Cannabis Testing Lab Opens in Former New York Prison

In an era when police and prison reform is consistently being called for across the nation, and when cannabis legalization is sweeping the country at a rapid rate, a former prison facility in Warwick, New York is being turned into a cannabis testing facility. 

Now known for its prisons thanks to playing host to the fictional correctional facility in popular women’s prison drama Orange is the New Black, upstate New York is now looking to make the best of this old prison space by turning it into a testing site to fit the growing cannabis testing demand. 

The lab will be strategically located near the state’s cannabis belt, close to the Black Dirt region in southwestern Orange County. The prison originally closed in 2011, and before that time, it was a youth reform farm where troubled youth could work with farm animals. After the prison closed, the town of Warwick got the land back from the state to establish the Warwick Valley Office and Technology Corporate Park. As cannabis rose in popularity, Warwick officials realized the need for a lab site to test cannabis in the area.