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Friday, September 14, 2018

20% of California marijuana products failing tests for potency and purity

Canadiana BB Forum Republished from AP




Nearly 20 percent of marijuana products in California have failed tests for potency and purity since the state started requiring the checks on July 1, a failure rate some in the industry say has more to do with unrealistic standards and technical glitches than protecting consumer safety.

The testing has been especially tough on cannabis-infused cookies, candies and tinctures: About one-third have been blocked from store shelves.

In much smaller numbers, testing companies licensed by the state are finding unacceptable levels of pesticides, solvents and bacteria, including E. coli and salmonella, according to data provided to The Associated Press by the state Bureau of Cannabis Control.

In the first two months, nearly 11,000 samples were tested and almost 2,000 failed. In some cases, the product must be destroyed. But many involve labeling issues that can be corrected. For example, a marijuana bud that’s tested to show a different potency than what’s on the label can be relabeled and sold with the right specification.

 To the state, the strict testing program is largely doing what it was designed to do: identify marijuana buds, concentrates, munchies and other products that are in some way tainted and unsuitable for eating or smoking.

“Mandatory statewide testing is a new thing and it’s going to take some time for everything to run smoothly, but on the whole we’re pleased with how things are progressing,” Bureau of Cannabis Control spokesman Alex Traverso said.

But as regulators consider recasting rules governing the nation’s largest legal pot economy, they are facing pressure to revamp testing requirements that are being alternately described as going too far, not far enough, or an overly costly burden.

The California Growers Association, an industry group, is among those concerned the state is forcing growers and manufacturers to hit too tiny a target when gauging levels of THC, the psychoactive chemical that causes marijuana’s high.

Rules require the THC concentration come within 10 percent of what is advertised on a product label. Company executives say some products are being rejected after landing outside the margin by tiny amounts.

The California Cannabis Manufacturers Association, another industry group, is pushing for changes that include allowing companies to challenge lab testing results.

“Even if the lab admits it made an error, there is no way to change those results,” said Bryce Berryessa, an association board member who is CEO of TreeHouse dispensary in Santa Cruz County and president of La Vida Verde, which produces infused cookies.

“Labs are not perfect. Mistakes get made,” he said.

At a state hearing last month, the Santa Ana-based testing company Cannalysis urged regulators to broaden their rules to include a test used in food and pharmaceutical industries that company officials say can detect a large number of potentially harmful species of mold and yeast not currently covered in state guidelines.

The company has seen examples where mold was on cannabis but the sample passed state tests.

Swetha Kaul, the company’s chief scientific officer who sits on the board of the California Cannabis Industry Association, said in an interview the state needs to “create a bigger net to catch things.”

By limiting its required review to a few mold species the state is “essentially creating a loophole where every other species can get by,” she said.

California began broad legal sales on Jan. 1 and gave companies six months to sell off stockpiles of marijuana, oils and edibles produced without strict testing requirements.
The rules require all cannabis products to clear a range of tests at labs before reaching consumers, from ensuring THC is distributed evenly in chocolate bars to making sure buds have not been contaminated by fuzzy blankets of mold.

From July 1 through Aug. 29, labs tested 10,695 product batches and 1,904 were rejected, a failure rate of about 18 percent.

Claims on the label, such as THC content, accounted for 65 percent of the failures, or 1,279 tests.

This is how the rule works: If a bottled juice drink said on the label it was 25 percent apple juice, testers would have to find that the concentration in the juice was within 10 percent of that mark, plus or minus. It’s the same with cannabis.

Next in line: About 400 batches were flagged for unacceptable levels of pesticides. Impurities such as bacteria and mold caused 114 rejections.

Ninety percent of the buds that were tested were sent on to shops, suggesting a mostly clean market for legal growers. The rejection rate was double that for concentrates: 20 percent of oils and “waxes” tested didn’t make the cut.

In a statement, the California Department of Public Health said it had not received any verified reports of illness resulting from consumption of a cannabis product attributed to mold or bacteria, although three complaints were submitted anonymously and were unverifiable.

The debate over testing isn’t just about lab procedures or allowable levels of pesticides. It all comes with a cost, which companies say is straining their budgets.

“Testing is currently costly, slow, and inconsistent,” the growers association told the state in a recent letter.

