Vape stores and smoke shops around the state are selling illegal marijuana tainted with toxic pesticides, according to the results of testing performed last month by two labs on dozens of joints, vapes, and edibles purchased in stores from Tallahassee to Miami and online by the Herald/Times.
Many of the tested items, all sold as hemp products, registered with a potency that by legal definition classified them as marijuana. Some were contaminated with pesticides that are either banned outright or are unauthorized for use in the industry.
The results – delivered as Florida voters decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana — reveal that the state's approximately $10 billion hemp industry is already selling marijuana over the counter in an under-regulated market that is allowing potentially dangerous products to slip through to customers.
Three-and-a-half grams of Skunk Breath hemp flower sold in a baggie labeled in black marker at The Smoke Bodega in Tampa had 19.6% total THC, the psychoactive substance in marijuana that gets people high. Havana Hemp Zkittles flower purchased in One Stop Smoke Shop in North Miami Beach had 22% total THC. Habit Sauce Lava Cake, a rechargeable vape pen bought in Tampa at Kush Cloud, had 76.1% total THC, by far the highest amount among all the products tested for the Herald/Times.
Read more at Miami Herald