Once your first batch of samples is logged in our system, your customer service representative will contact you with login credentials to your new client page on sclabs.com. Your new account will be set up the following business day after your samples are received. If your samples are received on a Friday or Saturday, your account will be set up that following Monday. Once you have your login credentials, you can log in to your client portal to view your results and customize your profile page.

We have a dedicated team of experienced customer service specialists on-staff to walk you through any issues that may come up. Clients are assigned to a customer service team member based on the region in which they live; we encourage our clients to get to know their representative as they will be your primary contact with the lab and a great resource for information on testing. Should you ever have trouble reaching your personal customer service representative and need to speak to someone immediately, anyone on the customer service team will be able to assist you.

Once your first samples are logged into our system, you will be issued an SCL client ID Number in our Laboratory Inventory Management System. Your customer service representative will include this number in the welcome email they send you, along with login credentials to access your account on sclabs.com

Results are sent directly to your sclabs.com account. Once we receive your first batch of samples in the lab, you will be issued login credentials to access your “Client Page” on sclabs.com. Enter your login credentials on the sclabs.com homepage to be redirected to your client home page; here you will find your “Tested Samples” page. You will see a list of all your tested samples, you have a few different options for viewing your results:

• Simply hover over the sample name to get a pop-up box with an abbreviated report of your results.
• Click on the sample name to see a more detailed report of your results the concentration of cannabinoids present in your sample in both numerical and graphical form, identification and quantification of terpenes, and a breakdown of results for any other tests you may have ordered for that particular sample.
• From your “Client Home Page,” you can see a list of tested samples, locate the “Tools,” column along the top of the page. Next to the sample that you would like to view, click the arrow next to the word “select.” This will give you a drop-down menu of all the different features and / or tools we provide you when you sign up for your account. Select “COA” from this drop-down menu to download a PDF of your Official Certificate of Analysis containing you test results. You may now save or open this PDF to view your results, share these results with your associates via email, or even print out to keep on hand. This “Tools” section is also where you will find your labels, strain cards, QR code labels and more. Your customer service representative will walk you through all of these tools and features after you sign up for an account.

If you get an “access denied” error, check that your “caps lock” is not on, as your user name and password are case-sensitive. If you’re still having trouble, check to see that you are up to date with your billing. Sometimes our system will automatically block users if they have an overdue invoice with us. If that doesn’t fix the problem, please don’t hesitate to give your customer service representative a call and they will be happy to assist you.

You want to become familiar with your client page on sclabs.com. Here you can do so much more than just access your test results. This page is fully customizable and allows you to embed your logo, social media, and other profile information into the unique marketing materials we provide to you. The best way to understand how to navigate your client page is to jump on a call with your customer service representative. They will walk you through all the different features and make sure you know how to take full advantage of this special aspect of our service. We are adding new features on a regular basis and we want to make this portal as useful to you as possible. If you have an idea for new functionality for your client page, please don’t hesitate to let your customer service representative know. Your feedback is always appreciated!

Please call your customer service representative to schedule testing.

You can ship R&D samples to the Santa Cruz under certain circumstances. There are very specific instructions on how to prep, package, and send your sample. You will also need to schedule the tests with your customer service representative prior to shipping so please call ahead before shipping us R&D samples.

Unfortunately, we are unable to accept samples via mail at our Oregon facility. However, you are welcome to drop samples off via appointment and pickup options may be available depending on your location.

Please carefully review our Packaging and Shipping Best Practices Form Here

From your client home page, where you see your list of tested samples, locate the column on the right that reads “Tools.” Your samples automatically default to private. If you would like to make a particular sample public, click on the word “Private” to change to “Public.” Now, click on “Profile” from the menu on the left of your screen. Under your profile page, there is a link which reads, “Link to public profile page.” You can now copy that link and share via email with anyone who you would like to see your samples and results. Please note that changing a sample from private to “public” does not automatically sync your results to your WeedMaps menu. If you would like this newly-public result displayed on WeedMaps, simply email postings@sclabs.com with the relevant information.

