Hudson Valley Hemp and Marijuana Testing Lab Open For Business

A new hemp and marijuana testing facility have recently opened in an old Hudson Valley prison.  Kaycha Labs is located in Warwick at the old Mid Orange Correctional Facility. Originally closed in 2011, in recent years the former medium-security prison has seen new life as home to a sports facility, brewery, and other local businesses.

Mid Orange Correctional Facility once housed criminals for drug offenses. Now, to meet growing demand from the burgeoning New York hemp industry, the new 9,000 square-foot labs will be able to test hemp for potency, heavy metals, moisture, and other important metrics that need to be monitored and/or tracked. According to its website, the facility will not be testing any marijuana strains until it becomes legalized in New York State.

Kaycha Labs is able to process over 100 samples a day and can provide a 48-hour turnaround on any samples sent to the lab. The company was launched in 2016 to provide research in the hemp and cannabis fields, their first lab opened the following year in Florida. They currently have nine facilities in states across the country with five more on the way.

There is some question as to how the 2021 growing season in New York will look after officials dropped plans to regulate growth internally citing rules that were too strict from the USDA. Instead, after November 1, unless something changes, New York hemp farmers will need to apply for a license to grow from the U.S. Department of Agriculture according to Hemp Industry Daily.