The legalization of cannabis in New York was meant to make shopping at a dispensary as straightforward as buying beer from a supermarket.
Consumers would be able to examine labels to learn what goes into items like joints and vapes and be assured that the products were safe.
To provide this protection, state regulators gave licenses to more than a dozen commercial laboratories to test cannabis products for potency and harmful contaminants. Consumers can view a product’s detailed testing certificates by scanning a code printed on its packaging.
But as weed companies rush to capture greater shares of the New York market, there are growing indications that this testing cannot always be trusted, potentially endangering consumers’ health, according to lab workers, academics and other experts in the cannabis industry.
An analysis of testing certificates from New York and lab tests commissioned by The New York Times suggest that some products sold in licensed dispensaries that are labeled safe could actually contain harmful levels of pesticides, among other unsafe additives, or be contaminated by a toxic fungus.
Researchers say accurate testing and labeling are crucial for consumers to get the desired effects from cannabis and avoid unwanted side effects. Contaminants in cannabis, which is often smoked, can create or worsen severe health problems like lung infections, organ failure and pregnancy complications.
“If you have contamination in there in the form of pesticides or heavy metals or other active drugs, then that’s problematic for anybody’s health,” said Ryan G. Vandrey, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Johns Hopkins University and a leading cannabis researcher.
Because of varying methods and equipment, cannabis experts said, two labs testing the same product could reach conflicting conclusions that could both be considered technically valid.
But accusations of lab fraud have surfaced in regulatory findings and lawsuits across the United States, and concerns about testing discrepancies have been echoed in other states that have legalized cannabis.
“On the limited amount of data that has been made public, there’s a pretty clear trend showing that there is a testing problem in New York,” said William Nichols, the lead technical director of Biotrax Testing Laboratory, one of 14 labs permitted to test cannabis in the state and one of two licensed labs that performed testing for The Times. The company is among the most prominent in the state (it has permission from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to work with highly restricted drugs) and has warned New York regulators of potential problems in testing.
A Patchwork of Regulations
A vast majority of cannabis products tested in New York are approved for sale, with just over 4 percent of samples failing to meet official standards, according to state regulators. The most common reason for failure is the presence of a mold called aspergillus that can cause severe lung infections.
The Times analyzed copies of recent testing certificates obtained from regulators in New York and nine other states by a lab owner in Massachusetts, Yasha Kahn, who is suing a number of competitors, accusing them of testing fraud.
The analysis revealed that some of New York’s busiest labs rarely detected aspergillus. Three labs that tested more than half of the cannabis flower in New York between September and December of last year found no aspergillus in the samples they checked, according to the analysis.
Aspergillus is generally more prevalent outdoors, where most of the cannabis in New York is grown, making it highly questionable that tests of hundreds of samples would find no evidence of the mold, industry experts said. Six other labs found the mold in 3 percent of their samples, on average.
The Times reached out to the three labs in New York that found no aspergillus in the flower samples. One of them, Green Analytics, said it maintained high testing standards that are regularly reviewed by the state cannabis agency and an independent accrediting body. Another, Smithers, said that some companies have their cannabis cleaned of mold and bacteria before testing, which may have skewed the results. The third, Keystone State Testing, which also did testing for the The Times through a contract with another lab, did not respond to a request for comment.
Professor Vandrey, from Johns Hopkins, said the findings should prompt regulators to investigate. The cannabis industry has had a testing problem for decades, he said, that reflects the absence of strong federal regulation and funding. Cannabis remains illegal federally, so the industry is reliant on a patchwork of weak state testing rules, he said.
“That’s a problem that needs to be reconciled,” he said. “We have this disconnect between state law and federal law on a very huge market of products that are not innocuous and are concerning from a public health perspective.”
Pesticides and Arsenic
Testing performed for The Times of three products sold at licensed dispensaries also yielded concerns. While all three had been cleared for sale by licensed labs, the testing indicated that two of the products were not as potent or as safe as advertised. The reason for the differences was unclear.
