Quality-Testing Legal Marijuana: Strong But Not Always Clean

Recreational marijuana has been legalized in four states, but that doesn't mean it's a tested consumer product. Some of those potent buds are covered in fungus while others contain traces of butane, according to an analysis of marijuana in Colorado.

Last May, after people began getting sick from edible marijuana products, the state of Colorado began requiring all products to be tested. Washington has mandated testing too, with a detailed checklist of items to analyze, including potency, contaminants, moisture and microbiology.

Marijuana testing is a new phenomenon. Even though people have been purchasing medical marijuana in Washington since 1998, the state never mandated testing until it approved recreational marijuana in 2013. Other states are still in the process of building a list of requirements for marijuana testing.

Each state has licensed private labs to analyze the products; they charges manufacturers a fee. Consumers can find some parts of...

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URL: 
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/03/24/395065699/quality-testing-legal-marijuana-strong-but-not-always-clean