Britt E. Erickson, Chemical & Engineering News
In US states struggling to regulate testing, some labs seem to offer results that are too good to be true.
To a passerby on the sidewalk, the retail cannabis business seems to be coming into its own. In US states with a state-regulated market, customers are welcomed into slick stores selling cannabis in carefully sealed packages. The labels on the back detail active ingredients with percentages that can go to two decimal places.
Most customers latch onto one of the first figures on the label: the percentage of tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCa), which turns into psychoactive ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) when heated. For many, the higher the THCa number the better. But leaders of several cannabis testing labs say this figure, as well as other cannabis testing results, is often fabricated.
…people who are willing to fudge their THC results are the first ones who are going to be willing to cheat or fudge a result that is more dangerous or that is more important for health and safety.
– Josh Wurzer, Co-founder and Chief Compliance Officer, SC Labs
The demand for superstrength THC products has led to a problem in the cannabis testing industry: marketers who shop around for a lab that will give them the THC results they want. And the shopping doesn’t stop there. Analytical chemists in the cannabis industry say some testing labs also deliberately overlook mold and pesticides, allowing contaminated cannabis products to end up on dispensary shelves.
Testing labs that try to do the right thing say they are losing customers. Many are…