Cannabis testing needs a culture change

Many analytical chemists in the US cannabis industry are fed up. After years of telling state regulators that some laboratories falsify results to please their clients, many cannabis testing laboratories that have been trying to do the right thing are going out of business. Honest labs say they are losing clients to bad actors who inflate tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentrations and ignore mold and pesticides. If an honest lab fails a product, cultivators typically stop using that lab and find one that is willing to fudge the numbers, some labs claim. This issue’s cover story is about the pervasiveness of the “lab shopping” problem in the US cannabis industry. Some states are doing a better job than others overseeing cannabis testing labs and investigating reports of mislabeled and contaminated products. But every state with a legal cannabis market is dealing with the issue. Other countries are likely to face the problem