Oliver is the chief scientist at Analytical 360 in Yakima, the only lab that has been certified to test the heavily taxed marijuana that will wind up on store shelves next month. So far, just two licensed growers have turned in samples for testing, with another due to turn in a small batch this coming week, he told The Associated Press on Saturday.
“There’s such a small stream of samples coming through,” he said. “There’s going to be some long lines and some high prices.”
The state’s Liquor Control Board has been warning of shortages when the first stores open. The board plans to issue the first 15 to 20 retail licenses July 7, with shops allowed to open the next day if they’re ready. It’s not clear how many stores that will be. Board staff said at a meeting last week that just one store in Seattle is ready for its final inspection.
Only 79 of the more than 2,600 people who applied for marijuana-growing licenses last fall have been approved as growers, and many of them aren’t ready to harvest.
“Will there be shortages?” said Randy Simmons, the board’s legal-pot project manager. “The answer to that is, yes.”
But the figures provided by Oliver on Saturday suggest how serious those shortages could be. The samples provided to Analytical 360 represent a maximum harvest so far of 190 pounds — and Oliver said he expects 20 to 30 percent of the samples to fail because of high mold counts. Marijuana associated with those samples can’t be sold as dried bud, but can be used to make cannabis oil.
The amount harvested so far “isn’t going to stay on the shelves very long,” Oliver said.
