Former Windstream executive Brent Whittington and pharmacist Brandon Thornton on Thursday announced Steep Hill Arkansas, a medical marijuana testing laboratory that would work with Arkansas’ cultivators and dispensaries.
The business is affiliated with Steep Hill Labs Inc. of Berkeley, California, and would be the global company’s first lab in the Southeast. Whittington and Thornton are co-owners of Steep Hill Arkansas.
“As a pharmacist, I’m always worried about patient safety,” Thornton told Arkansas Business on Thursday. “And when the [medical marijuana] amendment was passed in Arkansas, I really wanted to be involved somehow. I really felt the quality and potency testing of cannabis was the best way to be involved and to keep patients safe.”
Thornton said the lab’s accreditation by the International Organization for Standardization, which evaluates procedures and methods, is pending. The Arkansas State Board of Health requires the accreditation for the new lab to operate here.
Thornton hopes to receive accreditation by Jan. 1 and to start testing marijuana as soon as that month. But he said it might be more realistic to expect testing to begin in February or March.
He also said the lab plans to operate in Little Rock but is still looking for a site.
Thornton, who lives in Little Rock, is also vice president of pharmacy operations for Custom Pharmacy Solutions in Birmingham, Alabama. He previously served as the director of pharmacy operations for CHD Meridian Healthcare in Nashville, Tennessee. He is licensed to practice pharmacy in seven states, including Arkansas, and is a member of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians.
Whittington was senior vice president of operations for Alltel Corp. before joining Windstream Holdings Inc. of Little Rock in 2005, rising to COO in 2009. He left the company in September 2014 with a severance package that included $1.6 million in cash. In 2015, Whittington bought 100 percent ownership of Moots Cycles of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, a premium titanium bicycle and component manufacturer.
Thornton described Whittington as a friend, and said Whittington had seen the positive effects of the marijuana industry in Colorado. Thornton said they decided to partner with Steep Hill Labs because they are experts in the field of cannabis testing.
“We are pleased to announce our expansion to the Southeast, and Arkansas in particular,” Steep Hill Labs Inc. President and CEO Jmîchaele Keller said in a news release. “We are especially proud of the credentials our partners will bring to Arkansas medical patients in the state, and together we will deliver the best science, technology and professionalism available in cannabis testing for patients.”
The lab will examine marijuana for pesticides, funguses and microbes that can lead to infections, which is especially important for patients with compromised immune systems, Thornton said. It will also test for heavy metals that can be toxic; for harmful residual chemical solvents; and to determine the moisture content of samples collected from cultivators and dispensaries. And it will measure for potency, which plays a role in dosing instructions for patients.
Thornton said he was surprised by the complexity of testing — stemming from the many ways the drug can be taken — and the expertise needed to achieve accurate results. The lab will follow testing rules set by the Arkansas State Board of Health, he said.
Thornton said the first hire for their lab will be a chemist. But he said number of total employees depends on how many cultivators and dispensaries are approved for licenses and how large those operations are.
He expects that the lab won’t know who the state’s cultivators are until they are announced, possibly in October, following the application procedure that begins later this month.
Thornton said that, at first, he was skeptical of the medical benefits of marijuana.
“I didn’t really know if it had a place in modern medicine but I kept coming across studies and reading them,” he said. “Over time, my opinions changed. I started doing research on my own and hearing patients’ stories … I went from a skeptic to a believer.”
Thornton received his doctorate from McWhorter School of Pharmacy at Samford University.
Whittington has a degree in accounting from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and serves on the board of directors for RigNet of Houston and on the board of trustees for the Nature Conservancy of Arkansas.