Sustainability — Cannabis industry faces product safety concerns

[orthene]

https://thehill.com/policy/3500321-equilibrium-sustainability-cannabis-industry-faces-product-safety-concerns/

Cannabis varieties with identical names can differ wildly in the chemicals they contain — leaving customers in danger of unpredictable, unpleasant or unwanted effects, a new study has found.

“The prevailing labeling system is not an effective or safe way to provide information about these products,” Brian Keegan of University of Colorado Boulder said in a statement.

Even in six states where the drug is legal and regulated, product names and mandatory labeling requirement give customers little insight into the potential impacts of the products they are about to purchase, according to the study published in PLOS One.

Different cannabis strains can have widely divergent effects — with some better suited to aid sleep or relieve pain, and others indicated to increase appetite or alleviate depression.

But by surveying 90,000 samples across six states, the CU Boulder team found that neither variant names (like Durban Poison or Blue Dream) nor classic distinctions (indica, sativa and hybrid) bore much consistent resemblance to the chemical composition — and therefore effects — of a given product.

Two similarly-named plants from different dispensaries, in other words, were liable to have quite different impacts — a lack of predictability that poses “a real challenge for an industry that is trying to professionalize itself,” Keegan added.

“A farmer can’t just pick up an apple and decide to call it a Red Delicious,” said study co-author Nick Jikomes, who runs the science department at cannabis marketplace Leafly.com. 

“But that is not the case for the cannabis industry,” Jikomes added.

[jones]

Really, who gives a crap-- If I spent money on weed that didn't get me high that would be one thing
but as long as it works, I could care less

I don't give a rat's ass about whether or not the apple I buy is really a golden delicious or not either

[BurnMan]

This a huge story that boils down to phenotypes and nothing more.

That is how we have strains like gelato 33. it was the 33 try for someone to get a true definition of gelato and

the only way to get the exact phenotype is from clones.

Dispensaries are getting strains grown from seed stock from a bazillion breeders worldwide.