“If you actually want an accurate number, you cannot get one today if you care about accuracy. If you just care about passing the test, you can get that for 120 bucks.”
Compare that to the mandatory testing of certified 0.3% THC fiber hemp grown in northern latitudes: a certified official collects the sample and maintains legal chain of custody to ensure that when the Colorado state lab tests it, if over by 0.1% THC, someone can go to jail.
A great article by investigative journalists at Propublica on the dirty af Faux Hemp Industry based in Colorado, where retail sales of it are banned but not the production:
“By then, the hemp industry was already entrenched in Colorado. It had invested over $300 million in the state and generated $800 million in annual revenues, according to one industry estimate given to lawmakers. It’s unclear how much of that is intoxicating products. But an industry expert told a legislative task force that Colorado had become “the biggest provider of hemp-finished products in North America.” …
Other states that had followed Colorado’s lead in full marijuana legalization have since adopted more robust measures that Colorado did not. Of the 43 regulated recreational and medical marijuana markets in states and the District of Columbia, 24 require testing for methylene chloride.
Federal health officials also began to sound the alarm. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted a public warning about the risks of hemp-derived THC in 2021 after a spike in hospitalizations, including children who had consumed hemp gummies.
The following year, the Food and Drug Administration warned that hemp that had been chemically converted into THC “may have potentially harmful by-products (contaminants) due to the chemicals used in the process.”
And studies found THC products derived from hemp caused more harm than marijuana. A review of FDA data from 2018 to 2021 found triple the number of adverse events tied to delta-8 THC, a compound common in products chemically derived from hemp, as that in delta-9 THC, the version found in marijuana.
Like other states, Colorado requires marijuana manufacturers to have labs test their products to ensure safety. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia require lab personnel to collect samples for testing to ensure that manufacturers don’t cherry-pick products for testing and hold back contaminated products.
But Colorado lets manufacturers select samples for testing. The state found two dozen cases in which companies had manipulated testing in 2024 alone, according to a review of Marijuana Enforcement Division reports. The violations ranged from substituting samples that were different from what companies sold in stores to the use of unauthorized chemical treatments on submitted samples.”
Read all the dirty details at: https://www.propublica.org/article/colorado-marijuana-thc-intoxicating-hemp-regulation