Connecticut Has Quietly Tested Hundreds of Cannabis Products. Now It Is Expanding Its Reference Lab

Connecticut CannaTimes Editor - 9.23.2026

State records show Connecticut has operated a government cannabis testing program for years, tested more than 265 samples submitted by regulators, and planned its laboratory as an oversight operation for private cannabis labs. Now the state is adding microbiological testing for mold, Aspergillus and other pathogens using qPCR.

Connecticut has quietly operated its own cannabis regulatory testing program for years, testing hundreds of marijuana products submitted by the Department of Consumer Protection for enforcement and compliance purposes.

Now the state is expanding that operation.

Records from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, or CAES, show that the state is establishing a dedicated Microbiology Cannabis Reference Laboratory Section at its Griswold Research Center. The new operation is expected to test cannabis for mold, bacteria and four species of Aspergillus using methods including quantitative polymerase chain reaction, or qPCR.

The expansion was requested and is being funded by DCP, according to CAES Board of Control records.

But the state’s involvement in cannabis testing began years earlier.

A 2022 CAES presentation described the agency’s Analytical Chemistry Department as Connecticut’s future “state regulatory testing laboratory” for adult-use marijuana.

Its proposed responsibilities included something particularly significant for Connecticut’s commercial testing industry:

“Oversight laboratory for private labs.”

The same state presentation said CAES would assist DCP’s Drug Control Division with surveillance, investigations, audits and consumer and grower complaints.

By late 2025, CAES reported that more than 265 cannabis samples had already been tested through the program.

The detailed results of those regulatory tests do not appear to be readily available in the public-facing state resources reviewed by CT CannaTimes.

That raises a simple question with potentially significant implications for Connecticut’s cannabis industry:

What did the state’s own laboratory find?

A state cannabis testing program dating to the beginning of adult use

The history begins shortly after Connecticut legalized adult-use cannabis in 2021.

CAES says legalization created the need for a program capable of analyzing marijuana products for cannabinoid content, label accuracy and safety.

By the 2021-2022 reporting period, DCP had already submitted 16 marijuana product samples to CAES.

The state laboratory was developing methods for cannabinoid testing using high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection, or HPLC-UV, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, or GC-MS.

Plans also included testing for pesticides, mycotoxins, terpenoids and heavy metals.

Then, in a 2022 Plant Science Day presentation, CAES described the program much more explicitly.

The presentation stated:

“CAES Department of Analytical Chemistry will be the state regulatory testing laboratory.”

Three new positions were contemplated: one scientist and two technicians.

The presentation listed testing for THC and other cannabinoids, terpenes, heavy metals, pesticides and mycotoxins.

But its description of the laboratory’s regulatory mission went further.

CAES described the program as an:

“Oversight laboratory for private labs”

that would assist DCP’s Drug Control Division with:

“surveillance, investigations, audits, consumer/grower complaints.”

That language establishes that Connecticut’s government laboratory was not conceived merely as another facility capable of measuring THC.

The state planned an independent scientific operation capable of supporting regulatory oversight of Connecticut’s private cannabis testing system.

More than 265 cannabis samples tested

The program continued expanding.

During fiscal year 2024-2025 alone, CAES reported analyzing 110 marijuana product samples, comprising 327 sub-samples, for THC and reporting the results to DCP.

A December 2025 CAES Director’s Report provides an even broader picture.

According to the report, DCP submits cannabis samples to CAES for regulatory enforcement and the laboratory reports its results back to DCP for compliance purposes.

Since the program began, CAES said it had tested more than 265 cannabis samples.

The products were diverse.

They included cannabis plant material, gummies, oils, chocolates, tablets, concentrates, vape products, seltzers, live resins and less conventional products including THC-lined straws and pizza dough.

Reported cannabinoid concentrations, particularly THC, ranged from 0.02 percent to 94.6 percent.

CAES says its cannabis program analyzes cannabinoids as well as pesticides, mycotoxins, terpenes and heavy metals as required by DCP.

The laboratory’s cannabinoid methods have also moved through formal laboratory accreditation. CAES reported ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation for its HPLC-UV cannabinoid method in 2023 and its GC-MS method in 2025.

So where are the results?

That may now be one of the most important unanswered questions surrounding Connecticut’s cannabis testing system.

CAES publicly reports the existence of the program.

It reports how many samples have been tested.

It describes the products.

It describes the methods.

It describes the regulatory purpose.

And it expressly says the results are reported to DCP.

