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Hawaii’s medical marijuana industry took a step closer to becoming fully operational with the licensing of cannabis-testing technology to a Honolulu-based laboratory.
California-based Steep Hill Labs Inc., which specializes in cannabis testing and analytics, said Monday it had licensed its cannabis-testing technology to Spectra Analytical Lab, which will begin doing business as Steep Hill Hawaii.
The lab will be run by Steep Hill Hawaii CEO Dana Ciccone, a longtime patient advocate for medical cannabis in Hawaii who was a member of the Hawaii Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force; and Steep Hill Hawaii senior chemist Michael Covington, who earned a Bachelor of Science in plant physiology from the University of Florida in 1994 and a Master of Science in analytical chemistry from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2003. Covington has been working on cannabinoid profiling and cannabis chemistry for two years.
Steep Hill Hawaii will open as a full-service medical cannabis quality assurance laboratory once it receives approval from the state Department of Health. The new lab’s headquarters will be in downtown Honolulu. Plans are also under development for satellite facilities to service customers on the other islands.
“Creating safe access to quality cannabis as medicine has been something that I’ve advocated for in Hawaii for a very long time,” Ciccone said. “I couldn’t be happier to partner with Steep Hill to ensure that our new dispensaries will be providing safe medicine for Hawaii’s patients.”
Hawaii legalized medical marijuana 16 years ago, but patients did not have a legal way to obtain the drug. Act 241, passed in 2015, allowed the state to issue eight licenses for a total of 16 medical marijuana dispensaries statewide. The law allowed dispensaries to open July 15, but licensees have said they will not be ready to open until late this year or early next year.
“Providing cannabis testing to customers scattered across multiple islands poses unique challenges, and Steep Hill’s innovative hub-and-spoke approach to providing remote testing was among the driving factors in our decision to work with them,” Covington said. “We hope to work with the Department of Health to demonstrate the value of these customized, world-class solutions in helping to ensure the safety and proper labeling of cannabis products throughout the entire Hawaii marketplace.”
