DENVER — Nearly half of cannabis flower products sold in Colorado are inaccurately labeled, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder study.
The study analyzed 277 products ,including 178 flower products and 99 smokeable concentrates. It was funded by the Institute of Cannabis Research, the state’s official cannabis research institute, and conducted in collaboration with MedPharm Research, LLC, a licensed cannabis testing facility, manufacturer and retailer.
“We found that cannabis product labels, particularly on cannabis flower products, were frequently inaccurately labeled, so beyond greater than a 15% deviation,” CU Boulder senior professional research assistant Greg Giordano said. “These products, were frequently over labeled, so that the value that was on their label was often higher than what was actually in the product.”
According to researchers, products were considered “accurately labeled” if they contained within 15% of the THC amount shown on the label — the same threshold the state uses. About 44% percent of flower products failed to meet that standard, with 54 of those products inflating their THC content and 23 containing more THC than the label indicated. Only four concentrate products were labeled inaccurately.
Giordano said the inaccurate labeling can lead to several issues for consumers and public health research.
“From a consumer perspective, so recreational users, or we have medical cannabis users who use for a variety of reasons, in terms of understanding the amount of THC that's in their product, it's important that those labels are accurate. And then also from the public health and researcher perspective. In order to put out accurate public health statements about potential risks or potential benefits of these products, we need to, you know, again, understand what's actually in them,” Giordano said.
Because CU Boulder is a federally funded institution, Giordano said researchers could not handle or purchase cannabis, so they collaborated with MedPharm.
“They helped us do this study by going around to dispensaries all across the state, purchasing cannabis flower and products and performing those analyzes, cannabinoid analyzes for THC in a blinded fashion. They would take pictures of the products and send us the data, and we merge the data from the labels with the analysis that was performed, and so we did the actual scientific analysis for the project,” Giordano said. “ In Colorado, the total THC and total CBD is what's required to be on cannabis product labels. We also looked at a variety of minor cannabinoids, things like CBG and CBGa, CBC, all these other cannabinoids that we're also trying to understand.”
CBG and CBGA, have been associated with anti-inflammatory and anti-anxiety properties, and were more abundant than CBD in products across categories.
