SOURCE: Miami Herald
EXCERPT:
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.
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To get a sense for how often marijuana is being sold as hemp — and whether the products are pure — reporters for the Herald/Times purchased 41 different hemp items from a half-dozen Florida cities, both online and at stores, and one more sent through the mail from an out-of-state company.
Twenty-two joints, canisters or bags of hemp flower, 12 vapes and seven gummies were tested for potency, pesticides and yeast and mold by Lakeland’s Modern Canna Laboratories, one of only three certified by the state to test both hemp and marijuana.
This is what the lab found: Among 41 samples tested for potency, 35 contained illegal total THC concentrations. Five gummies and one vape were below the legal threshold. Every flower product purchased was too potent to be considered hemp under Florida regulations. Some contained potency levels comparable to the marijuana sold at the state’s medical dispensaries. Among 26 flower and vape samples tested for pesticides, 12 failed.
The most common pesticide detected was a fungicide called myclobutanil, which is banned in Florida for inhalation and releases the toxic chemical hydrogen cyanide when vaped or smoked. Among nine flower samples tested for yeast and mold, two failed.
Seven samples were also sent to a lab in Michigan, to help verify the results.
The conclusion of the tests — performed at a discount by both labs, given the public interest in the issue — were similar for each product.
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