Cannabis in Colorado: Concerns over marijuana edible testing
The marijuana industry continues to refine rules and regulations of its trade, but there is concern about testing standards among state-licensed labs.
Marijuana is not recognized at a federal level so there are no standards for testing established by the Food and Drug Administration. The state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division had to work with scientists and the marijuana industry to establish testing standards.
However, there are those in the industry who say while testing is improving, there are still discrepancies between state licensed labs.
“Are we pulling from the same standards? That’s a question that should be asked,” said Jim Bent, vice president of operations at Emerald Fields.
Emerald Fields recently opened in Manitou Springs. Bent said the store’s goal is to sell customers a consistent product. However, he said it’s difficult to trust labs that test marijuana because results are inconsistent.
“We have dialed it in the best that we can. The rest is from the laboratories and hopefully we are pulling from the same standards. I don’t think that’s the case,” said Bent.
Emerald Fields sells Canyon Cultivation products. The edible company’s owner, Morgan Iwersen, said it took years to refine its process to get the proper amount of THC in each edible.
“It really was a method of trial and error. So you come up with these mathematical equations — if there are so many milligrams I have to get per piece, then how much oil do I need to add to get that?” said Iwersen.
Each piece of pot candy must have less than 10 milligrams of THC per candy. Iwersen said her company always wants to have more than 9.9 milligrams of THC per candy to give customers the same experience. It’s a small margin of error so Iwersen said reliable test results are key.
“When we tested with these new labs, the results were all over the place so there was a huge variance from one lab to the next. And we are still finding that when we test with labs so that’s why we have chosen a lab where we always get consistent results that make sense. They make scientific sense and they make mathematical sense so that’s why we have chosen to test with the lab we test with,” said Iwersen.
Iwersen said she thinks consistency between state licensed labs is improving, but there is still work to be done.
Regardless, Iwersen said she supports rigorous testing instituted for the industry. It costs her company thousands of dollars every month, but she said it’s worth it.
“Sometimes we think it’s above what it should be but probably at the end of the day it’s really going to put us at the forefront of the country and have use stand out as really doing it the right way and having our consumers know what exactly they are putting in their bodies. I think at the end of the day, that’s what everyone wants to know,” said Iwersen.
This is part of an ongoing series on marijuana edible testing. Part two will examine test results of three state licensed labs that tested different pieces of the same marijuana chocolate bar.
