By Research Institute in Maine published research They conducted a study and found a 17% failure rate for hazardous pesticides in cannabis samples tested. The state requires testing for adult-use marijuana, but not for medical marijuana. Just under 4% of adult-use samples failed the pesticide screen, and more than 20% of all medical samples tested failed the same screen. A study conducted by Nova Analytic Labs detected piperonyl butoxide, bifenthrin, spinosad, imidacloprid, and pyrethrin in both adult-use and medical cannabis samples.
Even in the Tohoku region, New York Cannabis Insider Survey It found labs were violating reporting rules for pesticides and other contaminants, and companies were misreporting numbers and selling cannabis that didn’t pass tests. New York state only allows outdoor cultivation to promote environmental sustainability, but some say that rule is responsible for the high rate of microbial test failures. To ease the burden, New York State simply eliminated mandatory microbial testing.
now, Oregon State is doing the same thing.: Reduce the burden of microbial testing because too many companies fail microbial testing. Back in March, Oregon began requiring testing for Aspergillus contamination, but a legal challenge halted that rule in late August, and state regulators followed suit, eliminating the testing requirement for the time being. Stakeholders in many cannabis markets, including New York and Oregon, are still debating how much of a public health risk microbial contamination of cannabis actually poses.
Meanwhile, in California, regulators sent a warning letter It threatened labs with severe penalties if inaccurate test results were found. While these warning letters highlight THC potency inflation and lab shopping, which are growing concerns in markets across the country, they also mention falsification of scientific data, which is known to occur with pesticide test results as well. .
A common theme across these markets is clinical testing policy at the state level and the inability of the industry as a whole to reach consensus. In lieu of federal guidelines at the national level, disparate state policies and problems with preventable laboratory testing like this persist.
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