The owner of a shuttered Tyngsboro-based marijuana testing facility is pushing back against an order demanding his company cease operations, and he says that he will see the commonwealth in court over an alleged lack of due process.

Assured Testing Laboratory CEO and founder Dr. Dimitrios Pelekoudas told the Herald that his testing company has appealed the suspension order issued against his business by the Cannabis Control Commission over allegations they failed to disclose failed marijuana testing results to the state.

According to Pelekoudas, contrary to the CCC’s allegations his company has maintained the highest standards and complied with every instruction provided by the marijuana regulators — including, he says, the recent order to indefinitely close up shop.

“There is a fundamental principle in this state and in this country that before you lose everything at the hands of the government, you have a right to appear in some forum to defend yourself. Assured Testing Laboratory, a locally run business with 33 employees, did nothing wrong here, posed no threat to the public, and ensured that no contaminated products reached the market,” he said.

The issue at hand, according to Pelekoudas, isn’t so much with the test results coming out of his lab, but over the commission’s inconsistent regulatory framework which leaves the rules of the road open to interpretation.

“This is a simple disagreement about how data was being reported. In fact, the CCC’s regulations were so unclear on this specific testing issue, that it reissued regulations that became effective as of April 1 of this year. At all times Assured Testing Laboratory complied with all active regulations and orders,” he said.

According to the suspension order signed by CCC Executive Director Travis Ahern, the lab was noncompliant enough with reporting requirements that their actions pose “an immediate and serious threat to the public health, safety, or welfare of the Commonwealth.”

The order instructed the facility to cease operations as by July 4, and gave them 21 days to request a hearing over the commission’s action.

The suspended lab was responsible for testing about 25% of the marijuana certified as safe in the state, according to commission data.

The commission alleges that of 17,565 marijuana samples analyzed by the lab in the year between April 2024 and April 2025 only 10, or 0.05%, were found to contain mold or yeast above the state’s statutory limits. The rest of the state’s 11 testing facilities found an average contamination rate of 4.5%, according to the suspension order.

“When compared to the industry average, lab samples analyzed by [Assured] were ninety times less likely to fail for the presence of Total Yeast and Mold,” the commission said.

According to Pelekoudas, not a single bit of contaminated product has been allowed to leave his lab.

“That’s the real question at the heart of this: was there contaminated product that reached the market. The answer is, categorically, no,” he said.

The commission’s actions, according to the lab owner, have resulted in most of his 33 employees going on furlough as the appeals process plays out. In the meantime, he said, he’s filed for relief from the courts, and will ask a judge to order the CCC to allow him to return to business and compensate his company for lost revenue. It’s the least the state could do, at this point, he said. The suspension, Pelekoudas said, should not have been the first step in the process, but should only have come as a last resort.

“There was no due process. In fact, if you read the regulations, this is an overstepping of their power,” he said.

“We’re seeing this as a setback. We expect to be operational again soon,” he added.

Even while trying to maintain a positive attitude about the eventual outcome of the situation, the lab owner said, the CCC’s decision to single out his lab has to have other licensees “wondering if they are next.”

“Because, again, they are just doing this: claiming, without proper evidence and entirely based on conjecture, that our company poses a public health risk,” he said. “If we’re such a risk, why did their order include instructions to complete testing on the samples we’d already received?”

Pelekoudas has requested that the CCC provided his case expedited review, but said that he’s not sure when a hearing on the matter will be scheduled.