But CT CannaTimes has not located a public, sample-by-sample database showing the results of those state regulatory tests.

Such records could potentially answer questions including:

Which products did DCP send to CAES?

Why were those particular products selected?

Which cultivators or manufacturers produced them?

Which private cannabis laboratory originally tested each product?

What did the original Certificate of Analysis report?

What did CAES find when the state independently tested the product?

Did CAES and the commercial laboratory agree?

Were there significant potency differences?

Did CAES detect contaminants?

Did any state tests result in recalls, quarantines, investigations, warnings, remediation or other enforcement?

Were products submitted because of consumer complaints?

Were certain laboratories, cultivators or product categories tested more frequently than others?

Those answers could provide an unprecedented view into the accuracy and consistency of Connecticut’s commercial cannabis testing system.

The public product registry is not the same thing

Connecticut does maintain a public cannabis Product Registry.

That database contains information including product names, producers, labels, registration information and reported cannabinoid concentrations.

But DCP explicitly says the THC, THCA, CBD and CBDA values in that registry are values reported by third-party independent laboratories.

Those are not necessarily the results produced when the state’s own CAES laboratory independently tests products for regulatory enforcement.

The two datasets serve different purposes.

The potentially important dataset is the one that could allow a comparison between them.

Connecticut is now expanding into microbiological cannabis testing

The state testing operation is also changing.

In September 2025, CAES advertised for an Assistant Scientist II position specifically titled:

Cannabis Product Microbiologist.

The posting describes the job as a “regulatory-focused position” within the Analytical Chemistry Department and calls that department the state’s designated cannabis laboratory.

The scientist would head a new:

“state Microbiology Cannabis Reference Laboratory Section”

at the CAES Griswold Research Center.

The laboratory’s anticipated testing responsibilities include cannabis testing for mold and microbes including:

Escherichia coli

Shiga toxin-producing E. coli

Listeria monocytogenes

Salmonella species

Aspergillus fumigatus

Aspergillus flavus

Aspergillus niger

Aspergillus terreus

The methods listed include microscopy and qPCR.

The scientist is also expected to implement laboratory procedures consistent with ISO/IEC 17025 standards, including document control, record keeping, sample chain of custody and standard operating procedures.

The position would supervise a research technician assigned to the laboratory.

DCP requested the new laboratory and is funding it

This was not simply an internal CAES research project.

An October 15, 2025 meeting of the CAES Board of Control included a specific agenda item for a “Cannabis Reference Laboratory - Griswold.”

The meeting minutes state that DCP requested and would fund the Cannabis Reference Laboratory at the Griswold Research Center.

CAES and DCP personnel had already met in August 2025 concerning establishment of the microbiology reference laboratory.

CAES’s current Analytical Chemistry webpage now describes the department as:

“the state reference lab for chemical, and more recently the microbiological testing for the state adult use cannabis program.”

The state therefore appears to be expanding an existing chemical and potency enforcement-testing operation into dedicated microbiological cannabis reference testing.

Why is a broad agricultural laboratory testing cannabis?

CAES is not a cannabis-only agency.

Its Analytical Chemistry Department has existed since the nineteenth century and performs a wide range of state scientific work.

Its programs include food safety, environmental monitoring, pesticides, trace metals, PFAS, animal feed, mycotoxins and other regulatory testing.

The department analyzes samples for state and federal agencies including DCP, the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

It also participates in national laboratory networks concerned with food safety and emergency response.

Cannabis is therefore one specialized regulatory program inside a much larger state laboratory operation.

What is notable about the recent expansion is that Connecticut is not merely using general laboratory equipment to occasionally test marijuana.

CAES specifically identifies a Microbiology Cannabis Reference Laboratory Section, with cannabis-specific staff and testing responsibilities.

Mold, Aspergillus and qPCR

The microbiological expansion also intersects directly with some of the most consequential debates surrounding cannabis testing in Connecticut.

The new laboratory’s planned responsibilities specifically include mold, four Aspergillus species and qPCR testing.

Those subjects have been central to debates over cannabis microbial testing, laboratory methodology and product safety.

The available records do not establish that any particular controversy caused DCP to request the new laboratory.

There is not yet enough public evidence to say the laboratory was created because private laboratories were producing unreliable results, because of a particular cultivator, or because of a particular dispute.

But the overlap makes the state’s internal planning documents especially important.

DCP presumably had a reason for requesting and funding an expansion into microbiological cannabis reference testing.

That reason should be documented.

The timing also matters

Connecticut’s cannabis testing laws are undergoing another significant change.

