The Importance of Cannabinoid Testing in the Cannabis Industry
As more and more countries worldwide legalize medical and recreational use of cannabis, regulation and control of the industry becomes an immense issue. As much as the food you eat or the beverages you drink, weed is a product that has to adhere to certain quality standards. There are many growers and dispensaries out there, and some of them have their unique strains of cannabis but are those entirely safe? Can you be sure the weed you bought from the local dispensary was grown under proper conditions? Well, that’s just one reason why we need standardized weed testing.
Quality Control and Assurance
Quality control and assurance are essential for delivering a consistent product. If you’ve been smoking for some time, you could have noticed that sometimes the same strain might change its effect over time. For instance, the Mac Strain you’ve bought from one dispensary like a year ago might be different from the same strain you’d buy from another dispensary this weekend. That happens because of the difference in the techniques, equipment, and fertilizers used by the growers as well as a wide variety of factors. To avoid this disparity in the effect of your weed, we need quality control and assurance.
Consumer Safety
Your weed comes a long way from a humble seed to a plant and a bud you can actually smoke, and all kinds of things might happen to that plant along the way. Heavy metals in the soil might get absorbed by the roots, there might be leftover processing chemicals, the moisture in the plant can foster the growth of harmful bacteria and fungi – all of which might contaminate the plant. All of that needs to be regulated to make sure your weed is totally safe for consumption. Testing each batch of cannabis is the only way to prevent contaminated and potentially harmful weed from getting to your store shelves.
Standardization
As said, there are certain quality standards applied to the food, drinks, and other products we consume on a regular basis. These standards are meant to make the manufacturers deliver safe products to consumers across the country and worldwide. The same thing needs to happen in the world of cannabinoids. There already exist legislations in states like California that regulate and control the quality of weed, and as more and more countries legalize it, they too need to adopt such practices to make sure the consumers only get the best quality buds. The quality standards are essential here, especially since weed alters your cognition to a certain degree – that is why we must be sure the weed you buy is totally safe for consumption and that there won’t be any unpleasant surprises there.
Wrap Up
You don’t want any heavy metals in your water or your food, neither you want those harmful elements to be in your weed. The legalization of weed is still a new thing, and for that reason, we need to approach that with caution and with a fair share of decisiveness. There are many growers who are, let’s say, less than ethical – they might use all sorts of chemicals to speed up the growth of the plants, take little to no care about decontaminating the buds, using clean water, purifying the soil, and all that stuff. That is why the quality of the buds you buy might vary drastically. For that reason, there have to be some quality standards and testing. We need to make sure our weed is totally safe so we can all enjoy it without any redundant risks.