Tough Testing Keeps Some Pot Off Washington Shelves

Auricag the Golden Standard

More than 13% of the marijuana and related products readied for sale in Washington state failed mandatory contaminant testing because they contained yeast mold, salmonella and e. coli bacteria.

Washington’s legal marijuana system requires pot, edibles and other products to be tested at independent labs before being offered for sale. The state created that system before sales began in July, and the strict requirements caused initial supply shortages as growers and producers worked through the process.

“We want to make sure that people know what they’re actually getting,” said Randy Simmons of the Washington Liquor Control Board, who helped implement the ballot initiative that legalized recreational marijuana sales in Washington. “We had one guiding principle: We wanted to do it right. We didn’t want to do it fast.”

Marijuana legal but often scarce in Washington state

In contrast, Colorado’s less-regulated system began six months earlier but still has not yet launched mandatory contamination testing. Colorado regulators say they hope to begin that testing early next year.

And while Colorado has a six-month head start in selling and regulating recreational marijuana, state regulators say they cannot access the same data Washington state’s regulators scrutinize daily.

The contaminant testing is just one of many differences between the only two states with legal recreational marijuana marketplaces. Oregon and Alaska in the fall election both approved systems mirroring Washington and Colorado, respectively. Washington, D.C. voters legalized recreational marijuana but haven’t yet created a marketplace.

Washington state’s marijuana regulators make public a broad swath of data their Colorado counterparts say they cannot access, including exactly how clean the state’s legal pot is. Colorado regulators require marijuana to be tested for strength, but refuse to make public even aggregate results.

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[/one_fourth][three_fourth_last]Following repeated public records requests from USA TODAY, Colorado regulators also refused to release information about how much marijuana has been sold in the state, a basic piece of information lawmakers say would help them set public policy.

Washington state, in contrast, makes public the amount of marijuana sold by each retailer.

Washington’s data shows:

• Growers and processors have entered about three tons of marijuana into the state’s regulated marketplace. Some of that wholesale marijuana is then turned into edible products, marijuana-infused oil, or destroyed for failing quality and contamination testing. The rest is sold.

Retail customers have bought 2,856 pounds of marijuana and edibles products since sales began in early July.

• The average potency of marijuana sold in Washington state is 15.77% THC.

About 13% of the marijuana and marijuana products submitted for mandatory testing failed due to contamination.

• Yeast and mold are the most common contaminants, followed by several types of bacteria, coliform and then e. coli and salmonella.

Marijuana contaminated with e. coli or other bacteria is destroyed, but mold-contaminated cannabis can be used to produce oils used for edible products or for use in vaporizers, Simmons said.

Like Colorado, Washington is still developing testing rules for pesticide and heavy-metal contamination.

Colorado lawmakers are frustrated that state regulators aren’t making more data available publicly. Colorado’s marijuana regulators say state law and their own internal rules bar them from making public even basic data like the amount of pot sold in the state since Jan. 1.

Colo. regulators can’t answer basic pot questions:

Democratic state Rep. Jonathan Singer has called on regulators to create a “pot blotter” of the kind Washington state makes public, detailing what licensees have been investigated for possible violations of the marijuana laws.

“I think it’s incredibly important to make sure the rest of the world either sees how well things are going, or if they’re not going the way we expect then we should be able to fall back on good information and good data to make better decisions,” Singer said.

His colleague, Republican Sen. Owen Hill, echoed his call for more information.

“We need to get away from evaluating success based upon intentions and really start looking at success based upon outcomes,” Hill said. “If we don’t have the data on those outcomes, how can we say we’re being successful?”

Simmons said Washington’s Liquor Control Board, which oversees marijuana regulation, is launching a “secret shopper” program where undercover state regulators will buy marijuana from licensed stores and then double-check test results and potency. Like Colorado, Washington limits edibles products to no more than 100 mg of THC per item package, with portions set at 10 mg each.

“When we got into this thing, it wasn’t about getting stores open and selling marijuana,” Simmons said. “What’s the impact on youth? What’s the impact on adults? Are they educated? This isn’t their father’s product … (and) we wanted to be as open and transparent as possible.”

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