A research carried out by Maine’s Workplace of Hashish Coverage (OCP) discovered 45% of medical hashish samples topic to the identical testing as adult-use merchandise would have failed the protocols for holding both pesticides, yeast and mould, or dangerous microbes, the Portland Press Herald experiences. A separate research by Nova Analytic Labs, one of many state’s 4 licensed hashish testing labs, discovered that about 21% of medical hashish samples would have failed the state’s adult-use testing panel.
The OCP research included 127 samples from the medical hashish market and, of these, 57 would have failed underneath the adult-use testing regime, the report says. The Nova research included about 1,400 samples of medical hashish which had a a lot greater failure fee than the samples collected from the adult-use market, which was 4% of three,200 samples.
In Maine, medical hashish will not be required to be examined, whereas merchandise from the adult-use market are.
Christopher Altomare, CEO of Nova, advised the Press Herald that the medical hashish samples have been supplied voluntarily by caregivers who have been already selecting to check their merchandise, reasonably than a randomized choice, so it’s possible the true share is way greater. He famous that 10% to twenty% of Nova’s enterprise comes from the medical market however they’re testing for efficiency, not pesticides.
“We’d like considerate testing rules within the medical market. On the finish of the day, what we do is public and affected person security and I don’t really feel that Maine sufferers are being adequately protected.” — Altomare to the Press Herald
Medical hashish gross sales in Maine topped $305 million in 2022. In August there have been about 1,900 medical hashish caregivers registered with the state. A report in April from OCP discovered that from the top of 2021 to the top of January 2023 greater than 1,350 medical hashish caregivers left this system.
OCP is in search of to institute testing necessities for medical hashish offered within the state however have confronted pushback from caregivers who say the protocols can be pricey. Throughout a webinar on Tuesday, OCP Director John Hudak urged the company may start requiring the testing of medical merchandise.
“If a enterprise mannequin is one during which producing clear hashish is just too pricey, there’s one thing fallacious with the enterprise mannequin,” he mentioned. “We’re not going to deal with earnings on the expense of sufferers’ well being.”
Hudak famous that regardless of being a registered medical hashish affected person, he doesn’t use medical hashish in Maine due to the dearth of testing.
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