From your “Client Home Page,” where you see your list of tested samples, locate the column reading “Tools,” along the top of the page. Next to the sample for which you would like to print labels, click the arrow next to the word “Select.” This will give you a drop-down menu of all the different features and / or tools we provide you when you sign up for your account. Select “Labels” from this drop-down menu which will download a PDF of labels for this sample. Open and save this PDF to your computer. You will want to purchase specific Avery labels from any office supply store, depending on what kind of printer you have. Look for Avery Label Template 5160 for laser printers and Avery Label Template 8160 for Inkjet printers. You also have the option to print out just the QR scan-code associated with your individual samples. To do this, click the arrow next to “Select” under the “Tools” column on your “Tested Samples” page. This will give you a drop-down menu of all the different features and / or tools we provide you when you sign up for your account. Select “QR Code” from this drop-down menu to download a PDF of QR Codes for this particular sample. Open and save this PDF to your computer. To print your QR Codes, you will want to purchase Avery Square Labels Template 22805.

We encourage our clients to take advantage of our labels by placing them on their product. This allows your buyers to see the name/strain of your product, date tested, as well as percentages for total cannabinoids and terpenes. Labels also feature the SC Labs seal, as well as a QR scan-code unique to your sample which allows people to scan your product and be immediately directed to that sample’s result page on sclabs.com. Simply place one of these labels on the outside of your packaging for each product you are selling. You also have the option of printing out just a QR Scan code for your products.

Any one of our SC Labs customer service representatives is happy to help you understand your results. Feel free to call us at the lab and we will make sure someone is available to help you interpret your results.

With passage of the Adult Use of Marijuana Act in 2016 the State of California will begin requiring safety and dosage testing of both recreational and medical cannabis and cannabis products. Under current Bureau of Cannabis Control Emergency Regulation Text (11/16/2017), the required testing will roll out in three phases starting with Phase I on January 1, 2018 and continuing with Phases II & III beginning in July 2018 and January 2019.

To be compliant with Phase I testing requirements, a producer would need to test each batch of cannabis products for cannabinoid levels, residual solvents and processing chemicals (partial list), residual pesticides (partial list), microbial impurities, moisture content, and homogeneity (multi serving edibles only). All phase one tests were mandatory beginning January 1, 2018.

On July 1, 2018 Phase II begins. In addition to the, now mandatory, Phase I tests, each batch will need to be tested for additional pesticides and residual solvents and processing chemicals as well as receive an inspection for filth and foreign material. In January 2019, the rollout of Phase III adds four more tests; mycotoxins, heavy metals, and water activity will be required tests for all batches. Terpenoids will be a required test when producers make label claims involving terpene content.

The current draft regulations require laboratory personnel to perform representative sampling for all regulatory compliance testing. SC laboratories has leveraged our significant courier network to offer the most extensive sampling program in the business. We can meet your sampling needs where you need us, when you need us!

More information on California regulations can be found at bcc.ca.gov.

Oregon requires ‘usable marijuana’ or the cannabis buds, shake, or trim to be tested for cannabinoids (THC/CBD), pesticides, water activity, and moisture content. Cannabis extracts also need to be tested for residual solvents.

Oregon regulations require independent representative sampling as well. SC Labs can arrange for sampling anywhere in Oregon to meet your testing needs. Please contact your customer service representative to schedule sampling!

More information on Oregon regulations can be found at marijuana.oregon.gov

SC Laboratories offers all of our tests in either a regulatory compliant test panel, or as single tests via our R&D testing program. The major differences between the tests deal first with the use of the test results:

• Regulatory compliance tests must be reported to individual states’ track and trace system and may be used to either validate or disqualify batches as eligible for market.
• R&D tests are for internal use by producers, manufacturers, distributors, patients, etc.* and are not reported to the state and are not associated with batches. R&D tests do not require SC Labs to perform the sampling. R&D testing utilizes a smaller sample-size.
• R&D tests can be done on a single test basis whereas regulatory compliant testing can only be purchased as a panel of tests.

*Please contact your customer service representative for information on testing restrictions in your local jurisdiction.

