Worker Emma Caron, of Hopedale, Mass., weighs and prepares medicinal cannabis cigarettes Thursday, July 12, 2018, at Sira Naturals medical marijuana cultivation facility in Milford, Mass. The lack of any approved independent testing laboratories for recreational marijuana remains a key stumbling block to opening pot shops in Massachusetts.
Worker Emma Caron, of Hopedale, Mass., weighs and prepares medicinal cannabis cigarettes Thursday, July 12, 2018, at Sira Naturals medical marijuana cultivation facility in Milford, Mass. The lack of any approved independent testing laboratories for recreational marijuana remains a key stumbling block to opening pot shops in Massachusetts. Credit: AP PHOTO/Steven Senne

NORTHAMPTON — A hole in the supply chain for recreational marijuana sales might finally be filled on Thursday.

License approval for two independent testing facilities is on the agenda for the Cannabis Control Commission’s next meeting on Thursday, Aug. 23. The labs are a critical element of the state’s adult-use cannabis industry, and the potential approval of their licenses could move the state a step closer to recreational sales. Stores are required to have their cannabis tested for possible contaminants like pesticides and mold before it can be sold.

Retail pot shops were originally slated to open on July 1, but delays in licensing caused the commission to push that date back indefinitely, apparently to the chagrin of some.

Commissioner Shaleen Title sought on Tuesday to make light of the anxiety those delays have caused residents eager for stores to open.

“Oh look at that, labs are on the agenda,” Title wrote in a tweet after the agenda was released. “You all can chill the hell out.”

The two labs in question are CDX Analytics in Salem and MCR Labs in Framingham.

Both facilities currently test medical marijuana, although they use different methods. Those different methods have recently become a subject of dispute, with the separate camps both arguing that the other’s testing can’t be trusted, according to The Boston Globe, which reports that the state’s Department of Health has declined to weigh in or set clearer standards.

The Cannabis Control Commission has also created a type of license that would be given to labs that study the best methods for testing marijuana for contaminants, but no companies have yet applied, according to the Globe.

The Cannabis Control Commission has already granted provisional licenses to two medical marijuana dispensaries in Hampshire County seeking to also sell recreational marijuana — New England Treatment Access, or NETA, in Northampton and Easthampton’s INSA. Both companies hope the commission will approve plans to roll over some of their already-tested medical marijuana inventory for recreational sale.

Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.