Testing for a small, outdoor marijuana farm can typically run $5,000 to $10,000 in California. There have been similar complaints in pot-friendly Colorado, where cultivators are dealing with new, required pesticide tests.

While California now has the nation’s largest legal market, a huge black market still exists. Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore spotlighted the risk of buying on the illegal market last week, warning consumers that the price from money saved “can be their life.”

He said unlicensed shops are known to lace their pot with Fentanyl and other narcotics. In an illegal shop “there’s no telling what they’re actually buying,” Moore said.

29 comments:

  1. True, I buy NJ from dispensaries in south Los Angeles and not all the weed is good, you have to find the plug.

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  2. Nobody is lacing weed with fenatyl. Thats stupid. The price of an 1/8th would skyrocket.

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    1. How would it sky rocket if fentanyl itself is dirt cheap? Just a speck and ur soaring in the skies dude😂 Not much is needed actuallyyy

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    2. i was rolling in madness smh. true they just want us to stop growing in our back yards and buy from them which is dumb ill grow it and more! its was the original law now they want to take it back.

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    3. That last piece of the article show how biased it us. Lacing weed with fentanil?!?!? LMFAO. That's the big pharma's propaganda at work.

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    4. 6:57, there are 2 reasons to lace weed.
      1) To boost crappy weed but for that generally rat poison and such is used, it has to be something cheap, otherwise it will not make sense.

      2) To use weed as a vehicle to get people hooked on other more expensive drugs. I remember back in my day crack dealers would pack a pipe with a bit of rock and sell that to folks downtown etc. as a hit of weed hoping that once you smoked that crack would do its magic and you were hooked at least for the night, and it worked. Once folks took that hit laced with rock, they craved more of rock.

      So, if anyone is laceing weed with fentanol, Im suspecting they are trying to hook people on opiats. Jmo

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    5. This makes NO sense and sounds like some fairytale you dreamed between classes in high school-
      How does "rat poison and such" boost weed??? What are the effects??

      "To use weed as a vehicle to get people hooked on other, more expensive drugs.."
      Again, this makes NO sense- and would be a great way to kill people- how would these people even know whats in it?? So your saying these people get laced weed, smoke it, now all of a sudden theyre running back to get more?.

      "Back in my day, crack dealers would pack a pipe with a bit of rock, and sell that to folks downtown as a hit of weed"

      So the dealers were selling pipes advertised as weed pipes, but packed with weed by the seller? And they really had rock inside??
      Ive never heard of anyone selling pre packed pipes on the street.. interesting- so if this actually happened, why wouldnt people just keep buying the ones that were "laced" and playing dumb, instead of buying the more expensive ones??? Im having a hard time believing any of this story- it sounds like its straight out of the D.A.R.E. pamphlet

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    6. 9:15, are really that ignorant? You cant comprehand what a bit of rat poison in weed would do to a human brain? Btw. the weed that was usually boosted was what we called Mexican brick weed, it was the cheapest and crappiest weed at that time. Also, the pipes were packed with weed a a bit of rock, and it was sold to unsuspecting people like tourists, and folks who just didnt know any better, they were not sold to crack users. Do you really think dealers didnt know who to sell it to? There was all kind of dope which was called bar dope, which was sold in bars and to people who as I said earlier didnt know any better. In the 90’s I lived in Victoria BC, Canada and Toronto and thats how it was back then. Wheater you belive or not, will not make this bogus, nor do I care if you belive it. There are nasty people in the dope bussiness who will do anything and everything to make a buck. Also, just because you dont know something, doesnt mean its not true, it just means that you dont know something, nothing more, nothing less.

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  3. So people in California really know how to water their drugs down?
    Word has it even illegal drugs are watered down in that state.
    Anything to make an extra buck?

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    1. Cali LA has all drugs

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    2. Everything in California is watered down to accommodate the hyper sensitive population. All that support Socialism should be permanently sent to Cuba or Venezuela to enjoy their politocal deam and leave America alone.

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    3. Are you being serious?? ^^

      You must have juuuust graduated academy.

      - a califirnia waterin down dope slanger

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    4. So you rather have weed that is not pure? I dont see how trying to reduce bacteria, fungus and pesticides on weed means watering it down,unless you get a kick out of getting high on the impurities.

