HAZEL PARK, Michigan — It’s been an issue among cannabis users since the beginning —what the heck is in the stuff people are smoking? Now, with recreational marijuana use on Ohio’s ballot next month, our new series Marijuana in Ohio shows you a scientific lab answering that very question.
Michigan and lots of other states have had legal recreational use for people 21 years old and over for a while now. With that comes strict testing of cannabis products before they’re sold. If Ohio passes rec use, what should we expect? Let’s find out.
CUSTOMERS WANT INSPECTIONS
“I feel it’s unnecessary to buy weed off the streets,” said Jerill Hentz, who used black market buds in the past. However, now he’s buying it in Michigan stores and not going back to the streets. “Because everybody is doing everything with it now — like they might be lacing it with fentanyl or anything — that is crazy,” said Hentz. “And I don’t want anything to do with that.”
That’s where people like CEO Avi Zallen and his company Steadfast Labs step in.
“The black market just leads to a lot of problems,” said Zallen. “(Marijuana is) probably one of the most tested consumer products that there is.”
Zallen walked us around the Steadfast facility located in Hazel Park, MI. “We started out in 2015, very small, 700-square-foot lab,” said Zallen. “Now, we have a 7,000-square-foot lab. We’ve learned quite a few things along the way.”
CANNABIS IS TESTED FOR A LOT OF THINGS
Steadfast sends employees out to get samples from its clients growing and making cannabis products. They test for yeast, mold, e. coli, and salmonella in what are called clean rooms. “So that we know…anything we measure is coming from the customer and not us,” said Zallen.
They have a cryogenic process to break down the samples. “We use liquid nitrogen. The samples are dunked into the liquid nitrogen below minus-70 degrees C, where they’re pulverized into a fine powder,” explained Zallen.
MEASURING CANNABINOIDS AND TERPENES
That powder is then dissolved, and the lab extracts things like cannabinoids and terpenes. “The terpenes have a big effect on the consumer...and the actual potency of cannabis,” Zallen told us. “So, it’s a combination of cannabinoids and terpenes, which is actually called the entourage effect.”
Technology helps identify peaks, both small and large, of the product, and it’s all displayed on a computer screen with graphs.
“You tick up. We increase the amount so that we can fully quantify our cannabinoids at different concentrations,” analytical chemist Annelise Crabtree told us while she sat at her computer, pointing to the screen.
CHECKS FOR PESTICIDES AND HEAVY METALS
Some Michigan residents wonder about pesticides used in making legal pot.
“My concern is that they do spray them,” said a man named Costas who didn’t want to use his last name. “And I don’t know the process, but (spraying) can add ingredients that shouldn’t have been there.”
Steadfast showed us it employs high-tech machines to test for 60 different pesticides.
Also, in a backroom, the pot powder that’s pulverized in the lab is inspected for heavy metals like lead, cadmium, arsenic, and others.
“(It’s) more of a toxic method because we are using concentrated corrosives like nitric acid,” explained Zallen. “And we’re using heat and pressure.”
Additionally, among all the high-end machinery, the vast technology and the hard science, sometimes you just have to look at your product. They do that in the lab, too.
“Is there any mold visible? Is there any inorganic matter, like pieces of gloves or the trellis net or anything like that?” said Zallen as we stood next to a microscope that magnifies the products onto a computer screen.
DATA CHECKED 'WITH FINE-TOOTHED COMB'
With all of this going on, extensive data on the testing is collected and then sent to the state.
“They look at all your methods with a fine-toothed comb and make sure that they are going to work in the real world on a repeatable basis,” Zallen said. “And something that they can audit and they can rely on.”
It’s a complex process that customers like Hentz are thankful for.
“I want to come to (a store) where I know the weed is grown properly and I can smoke it and have a good effect,” he told us.
At last check, Michigan has 25 facilities licensed to do safety checks for both medicinal and recreational marijuana products.
