By David Bienenstock, Leafly | With great flower comes great responsibility. And nobody on Earth has a greater collection of flower than the judges at the Emerald Cup, the annual cannabis celebration and competition that tasks a panel of experts with identifying California’s finest buds from among hundreds of entries. Judging all that weed is a grind (pun intended) that’s equal parts glorious and […]

By Kristina Etter, Cannabis Tech | A lack of cohesive testing standards and a push for potency creates the perfect storm for consumer deception and cannabis and hemp analysis fraud. Separating the legal cannabis market from the illicit market begins with testing and standards. As with other consumable products, conscientious consumers want to know what they are putting into their bodies. As cannabis and hemp […]

By Mark Lewis, Ph. D., Napro Research | PhytoFacts didn’t appear out of thin air. It came from an urgent need in the cannabis sector. Breeders, buyers, producers, and ultimately consumers needed a quick reference and easy-to-understand guide to know their products. Admittedly, PhytoFacts did also come from somewhat serendipitous beginnings. Throughout my studies toward […]

By Danielle Masterson, NutraIngredients-USA | Months ago, many may not have even been aware of the existence of this cannabis compound. Today, Delta-8 is the fastest-growing category of hemp products, with US sales of products listing Delta-8 jumping 144% from a year earlier, according to cannabis data provider Headset. Despite having similar chemical […]

By Joan Oleck, Forbes | On June 2, the megalith known as Amazon announced that it was dropping employee marijuana drug tests for its 1.3 million workers and throwing its support to the federal Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act of 2021, which would effectively legalize marijuana. Speculation sparked almost immediately as to whether Amazon intended to […]

By Tiffany Kary, Bloomberg | A little-known substance derived from hemp is flying off the shelves of U.S. gas stations and smoke shops, offering users a cheap and convenient high even in states where marijuana isn’t legal. But large cannabis producers are now pushing to clamp down on Delta-8 THC amid worries that a lack of oversight means heavy metals and unexpected intoxicants are […]

By SC Labs | For the first time, The Emerald Cup, California’s longest-running and most prestigious cannabis competition, is testing and sorting flower entries into categories using terpene data as part of the judging process. This year, SC Labs, who has been the testing partner of the Emerald Cup for 11 years, has tested all of the Cup’s flower entries and created profiles that detail the chemical […]

By Madeline Colli, Cannabis Science and Technology | In this interview, Josh Wurzer, President of SC Laboratories, delves into the analytical side of the cannabis industry and some of their cannabis paper product study research. As the cannabis industry continues to grow and develop, a major issue remains at the forefront: testing. Although there are regulations, accreditations, and standards for testing laboratories to apply from other […]

By SC Labs, Leafly | Testing failures highlight the need for national regulations on hemp. As federal and state governments tackle the legalization of hemp as a distinct product from cannabis, the safety of the products produced from hemp isn’t getting the same attention as those produced from THC-based cannabis. While every crop requires a cannabinoid test to establish its identity as hemp rather than […]