Feb 19, 20213 min read

Funny-Ass Facts for Gummies: The Saga Continues

Updated: Mar 10, 2021

My boy, Brian "Box" Brown, has provided a nice little evaluation of the situation with 710Labs. I must say, I was a bit shocked by the blow-back on the 710Labs article. I thought more people were aware of how producers do things, not much different than any culinary establishment who makes their soups from the leftover entrées and ingredients from the kitchen.

Making ice water hash is systematic, with each mesh screen getting finer and finer, until nothing but clean water pours out of the bottom. There are naturally several grades of hash that are pulled, with a few mesh filter bags becoming "food-grade" hash. There's a valid reason why hash outside the 75-150u sizes is considered "food-grade" and it has nothing to do with me or my vocabulary.

Brian "Box" Brown handled the situation well by articulating the factual find and legitimate resource of California State Lab testing. It was not "my test", as I heard numerous times. The Lab testing is the standard state B.C.C. (Bureau of Cannabis Control) testing that is required for every product that hits the shelves.

Every dispensary is mandated to have copies of these lab tests, otherwise known as C.O.A.'s (Certificate of Analysis). The test was on record at my local dispensary, just as they are everywhere in legal California cannabis stores.

In fact, back in 2017 when this all started, I remember being able to look up the exact terpene and cannabinoid profile for every last gram of @rawgarden I smoked. This area of transparency, designed to protect the consumer, seems to have fallen out of popularity as the market moves on.

Brian "Box" Brown Click for Link https://www.patreon.com/LegalizationNation

I've written on several of the topics in this comic and if you want to read more about C.R.C. (color remediation column) used in many BHO labs, that link is right here.

State testing in California is more concerned with what is not in the product than they are in letting consumers know what remains within the product. It's understandable for safety reasons to test for things like mold and pesticides, but it tells us literally nothing about the product itself. Other than a quick scan of cannabinoids present, nothing else is shown for edibles.

If my article on 710 Labs showed nothing else, the cut-off points, a.k.a. the L.O.Q. and L.O.D.'s are missing the mark. The Limit of Quantitation is the smallest unit that is given or reported numerically in the results and Limit of Detection is the minimum range that will register as detected. In the case of the 710 Labs gummies, the Limit of Quantitation is 0.1 , but the Limit of Detection is set plenty low at 0.0333 mg. What this means is that any of the cannabinoids being tested for containing at least 0.0333 shows up on the tests. However, a cannabinoid content under 0.1 but over the limit of detection 0.0333, will read as <LOQ. Common sense would seem to say that anything under 0.0333 holds little value, but the limit of quantitation needs to be lowered in order to decipher an exact amount. If there isn't a minimum of one tenth of a milligram or more we won't see specific results. Yet let me remind you again, anything over 0.0333 was tested for, it was detectable, and shown in these original C.O.A. tests.

When something is rendering tests down to 0.0333, I'd say that's getting ridiculous. Possibly the L.O.Q., which is naturally greater than the L.O.D., may have been intended as a bare minimum amount that will have any sort of effect on the consumer at one tenth of a milligram. That would make sense to set a minimum effective range instead of deciphering one millionths of a milligram, however the L.O.Q. should be the same number as the LOD. That way we will get specific results for anything testing with at least 0.0333 of one milligram inside.

As of now California does not require terpene testing for edibles and tests for other products are not mandated and do not appear on packaging. There are a few exceptions with producers electing to print cannabinoid and terpene ratios on the outside of their packaging. This is one thing that I highly commend Cali Stripe Extracts for doing. Hopefully others will elect to supply this information to consumers. With numerous solventless brands coming out left and right, something like transparency in product profiles can help some over the hump.

The whole situation is strange, taking a plant criminalized for so long and now trying to squeeze it into set parameters, testings, and regulations the plant often refuses. Things will improve, but only if we the consumer continue to justly criticize constructively. Now if only producers could handle the criticism appropriately....