Recent testing reveals surprising findings about pesticide contamination in both legal and illegal cannabis products in California, challenging common assumptions about product safety.
Analysis conducted by the Los Angeles Times found that licensed and unlicensed cannabis products showed similar rates of pesticide contamination, with approximately half of the samples from both markets containing detectable pesticide levels.
"Normally, the illicit market is just buying from the legal market brokers. It's not like there really are two different markets," explains Josh Swider, CEO of Infinite Chemical Analysis Labs, which tests cannabis in California and Michigan.
The investigation revealed that some legal products actually contained higher pesticide levels than their illicit counterparts. In one notable case, a legally purchased Backpack Boyz vape cartridge contained 32 different pesticides.
Unlicensed products were often found to be pesticide-free because they contained artificial THC derivatives from hemp processing. However, these synthetic compounds carry their own potential health risks due to unknown byproducts from chemical processing.
The study also uncovered synthetic THC in products from four legal brands, despite California regulations prohibiting such compounds. The state currently lacks screening protocols for these artificial cannabinoids, though Michigan has implemented testing requirements.
Additional safety concerns emerged when testing found vitamin E acetate - previously linked to multiple vaping deaths - in an unlicensed product. California's regulated market does not screen for this dangerous compound.
While the California Department of Cannabis Control maintains that legal market oversight provides greater consumer safety, the testing results indicate gaps in the current regulatory framework. The state screens for 66 specific pesticides but overlooks many others found in licensed products.
For example, pymetrozine, a carcinogenic insecticide not included in state testing requirements, was detected in one-third of legal cannabis products but absent from all tested illicit samples.
These findings highlight the complexity of cannabis product safety and suggest that neither legal nor illegal status alone guarantees product purity. The results point to potential needs for expanded testing requirements and stronger oversight in California's regulated cannabis market.