Why are so many industry leaders bothered by pesticide contaminated products, but not by hemp-derived THC products? Both are produced by operators who work with the distinct understanding that their manufacturing methodologies could easily result in contaminated products. If you don’t believe me, ask yourself: How do hemp brands distinguish between naturally produced THC v. THC produced from CBD via chemical synthesis, when sourcing for their products? The honor system?! Oh, that’s right, I forgot. Everyone is just using mother liquor, right? Nothing to see here, just turning waste into gold for pennies. But any claim to this type of chromatography scale is too preposterous to entertain, even in hypothetical scenarios. The biomass and equipment scale needed to sustain hundreds of kilos of THC from CBD processing waste defies any reasonable or financial logic when it can be produced synthetically for much cheaper. But really, how do brands determine what methodology was used to produce their sourced THC, and does it result in a reliably safe ingredient? What’s actually in your product beyond the detected cannabinoids? Does anyone else find it disheartening that no one outside of analytical testing has an answer for this? And for all the hemp-derived THC CPG brands out there: Can anyone produce independent COAs that analyze foreign substances beyond basic environmental contamination controls? NMRs? Just one, even to confirm the process? Is it not extremely worrisome for consumers that these companies often have no idea about the true nature of the ingredients they’re selling? I know there are ethical cannabinoid manufacturers out there that truly care about active ingredient purity and safety. It’s amazing they’re still able to operate in this type of competitive landscape. But for every one of them, there’s one hundred backyard chemists trying to replicate Future4200 blog formulas. How does an industry address such supply chain naivety issues? It’s as if people don’t want to ask the question, let alone think about it. The fact that chemically synthesized compounds aren’t as inherently safe to manufacture as purified natural ones, especially in completely unregulated environments, upsets a lot of people in the industry. They see the word cannabinoid and automatically think natural and plant-based, when it’s anything but. I wish cannabinoid chemical synthesis was highly regulated so we could see safe, pharmaceutical-grade cannabinoid products responsibly available to the public. But that’s not the reality of the situation, and the don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy of ingredient sourcing is pushing the entire industry in the wrong direction. How long can this can go on without some serious product scrutiny and honest hemp industry introspection? If you find yourself upset by potential pesticide contamination but not this, where do you draw the boundaries of your acceptable product contamination limits?
Ken Pelletier
5mo
Eye roll emoji
So there is a lot to digest here! Hopefully I am able to breakdown a few thoughts. Being that I specialize in the development of liquid products for mass scale, and happen to have started a cannabis beverage company, here is some food for thought. We must first distinguish that contaminations (such as pesticides) of any kind and the legitimized safety of a raw material (in this case, THC) are not exactly on the same playing field. I agree that they are both very important, but putting two slightly unrelated items together in this form can cause fear and confusion in a space that needs us to set standards. How CAN hemp brands distinguish between naturally produced THC v. synthetic (let's simply this for arguments sake) when sourcing for their products? Research. If you do not have someone that directly understands what needs to be reviewed, it is up the the company to find someone that can in order to hold the most reassurance and integrity. Not possible? Then it's research AND documentation. Look into multiple suppliers, always! Questions to your potential suppliers should be encouraged, and if you are not getting quick and meaningful data/responses, they may not be up to a standard that your company needs to abide by...
Harold Han
5mo
The hemp supply chain can be chaotic, and this is what Vertosa does to stay true to our Hemp Beverage partners: -- Only use naturally extracted Hemp D9 -- Test Hemp D9 input not only for BIG 6, but also test at Infinite Chemical Analysis Labs, who just developed a method to tell if D9 is chemically converted. -- Deeply understand our hemp D9 supplier through technology and quality audit. -- Test Hemp D9 emulsion for BIG 6. -- Most importantly, we created Chain of Custody for each Hemp D9 emulsion batch. This dossier tracks all information from Hemp biomass to crude to distillate to emulsion. This is our way to establish standard in a standard-lacking industry! Thank you Taylor Eileen Sewell for bringing me into this much needed discussion.
If you can measure it you can label it and you can have opinion about it. Sadly the industry doesn’t think about the things it can’t measure easily and hopefully when the labs diversify their services they’ll start to show the universe of unidentified compounds and mystery peaks. I doubt the grey random cannabinoid molecules and non terpene aromatics will have as much of a negative impact as the for sure death molecules (ie pesticides etc) but how do we know unless we can test for it?
Tim McCarthy
5mo
Trusting the science of boiling points without any testing confirmations is not only irresponsible but negligent endangerment. The [sic] tag line of "well... it can't be any worse the what you buy off the street" should never be accepted.
Harold Han
5mo
Nearly 2 years ago, when Vertosa began to study the quality of Hemp D9 input, most hemp D9 was converted from CBD. High purity D9 can be produced from CBD conversion, Dronabinol is the example. But it requires extensive purification to remove all by-products. Knowing the Hemp D9 converters are not at the pharma level, we developed a NMR method to evaluate by-products levels in the material. See details here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/science-product-makers-evaluating-purity-hemp-converted-harold-han-hsggc/?trackingId=%2FGXdKvq6QCCfj%2B3%2FjfWPeQ%3D%3D Naturally Extracted Hemp D9 bypass chemical synthesis, but it needs a special process to obtain D9 from Mother Liquor. See details here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/science-product-makers-hemp-d9-mother-liquor-harold-han-nmbsc/?trackingId=%2FGXdKvq6QCCfj%2B3%2FjfWPeQ%3D%3D
Quick $$$ is why. 🎯
Founder and CSO at ProVerde Laboratories
5moOur laboratory has tested 1000's of consumer products and raw materials based on synthetic cannabinoids, and to date, have not seen a single sample WITHOUT significant synthetic byproducts of unknown toxicity. It is not uncommon to see up to 30 different contaminants, most of which do not even have a name yet....