A father-son team with a passion for Arizona’s medical marijuana industry will open Level One Labs in Scottsdale, Ariz. on January 1, 2019.
George Griffeth and his son, Conner, believe in the health benefits of medical marijuana and want to provide quality diagnostic testing to support Arizona’s cannabis dispensaries. “Level One aims to provide consistent, accurate and rapid results,” Conner says. “Using Agilent’s mass spectrometry, we are able to obtain the most accurate of measurements for quality-assurance purposes.”
Conner, 25, a graduate of Arizona State University, came up with the idea for Level One Labs while working in Colorado’s cannabis industry, “We wanted to help improve the safety of the program in my home state, and we figured the best way was with science backed quality assurance.”
George liked the concept so much he left a successful law career to form the company. Level One Labs ran a nationwide talent search and hired Lab Director Taylor Pearce, a graduate of the University of Oregon. Pearce has five years of cannabis testing experience in Oregon. He experienced firsthand the drastic changes to the program as it evolved from a non-mandated testing medical market, to a tightly regulated adult use market.
Out of 33 states that have approved medical marijuana programs, Arizona is currently one of two states that does not protect patient health by mandating testing.
“We know that patient safety is on the line,” George says. “We choose to conduct business with cannabis professionals who go above and beyond to ensure their patients receive quality medicine.”
Level One will provide cannabinoid profiles, terpene profiles, residual solvent screens, microbial analysis and pesticide screens. Sample pickup will be available in most areas.
“While Arizona has no testing requirements, we are in a great position to learn from other states that already mandate testing.” Conner says. “Because of mandatory testing, the state of California just caught an extremely well established lab cheating on results and was able to shut them down in the name of public safety. Currently, Arizona does not have such public health safeguards in place for cannabis.” he says adding that Level One Labs wants to foster a culture of patient safety within Arizona’s medical marijuana market.