Regulatory Updates

Pennsylvania’s Cannabis Industry Participants File Litigation against Department of Health, Office of Medical Marijuana

March 4, 2023

Motion for Emergency Relief (Ex Parte)

Brief in Support of Emergency Relief

The Department of Health, Office of Medical Marijuana’s (DOH)  2-Lab regulation exceeds DOH’s statutory authority and is an abdication of DOH’s regulatory obligations.  This regulation will immediately halt the production of medical marijuana because there are literally tens of thousands of samples currently in labs that make most G/Ps in violation of this regulation. Those violative samples correlate to millions of dollars of G/Ps’ products that will be unable to proceed to manufacturing, sales, and to patients.  The G/Ps’ immediate violation of this regulation (simply by having their samples at the same lab that they have used for 6 years) will immediately halt the production and sale of medical marijuana – leaving patients with less or no medicine and higher prices.

Prior to promulgating this 2-Lab Requirement, DOH failed to perform any due diligence into the effects of this regulation on patients, the program or stakeholders. DOH’s failure to provide any justification for the regulation or guidance on the inevitable disputes that will arise when the two different labs, testing two different products with different equipment, people and processes, get 2 different results is just another example of how this 2-Lab Requirement is nonsensical.

If DOH was truly concerned about lab safety it would implement direct regulation where it would test labs’ results and processes.  DOH has not, since the inception of the program, tested a single lab’s samples, performed a single audit or inspection of labs, or even reviewed lab results.