I-Team: Lab Approved By State Had Thousands Of Dollars Of Marijuana Samples Stolen
BOSTON (CBS) - A cannabis testing facility that was just granted a final license to test recreational marijuana, had thousands of dollars of medical marijuana testing samples stolen from it last year, according to police.
Marta Moricz, who was an employee for MCR Labs in Framingham, was arrested last October after police discovered a large amount of marijuana wax and THC products at her Westwood home.
Police served a search warrant at Moricz's house after a teenager at Norfolk Agricultural High School in Walpole ingested some of the marijuana product and became ill, court documents state. An investigation led police to believe that Moricz's son had brought the marijuana to school.
"Upsetting me, pretty much, that there was some type of diversion that took place, somewhere down the line that it ultimately ended up in the hands of a teenager," Walpole Police Chief John Carmichael said.
Moricz was fired from MCR but Carmichael says police could not determine how much marijuana she had diverted and for how long because the lab did not cooperate with investigators.
"MCR in the beginning was very willing to participate in helping us with the investigation. However, that quickly changed. I think some attorneys got involved with it and basically told them that it wouldn't be a good idea to speak to police or cooperate in the investigation," Carmichael said.
On Thursday, MCR was granted a final license to test recreational marijuana by the Cannabis Control Commission or CCC. CCC Chairman Steven Hoffman told WBZ-TV that incident was not disqualifying.
"MCR had made some very fundamental changes to their security since this incident occurred," Hoffman said. "We're very confident between those changes and our own security requirements and seed to sale tracking that we can prevent a situation like this from happening in the future."
MCR'S President and Founder, Michael Kahn, told WBZ that his lab is prepared to handle a higher testing load. He says the lab passed state security inspections and has its own robust measures, although he could not specifically explain what those are.
"We have layers of security in place to prevent any diversion at all," Kahn said.
Kahn could not explain why the lab did not notice the missing marijuana.
"I don't want to get into any details on that," Kahn said.