The limit of detection (LOD) is the lowest concentration of an analyte (the compound you are testing for) that the laboratory can confidently say they have a positive detection. A limit of quantitation (LOQ) is the lowest concentration of an analyte that can be reliably measured by a laboratory. Often an LOD is determined when the signal of a detection of an analyte is a few times stronger than the baseline noise of that instrument whereas an LOQ is typically determined when the signal of the detection stands out much further from the baseline noise.

Under current Bureau of Cannabis Control Emergency Regulation Text (11/16/2017), both residual pesticides and residual solvents and processing chemicals are divided into two categories, Category I and Category II. The Category I pesticides or residual solvents / processing chemicals are those compounds that are deemed especially harmful to either humans or the environment and have much stricter allowable limits than the Category II pesticides or residual solvents / processing chemicals. During the phase-in of mandatory regulatory compliance testing, the state is requiring testing for Category I pesticides and Category II residual solvents and processing chemicals on January 1, 2018 and will require samples to be tested for Category II pesticides and Category I residual solvents and processing chemicals on July 1, 2018.

SC Labs is offering both sets of testing beginning January 1 to allow those customers who would like to prepare for future testing requirements to do so now.

Moisture content or water content is a measure of the quantity of water in a material.

Water activity is a little more complex in concept and is more a measure of the ‘availability’ of that water to support microbial growth. For example, foods with a lot of sugar or salt, like honey or bacon, will often have a comparatively lower water activity despite a higher overall moisture content and will resist spoiling compared to other foods with similar moisture contents.

There are two ways to measure water content: Volumetric water content is a measure of the actual volume or area taken up by water in a solid material. Gravimetric water content is based upon the mass or weight of the water content in a material. One way to measure this value is to weigh a material before and after drying. This ‘loss on drying‘ can be expressed in multiple formats, typically either as a ratio or a percentage representing the portion of the solid sample’s weight that was water. SC Labs, like other cannabis laboratories, uses ‘loss on drying’ to measure cannabis samples.

Water activity is defined as the partial vapor pressure of water in a material (cannabis, food, etc.), divided by the partial vapor pressure of water at the same temperature. Increased water activity values are indicators of increased likelihood of microbiological growth. Water activity values of over 0.7 are generally considered beneficial to support fungal growth while bacteria tend to proliferate at water activities above 0.9. Besides an indication of likeliness to support microbiological growth, water activity gives an indication of a substance, in this case cannabis’, propensity to absorb or release moisture from or to its immediate environment, allowing of use of this information for more precise long-term storage of cannabis products.

SC Labs has chosen to use a technique called quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to satisfy the California regulatory compliance testing requirements for Microbial Impurities. qPCR is a highly-sensitive and discriminatory technique for identifying and quantifying microorganisms. It directly detects and measures DNA (or RNA) of only the specific species of organisms we are looking for. Other techniques, like petrifilm and culture-based methods can be highly susceptible to misidentification of similar organisms that look alike or have similar growth characteristics as the target organisms leading to the potential for false positives. When properly developed, the high selectivity of qPCR greatly reduces the possibility of false compared to other techniques. We have painstakingly selected, developed, and validated, what we believe to be the most reliable microbial impurities assay for E coli, Salmonella, and the required species of aspergillus available to the cannabis market.

SC Labs is proud to have achieved ISO 17025 accreditation at its’ Santa Cruz, California laboratory in 2017. ISO, or the International Organization for Standardization, based in Geneva, Switzerland is the largest organization and recognized leader in developing international standards for testing labs, manufactured products, agricultural and food safety, consumer products, and healthcare. The ISO 17025 accreditation standard applies directly to testing laboratories including environmental, food, and, now, cannabis laboratories. It prescribes documentation and transparency requirements into most functions in a laboratory, especially quality control systems, test method validation, and customer transparency.

The state of California requires all cannabis laboratories to attain ISO 17025 accreditation eventually. However, SC Labs considered ISO 17025 accreditation vital to ensuring our customers could have the utmost confidence in their test results and our quality control systems. We committed to ISO accreditation long before it was a requirement and obtained 17025 accreditation in 2017 for our cannabinoid assay. Over 2018 we will be adding all of the regulatory panels as well as our sampling procedure to our scope of accreditation, giving our customers the peace of mind that their test results from SC Labs will stand up to scrutiny from any regulatory or other third-party entity.