The three products tested for The Times were produced locally on behalf of various cannabis companies at a facility on Long Island called Omnium Health. State officials are investigating whether items from Omnium were properly made and tested before sale. They included Lemon Loopz, a vape produced by the cannabis company Mfused; an infused chocolate bar under the brand Grön; and a “Lemon Slushie” joint from one of Omnium’s own brands, Smoke.
Test results for five Lemon Loopz vapes indicated that their strength — measured by content of THC, the intoxicating component of the cannabis plant — was not as high as indicated and that they contained pesticides in excess of state limits.
There were no problems found with the chocolate bar. The joint, however, contained only a third of the amount of THC displayed on the label and registered unsafe levels of arsenic.
Biotrax, near Buffalo, tested the products’ potency and checked for microbial contaminants. Keystone, in Vestal, N.Y., a Biotrax subcontractor (and one of the labs with questionable aspergillus results), conducted the checks for pesticides and heavy metals.
Mfused, which markets the Lemon Loopz vape, defended the original test results, which did not detect pesticides.
“Mfused is proud of our track record in consumer safety, transparency and compliance,” the company said in a statement. “We remain fully committed to delivering clean, effective products.”
Kaycha Labs, which performed the initial tests, did not respond to requests for comment. The testing company, which has labs in seven states, is being penalized for similar inaccuracies in Arizona.
The “Lemon Slushie” joints were originally tested by Lexachrom Analytical Laboratory, a Long Island-based company that cleared hundreds of Omnium product lines before surrendering its license in June during an investigation of its testing practices. Alex Woodmass, the co-owner and chief executive of the lab, told clients in a letter that an official finding that the lab had been fudging results was “baseless conjecture.” He said the lab was closing because regulators had stopped its work during their investigation, leaving him unable to pay his staff.
Omnium did not respond to a request for comment.
Cracking Down
Inconsistency between the results does not necessarily mean that the initial testing was inaccurate. Julie Kowalski, an analytical chemist who helps to set up and audit cannabis labs across the country, said two different results could both be technically correct, reflecting the varying methods that were used in testing. The problem, she said, is that many labs fail to ensure their methods produce reliable results.
“It gets very difficult for regulators, as well as accrediting bodies, to catch some of this behavior because it’s in the nuance of the science,” she said.
The Office of Cannabis Management, which regulates the production and sale of marijuana in New York, said The Times’s findings warranted deeper investigation. Officials noted that sales of the tested vape and joints had already been suspended in connection with the investigation into Omnium earlier this year. The agency said it conducts routine reviews that have flagged irregularities and led to corrective action for some labs.
“We’re not going to say that there are no problems,” Felicia A.B. Reid, the acting head of the cannabis agency, said. “Part of what we do is to find out where there are problems.”
States like Massachusetts and Oregon, under pressure from whistle-blowers, have cracked down on labs providing erroneous results. New Jersey is investigating its labs’ practices, and Michigan recently shut down a lab owned by three former state police officials, citing testing fraud. New York is setting up its own reference lab to double-check the work of commercial facilities, but it is not clear when it will be fully operational.
Ms. Kowalski, who owns a consulting firm, said that while there probably have been some instances of testing fraud, the greater culprit is a lack of scientific rigor in the field. Cannabis labs struggle to recruit skilled scientists, who are turned off by the industry’s instability, she said.
“Until that financial pressure is relieved a little bit, I don’t know how much is actually going to change,” she said.
Mr. Kahn, the lab owner in Massachusetts, said that the illegality of cannabis on the federal level should not be an excuse for inaction in tackling questions about testing. He said states could boost enforcement and oversight of labs without the federal government’s help, noting actions in Washington and Nevada.
“It’s not expensive fixes,” he said. “It’s roll up your sleeves and take responsibility for this market.”
Ashley Southall writes about cannabis legalization in New York.
Urvashi Uberoy is an engineer contributing to The Times’s data-driven journalism.
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