Maine’s Office of Cannabis Policy discussed the different contaminants that can be found in cannabis at a virtual meeting. Currently, adult-use cannabis in the state undergoes mandatory testing for foreign materials, molds and mildew, heavy metals, and more. But, they say medical cannabis is not subjected to mandatory testing. Of 127 medical cannabis samples recently tested, they say they found 57 samples failed for at least one contaminant.
John Hudak, Director of the Office of Cannabis Policy, says they have tried to implement mandatory testing for medical cannabis but failed due to pushback from the medical cannabis community and the legislature.
While they are not able to share which establishments had samples that tested positive for contaminants due to state statute, he says people should be empowered to ask those questions.
“There are some medical cannabis companies in the state who voluntarily test their cannabis for contaminants, and patients can go into stores and ask for COA’s a certificate of analysis that shows whether and for what that cannabis is being tested for, and that’s an important part of consumer protection and consumer information especially given the sort of stalemate we have right now in policy,” Hudak said.
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