Public Act 26-8 changes the statutory architecture governing cannabis testing effective October 1, 2026.

Among other changes, lawmakers removed substantial testing detail from the statute and placed greater reliance on laboratory standards established through DCP’s regulatory framework.

At the same time, DCP’s comprehensive attempt to convert Connecticut’s adult-use cannabis policies into permanent agency regulations previously failed to complete the legislative regulation review process and was withdrawn.

Connecticut’s adult-use cannabis market has continued operating through DCP policies and procedures that have force of law.

Meanwhile, the state is expanding its own independent cannabis testing capabilities.

That creates an important public accountability question:

As DCP exercises greater authority over Connecticut’s cannabis testing standards, what role will the state’s own reference laboratory play in checking commercial laboratories and enforcing those standards?

What exactly will a “reference laboratory” do?

Some of that answer is already available.

Connecticut’s own 2022 CAES presentation says the state laboratory was intended to provide oversight of private laboratories and support DCP surveillance, investigations, audits and complaints.

But significant questions about the new microbiology operation remain unanswered.

The public records reviewed for this story do not yet establish whether CAES will routinely retest samples previously analyzed by private laboratories.

They do not establish whether CAES will conduct formal proficiency testing of licensed cannabis laboratories.

They do not establish whether CAES will arbitrate disputes between commercial laboratories.

They do not establish whether a conflicting CAES result automatically triggers a recall or enforcement action.

They do not establish precisely how DCP will select samples for microbiological testing.

Those details should exist in interagency agreements, standard operating procedures, laboratory plans, accreditation records or DCP enforcement protocols.

A quiet program hidden across technical state documents

Why has a state cannabis testing operation that has already analyzed hundreds of products attracted relatively little public attention?

The public record does not answer that question.

But the information itself is remarkably fragmented.

The state’s regulatory-laboratory plan appears in a 2022 Plant Science Day presentation.

Early sample testing appears in technical CAES reports.

A May 2024 CAES newsletter includes a photograph of DCP staff touring the adult-use cannabis testing laboratory.

Annual state reports contain sample counts.

The microbiological expansion appears in a specialized scientist job announcement.

DCP’s request and funding appear in CAES Board minutes.

The current designation as Connecticut’s chemical and microbiological cannabis reference laboratory appears on an Analytical Chemistry department webpage.

Individually, each record appears technical.

Together, they tell a much larger story.

Connecticut has spent years developing an independent government cannabis testing capability.

It has already tested hundreds of products for regulatory purposes.

It was expressly designed to provide oversight of private laboratories.

And Connecticut is now expanding that system into microbiological reference testing involving mold, Aspergillus and qPCR.

The next question is simple

What did Connecticut’s own cannabis laboratory find?

The most important records now are not another press release or agency summary.

They are the underlying testing records.

A complete accounting would include the cannabis samples DCP submitted to CAES, the original private laboratory results, the state’s independent results, discrepancies between them and any enforcement action that followed.

Those records could show whether Connecticut’s commercial laboratories and its independent government laboratory generally agreed.

Or they could show something very different.

Until those records are obtained, that question remains unanswered.

What is no longer unanswered is whether Connecticut has its own cannabis regulatory testing operation.

It does.

It has been operating for years.

And it is getting bigger.

Official source documents

Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, Analytical Chemistry Department

https://portal.ct.gov/CAES/ABOUT-CAES/Departments/Analytical-Chemistry

CAES 2022 Plant Science Day Director Update

https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/CAES/DOCUMENTS/Plant_Science_Day/2022/PSD-2022-Director-Update.pdf

CAES December 2025 Director’s Report

https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/caes/publications/caes-directors-report-for-website-251210.pdf

CAES Cannabis Product Microbiologist recruitment announcement

https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/caes/documents/job_opportunities/caes-assistant-sci-2-cannabis-microbiologist.pdf

Connecticut FY 2024-2025 CAES report

https://portal.ct.gov/das/-/media/das/communications/communications-list-docs/digest/digest-2024-2025/agricultural-experiment-station-connecticut.pdf

DCP Cannabis Product Registry information

https://portal.ct.gov/cannabis/knowledge-base/articles/product-registry

DCP Adult-Use Cannabis Policies and Procedures

https://portal.ct.gov/cannabis/knowledge-base/articles/policies-and-procedures

DCP Cannabis Statistics and Documents

https://portal.ct.gov/cannabis/Knowledge-Base/Articles/Statistics-and-Documents