Pullman marijuana better get its No. 2 pencil ready, because CannaSafe Analytics is open for testing.

CannaSafe Analytics, a California-based cannabis testing company, received their certification last week from the Washington State Liquor Control Board.

“We’re just ready to hit the ground running, here,” Aaron Stancik, the scientific director of the CannaSafe Analytics Pullman branch, said. “We’re certified and we’re ready to start doing business.”

The Liquor Control Board requires a sample of all marijuana products to be tested by independent labs before the products can be sold by retailers. In order to become certified, the Liquor Control Board requires potential labs prove they’re capable of testing recreational marijuana for safety by generating data on medicinal samples. For CannaSafe Analytics, generating this data took about five weeks.

“We didn’t take a day off, we were in here every day,” Stancik said. “It was so big we had to cut the file in half to send it.”

The next step for CannaSafe Analytics is to develop contracts with growers and processors in the state. This responsibility will go to office administrator Sarah Sprague, but she said the Liquor Control Board requirements are advantageous for her as a sales person.

“There’s no way around it, they have to use us,” Sprague said. “It’s a very unique sales position.”

Sprague said her other duty will be to help educate the community about the lab. She is planning to hold an open house for the Chamber of Commerce, the police department, and local educators to show off the labs professionalism.

“It is a science, educational, research lab,” Sprague said. “It’s not just people testing the product on a couch with some pizza.”

Although they haven’t received any recreational samples yet, Stancik is already looking into ways to improve his testing methodology. For example, the Liquor Control Board requires labs to test for moisture content but Stancik and his colleague John Russell are working on research that shows that water activity is a more helpful metric for determining whether cannabis is safe to consume.

“Moisture content is a quantitative measure; how much water is in the product?” Russell said. “Water activity is a qualitative measure; what is the energy status of the water in the system? Moisture content doesn’t tell you if mold is going to grow, water activity will.”

Russell has eight years of experience looking at water activity measurements; Stancik refers to him as CannaSafe Analytics’ honorary moisture supervisor.

Measuring for moisture content involves weighing a cannabis sample, heating up the cannabis on a metal tray, then weighing the sample again to see how much moisture evaporated. Stancik said he has a machine that performs all these steps automatically.

Part of the problem, Russell said, is that water might not be the only substance evaporating.

“Depending on how hot that gets, you might be losing cannabinoids into the air also,” Russell said, “so if you have several of those running in a room, that could be an interesting experience.”

Measuring for water activity doesn’t require heating up the cannabis sample.

Stancik said he is trying to persuade legislators and governing bodies to make the switch from measuring moisture content to measuring water activity. Stancik and Russell are collaborating with Phylos Bioscience, an Oregon-based cannabis research lab, to develop a white paper on the subject.

“We submitted water activity data that John [Russell] helped me generate to the Liquor Control Board,” Stancik said, “they were interested in seeing that.”

The legalization of marijuana in Oregon is something Stancik is optimistic about; he said it should improve the cannabis retail and testing industries in both states.

“That could mean we could potentially sample for clients in Oregon,” Stancik said.