Under current Bureau of Cannabis Control Emergency Regulation Text (11/16/2017) a harvest batch of cannabis flowers can weigh up to 50 pounds. A batch of cannabis products can contain no more than 150,000 units. As such the BCC Emergency Regulations require one regulatory compliant test panel per 50 pounds of cannabis flowers or 150,000 units of a cannabis product at a minimum.

A batch of Usable Marijuana cannot exceed 15 pounds. Manufactured products including: concentrates, extracts and other cannabis products batch sizes are limited to the size of the manufacturer’s production run.

Mycotoxin is an umbrella term used to define toxic compounds produced as secondary metabolites by fungus. There are several types of mycotoxins produced by a wide variety of fungus. Some of the most prolific producers of mycotoxins are some Aspergillus species of fungi, but other common cannabis contaminants like certain species of Fusarium and Penicillium are known producers of mycotoxins. Some mycotoxins that could be of concern to cannabis consumers include aflatoxins (B₁, B₂, G₁, G₂), ochratoxin, citrinin, and fusarium. California regulations will require all batches of cannabis products to be tested for both aflatoxins and ochratoxin beginning January 1, 2019.

Current Bureau of Cannabis Control Emergency Regulation Text (11/16/2017) sets the minimum amount of sample as well as the number of sample increments to be collected for regulatory compliance testing of batches. This ensures that samples are representative of the larger batch. The sample amounts are divided into Harvest Batches for raw flowers and define a sample weight to be collected (see table 1 below) and for all other Cannabis Products, regulations specify the number of packaged units to collect per batch (see table 2 below). For each regulatory compliant batch sampling, the lab is required to collect and test two composite samples. The first sample is used for regulatory compliance and is reported to Metrc (track and trace software), the second sample is a field duplicate sample that must be tested by the lab for quality control purposes.

For R&D testing tests, the amount of sample needed is dictated by the requirements of the laboratory in providing accurate results for that assay. The amount required varies depending on the type of sample and tests required. Please contact your SC Labs account representative for more details.

Table 1

Note 1: Represents 0.35% of Batch Wt.

Table 2

Note 1: Minimum sample amounts vary depending on the tests requested and sample types. Please contact your customer service representative for your specific sample requirements.

Our samplers will arrive with the correct mass/volume of sample to be taken, based on the batch size you provide on your Sample Submission Form.

Oregon specifies the amount of product to be sampled for Compliance Testing as it is 0.5% of a batch of Usable Marijuana. For Concentrates and Extracts and Products, please see OAR 333-007-0360 for sample masses/volumes.

Please contact lab directly for information on product needed for R&D testing

The best way to have something posted to your weedmaps.com menu is to email postings@sclabs.com. Sending your request to this email ensures that your message goes out to our entire Customer Service team, making this the fastest and most efficient way for our team to complete your request.

Please include the following in your message to postings@sclabs.com:

• All WeedMaps ID Numbers including the Master WeedMaps ID (even if this page is not published.)
• The SCL sample ID numbers of the samples you would like posted. Please also include the sample names which correspond to the SCL sample ID numbers. Keep in mind, the sample name that you write on your Sample Submission Form (SSF) will be the sample name that appears for all postings. If the name in our system does not match exactly with your weedmaps.com menu listing, the results will not attach properly and will generate a new item without pricing or image. You can edit these new items on your backend to add pricing. If you have two items on your menu with the same name but different sample types, (ie., Blue Dream-flower, and Blue Dream-wax), the system does not differentiate and the results may attach improperly. Please make sure to create distinct names for each product.

If you are a vendor and you would like to post your results to someone else’s weedmaps.com menu, we need the weedmaps.com ID Number for the page you would like the results to sync to, as well as the SC Labs sample ID numbers you’d like to have posted. Please include your organization / business name as well as the name of the collective / dispensary that is carrying your product in your message to postings@sclabs.com

Your results will be viewable for 30 days on weedmaps.com from the date they are posted. If the results that you are looking to publish are more than 60 days old, please contact SC Labs’ customer service directly to discuss postings restrictions. We do not post results from tests performed more than 60 days prior.