LAB JUMPS INTO TESTING
Ohio site a final piece in medical-marijuana puzzle
Decoding that funky smell isn’t something the state requires of laboratories testing medical marijuana.
“But the whole goal is to give our customer an overall picture of their product,” said Matt Wagner, a senior chemist at North Coast Testing Laboratories in Streetsboro, the first lab approved by the state to test the inaugural crops of medicinal marijuana in Ohio.
Along with terpenes (which produce that vaguely piney smell) and cannabinoids (which render medicinal benefits), “a lot of customers like to see what their
trichomes look like. It’s one way to check the maturity of the plant,” Wagner said.
Previously a researcher at the Cleveland Clinic, Wagner never imagined he’d be sloshing green mixtures of marijuana and methanol in beakers or squinting at microscopic images of buds that resemble speckled Christmas trees covered in oily droplets at a high magnification. Since the first samples arrived Tuesday through an airlock at the highly secured and statemonitored lab, the senior chemist has grown accustomed to the smell. But he doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to the excitement.
“There’s over 100 cannabinoids,” Wagner said in awe of the known and unknown properties of THC, CBD, their derivatives and the dozens of chemicals packed in these tiny buds.
The state initially wanted marijuana products available in dispensaries by September. But thanks to delays, the state’s cannabis growers didn’t get started until last summer, and marijuana takes months to cultivate.
Wagner and his colleagues in molecular microbiology and analytic chemistry are the last piece in Ohio’s medical-marijuana puzzle. The leafy, dry marijuana they’re testing — intended for vaping until processing plants start churning out oils, edibles and other products — should start shipping from some cultivators at rates of 750 pounds every three weeks. Buckeye Relief in Eastlake, AT-CPC in Akron and three others in Ohio have harvested at least one crop.
Smaller-scale growers are pheno-hunting, tinkering with various cannabis strains and growing methods to perfect their practice and product. Their shipments can include as many as 50 phenotypes to be tested
— not just for pesticides, moisture and microbial bacteria but also for boutique characteristics, similar to the nuanced flavors of the craftbrewing revolution.
For now, CY+ of Pennsylvania owns the only one of 56 Ohio dispensaries approved to open this week, just outside Steubenville.
Although nearly operational, Ohio’s medical-marijuana program is far from fully functional as companies in the trade push to get more growing, processing, testing and dispensing operations over myriad hurdles and final state inspections. Some are ready to go, just waiting for feedback from the state.
Jeff Nemeth, chief executive officer of ACT Laboratories Inc, said his Toledo testing facility should be ready later this month. Another in Hocking College opened Wednesday.
After Pennsylvania and Illinois, Ohio is a third emerging medical-marijuana market for Nemeth, who said delays and low supply are common until new companies gain steam and get comfortable with regulations.
“It’s the same growing pains,” Nemeth said. “I know everyone has been patient, but I also know everyone has been working as fast as possible.”
It’s been an especially painful wait for patients.
Susan Ganz, 68, of Newcomerstown in rural Tuscarawas County in northeastern Ohio, is living with chronic pain as deep as the rod surgically inserted in the left side of her neck and back. She has built up a tolerance to opioids, which have put thousands of Ohioans on addictive — and potentially deadly — paths. And she has tried cannabis, which eased the agony and calmed her muscle spasms.
In late November, her certified medical-marijuana doctor put her name in for a medical-marijuana card. He informed her that no dispensaries were open at the time.
The CY+ dispensary near Stuebenville is about an hour’s drive from Ganz’s home. She has been eagerly monitoring 20 of the closest dispensaries with provisional state licensing.
“There’s no phone numbers on these sites, so it’s go knock on the door and see,” she said. “It wasn’t organized very well.”
The handful of medicalmarijuana businesses on the cusp of opening pin the blame for the delayed rollout on missed construction deadlines, local zoning disputes, a state lawsuit by companies denied state licenses, last-minute inspections and other issues that arise with a heavily regulated market built from the ground up.
“It’s coming,” said Dr. Matt Noyes, a surgeon who founded a business, Fire Rock, to open a growing site in Akron. A nearby dispensary is under construction.
“The delay has nothing to do with the state,” Noyes said of his cultivation business. “It has nothing to do with us. It’s like building a home. Dealing with construction has been the most difficult part of the process.”
Kate Nelson of Greenleaf Apothecaries said a dispensary in Canton will be finished and awaiting a final state inspection later this month. The company’s Akron location, which was opposed by city planners because of its proximity to downtown entertainment sites, was delayed by the conditional zoning process.
Nelson and other dispensary operators will have trouble keeping shelves stocked. And the early product is expected to be straight plant material.
“We expect that problem will solve itself as more processors come online,” she said.
Canton Repository Reporter Kelly Byer contributed to this story.