Under pressure from weed consumers, California regulators hustle to start testing for pesticides

Under intense pressure from millions of weed users, California officials are scrambling to test cannabis products for pesticides following a Times investigation last month revealing that regulators have failed to keep vapes and pre-rolls rife with toxic chemicals out of stores. California Full Coverage: California’s problem with contaminated weed A Los Angeles Times investigation, in conjunction with WeedWeek, finds alarming levels of pesticides in cannabis products at dispensaries across the state. The disclosure that some top California brands are contaminated hit the state’s legal weed industry like “a bomb,” as one cannabis influencer described the news on social media, while another on TikTok drew more than 4 million views just by reading a partial list of the chemicals documented in The Times’ investigation. It also is developing methods to be used by the cannabis agency’s own lab, “to build out the state’s testing capabilities.” Those familiar with the cannabis testing, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said cannabis regulators decided that waiting for the lab to be able to test for more pesticides was not necessary because a single pesticide above permitted levels is sufficient to force a product recall. Co-founder Jerett Wasserman recorded a series of Instagram videos that decried the recalls as retaliation for questioning The Times’ reporting, and suggested the company was the target of “Culture Vulture’s.” Directors of the private labs said they tried for months to get regulators to address what they saw as persistent problems in the cannabis testing industry, “and the situation only got worse.” “We went public with our concerns only when all other options were exhausted,” Anresco Laboratories and Infinite Chemical Analysis Labs said in a joint statement earlier this month.