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  4. It's all a big game. The states are making tobacco companies invest in marijuana. They tell consumers of the cancer that it creates. What about medical marijuana? I'm not a scientist, but I'm sure those pesticides, fungicides, heavy metals in soil can't be good. Also,smoking it,or vaping in not good either.

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  5. Everything Cali midgrade and stuff that's sure to fail goes to the East Coast and the South.

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    1. This just isnt true- cali is flooded with top shelf weed- but the prices in cali for, say 1pd of jack herer (indoor) is roughly 1200(?) - that same pound in boston is going for DOUBLE on the very low end-

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  6. Just think about all the money mexico could make with their outdoor naturally grown weed. How bought some cbd tequila.
    Use the money to eliminate the riff raff cartels. Wake up Mexican politicians!
    OJ

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  7. Recently walk into Hollywood dispensary called MMD..the price for 2 eights was 147 adult user no rec here..good quality but taxes are crazy high

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  8. I also heard these folks are shorting people grams..I guess they using the jars as total weight..

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  9. Are there any actual cases of Fent being in Bud?

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    1. I never seen a credible report, I have seen the BS rumors but never backed with proof. I am calling bullshit

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  10. this is a way for the corporate world to mock us and take what society has been helping each with for years! old money dont like new money. im in the cannabis world and i am glad to say i have better healther cannabis then most deliveries and dispensaries i battle everyday to survive. hopes and dreams and the fight against it is by giving it away. i want to help that kid that one day believe they can take over the game. from nothing to something.this has been the way for marijuana dons.letting new take over. now they want to buy us out ans gave it to us with insurance for free basically so they can keep us tamed! and laugh at us while the continue to own the world

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  11. These are probably the bottom shelf $5-$7/g buds. The majority of dispos here in Cali have some dank. Usually in the $10+/g range.

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  12. Hey, we wanted legalization now we get regulation, its understandable on the farmers side about their complaints on the costs, but big scale farmers, im sure can easily cover that cost, on the consumer side, well personally i dont see much of a problem, buying weed thats labeled at a certain percentage of THC and in reality getting much less is not a good thing, no one likes getting ripped off, and those people that are all about being organic im sure want some weed without the pesticides. Everything sold for consumptiom is tested somehow from medicine to cookies so its obvious this would fall to testing aswell. The downside on the consumer part is prices will get higher, the growers will pass on those costs to the consumer and politicians will find every excuse to raise taxes, which in return will keep a small illegal industry alive amongst those refusing to pay more for a higher quality and legal marijuana. The cannabis industry is old but the regulations are so new that allegations made by pro and anti legalization are still yet to be proven and we just gotta wait for results of legalization start showing so errors and regulations that seem impossible or stupid are to be expected, they just throw them out there and see the effects it has and from there over time they see which need modification, which need to go and which need enforcement, all laws evolve so these current ones wont be here for long.

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  13. What needs to be regulated more are the dispensaries. Some cities do a good job about it, requiring them to be clean and it makes a difference, everyone feels welcome. Other cities let the dispensaries become more than that and they get out of control, some have been busted for selling more than weed. I been to some that are a total joke where the buds are not even labeled right, their website would name a strain as a sativa and in the shop labeled as indica, I been to one where the guys in the shop where armed and securirty was not, so i asked him why isnt he armed he said he had felonies which means he is not even liscensed to work as a guard, and the girls attending costumers who couldnt even answer simple questions like thc percentage and always kept saying my patients this and my patients that as her answers made me want to tell them look "this is not a clinic you are not in the medical field, we both know this is for recreational use not medical, so stop with the patient crap because we are not your parients we are your damn costumers! Lmfao. I also seen those dispensaries hidden by junk yards, motels and any shady places in the ugly side of town and when you go in its like a damn strip club with no strippers, all dark music bumping loud as hell the guards all tactical like about to go to war yet armed with only a 9mm gun, the attendants high as shit, bums outside asking for change and others just hanging out ouside with a 40, yeah those places gotta go.

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    Replies
    1. Lol
      Yea i know what tyou ralking about
      In fact a friend of mine owns a "medical" dispensary and he sell other things too
      You got it rigth over therw.but i gotta day that his shop of horrors has been shit down 3 times but he allegedly gave some "tribute" to a local authorities

      Delete
  14. Puro Jungle Boys....LA's BEST

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  15. These cases of fent being in weed is about as true as their being krokodil in the usa-

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