Ian Rice

As the son of a criminal defense attorney focusing on the decriminalization of medical cannabis, Ian Rice says the benefits and legalities of cannabis were a “big part of dinner conversation” at his childhood home in Santa Cruz.

“My whole life I watched him fight the good fight,” Rice says of his father.

With the lifelong knowledge that good people use the plant as medicine, Rice dedicated his career to making sure consumers know exactly what is in the medicine they’re taking. He and three partners launched SC Laboratories in 2010, making it one of the first cannabis testing labs to enter the market.

“Our focus has always been on good, sound science,” he says.

SC Labs has grown from a company of just four employees to one with a staff of more than 100, including facilities in two states, and has solidified itself as a market leader in California, providing not just regulatory testing, but deeper cannabinoid and terpene profiles designed to help consumers more accurately select the cultivars that will meet their needs.

The SC Labs co-founders’ commitment to transparency in cannabis extends to Envirocann, a company that provides an organic-like certification for cannabis, with a lab-testing component. Founded in 2016, Envirocann grew out of seeing farms claiming to be organic test positive for some of the worst pesticides on the market.

With the two businesses, Rice stays busy, but says he’s still fueled by the same passion to help people he learned from watching his father all those years ago.

“I absolutely love the cannabis industry,” he says.