs who are turning out inflated potency numbers or impossible microbial pass rates. That's been really difficult, and I understand the temptation other labs feel to just give the clients what they want. It would solve a lot of problems in the business and allow us to support our employees and keep the doors open, but we've been really lucky to have a very dedicated investor who's very patient and generous with us. 

We have the ability to hold out for multi-faceted change. That’s regulations becoming clearer, forcing standardization across labs and including more oversight. That’s consumers not shopping solely based on THC. That’s cultivators doing the right thing and accepting when they fail products. There's a culture shift that needs to happen which is a hard shift. Really hard.

What role is SafeTiva playing in defining the future of testing, and how are you communicating the importance of that to consumers?

I’m lucky to have a chief operating officer who I trust wholeheartedly with SafeTiva. I can go to events and build relationships with our clients, meet with regulators, and write articles. In fact, just before this conversation I got off the phone with one of the commissioners in Massachusetts because we're trying to pass some changes to the rules. Being able to focus on that has given me a really good sense of where we're going, and I can help prepare SafeTiva for that future.

I think everyone wants the same things. We need to push to make it happen with small, incremental changes, and I'm really focused on Massachusetts. This is my home. This is where my family and friends are, and so for the future of SafeTiva, I'm not looking to build multiple locations in other states. I'm looking to build SafeTiva into the premier lab in Massachusetts.

We have a big beautiful facility that's not nearly at capacity yet, and we have an amazing staff. I think that if we can build the consumer demand and the client demand to value accurate data, then we are primed to be in the best position to accommodate for that.

I hope to keep doing what we're doing, and not ever compromise our values. If we can stay that course, then I think we can provide a really good service to Massachusetts.

Massachusetts has been referred to as an incubator economy for cannabis. What challenges do you foresee the regulatory regime experiencing as we approach a consumer education cliff nationwide?

As the federal government considers rescheduling cannabis, my hope is state borders will open and we can standardize labs nationwide. That’s tricky because each state is doing their own thing. Once a lab is built – and with it the equipment, protocols, trained staff, and accreditation – it’s really hard to then standardize to something else that’s different from what you’re doing.

At SafeTiva, we’re trying to plan for what is going to be required when this is governed by the FDA, for example. We can look at how agricultural testing is being regulated and make sure everything is really buttoned up. We can ensure we're in compliance with FDA privacy laws and the way we handle digital data, especially for our documentation and our quality system.

That thinking helps us keep our methods on the cutting edge of research.

One amazing aspect of rescheduling would mean more research becomes possible, and there's already a lot of good research happening now. To deschedule and have it open to all the universities would open the doors for everyone to understand what technologies are best and what methodologies are most accurate. Labs should be looking toward that research to future proof their own methods.

I’m looking forward to the day when we’re all doing the same thing, and what they're doing in Connecticut is the same as what they're doing in Maine. I’m looking forward to when cannabis is labeled, and that same label can apply in any state across the country.

I'm not sure if I answered your question or not, but I don’t think most cannabis consumers realize they can ask for a certificate of analysis at a dispensary. The analysis would show which lab performed the testing and what the results were, because currently what's on the label may not be the same.

In the food industry, FDA-accredited manufacturers understand if an auditor walks in and asks for your documentation about any given test, you produce that or get shut down. We’re just not there yet. In cannabis, we’re regulated by an organization full of lawyers and politicians, not scientists. 

When they are engaging with us, there are now people on staff who are asking the right questions, so I feel we’re going in the right direction. We need our inspectors to stop being police, walking in with their badges and natural tension, and become more of a resource for us. We want to be compliant, and we need to feel safe to ask questions and get their guidance.

We're still an infant industry. We have a long way to go before we’re regulated like food. I find it important to work with regulators in our state and get all the labs on the same page. We are now meeting monthly to discuss what we’re seeing and how we can engage with the Cannabis Control Commission in Massachusetts. It feels like the momentum is going in the right direction, and I have optimism for that.

Since the industry is not regulated like food, how has your relationship with cannabis changed as a consumer as you’ve become more involved with the science of testing?

Better knowing what cultivators are doing makes me nervous to smoke anything. I’m very particular about which brands I will smoke because I’ve seen a lot of ugly stuff in this industry and it makes me wary about what I consume. 

I still wholeheartedly believe that what I can buy on the dispensary shelf is better than what most people are growing outside or in their basement. There are strict rules around pesticides and plant growth hormones – and for concentrates, residual solvents and heavy metals – so I’m more comfortable smoking that than what I used to get from friends. 

While there are a lot of testing facilities doing the right thing, I’ve heard from clients about what some facilities are doing to adulterate samples or find loopholes in their procedures. That makes me nervous, but there are a lot of facilities that are gorgeous, clean, and well-organized. I’ve just become more particular.

Overall, we’ve still got a long way to go. In Massachusetts, cultivators and manufacturers do their own sampling, and testing labs can only test what we’ve been given. Independent testers may pick something off a shelf and find microbial growth or numbers different than previously tested. When this happens, they’re immediately jumping to lab fraud. This is very frustrating to me, and it impacts my staff and me because we work so hard to figure out how we can be more accurate and keep our ethics. We're really analyzing everything. Our character and our integrity are core to who we are.

It’s all over the cover of The Wall Street Journal, and with the turmoil of cannabis testing we have a big problem. I think the problem in large part stems from vague regulations, which cause natural variability across labs, which creates lab shopping. The labs that have the highest THC numbers are getting the most business. We exist for the consumers but it’s the cultivators and manufacturers who pay our bills, and that’s a terrible structure. 

It’s amazing how quickly a company’s reputation can be ruined in this space by people who don’t do their homework to really know the people and the situation. It’s all about snappy headlines, and they often get it wrong. I just wish we would all smoke a J and chill out a little bit.