They usually test for heavy metals, pesticides and microbiological nasties.
It’s only the last one they can do something about.
The easiest thing to do with a ‘failed’ batch is extracts, but that requires secondary processing and has lower profit than flowers.
I think the easiest is ozone (cheaper that radiation) but I would worry about what that would do to taste and quality.
Not sure there’s a market for refurbished product. Maybe at 38 cents a gram.
I prefer mine because I like to know what’s in it. If there’s a judgement call to be made it’s my call and not that of some unknown entity driven by profit.
Even aside from being decontaminated or any of it, there’s plenty of things that fail quality testing and is still sold. Platinum Vape (some reports say almost ALL Michigan sold “carts”) was notorious for things like Bifenthrin (neurotoxin that kills over 100 species of insects, brand names of Cross Check, Wisdom TC, etc.) and still managed to be sold vs destroyed purely for profit.
Anything sold at a dispensary is a commercial product and if you’ve worked for ANY commercial business/industry you know profit is literally the only thing that matters, much more than employee or even consumer safety.
I hear folks claiming all the time on another site, that store-bought weed is safer than buying from the dirty scummy criminal drug dealer types.
That is how they phrase it not me.
I had a whole thread about it and how culture has changed for the worse… in my opinion anyway.
Right before CAliforny went rec I got a great deal on some close out buds at a dispensary, right before testing requirements were implemented … NOT!!!
Throat was sore for a month… eagle20OG
Aside…
Kevin Jodrey said he tested this theory of people preferring retail clean weed:
He put out a jar that said 1/2 price, contaminated buds
People would ask what with?
“Oh, herbicides, fungicides, pgr’s, & all that kinda shit”
And they bought it right up.
Bringing tears to the testing advocates’ eyes.
Why?
He reasoned “mc’donalds didn’t get rich selling health food. They sold cheap consistent product.”
“Working people are broke. They can’t afford to smoke like a grower.”
…
Aside 2
Breeder Steve has said his goal is to get weed down to 1$ a gram.
Some very good points!
I don’t care much for kevin, once I found out he worked with the Govt. to help bust people, it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Breeder Steve on the other hand I think has it going on, always has really.
I would love to meet that guy.
I agree to a certain extent, you are right some really can not afford good weed.
Some just don’t care what they get, they want the cheapest due to financial issues.
Some like to mix weed with tobacco and any weed will do.
As far as I am aware, and from what searched…Michigan requires specific testing, but doing any chemical treatment to the bud would cause the buds to fail the testing for chemicals and metals… OZONE at high levels would take away all odor and flavor…
(quote from Leafly- it matches all the documentation I found at Michigan.gov and multiple other sources)
" Michigan regulations required testing for **cannabinoid and terpene potency, foreign matter, microbial and mycotoxin contamination, pesticide and chemical residue, fungicides, and the presence of residual solvents"
The testing would show contamination if anything other than water or ozone was used on it one would think…
The testing is flawed anyways I see moldy smelling weed that tested clean come from the clubs all the time , the growth occurs after testing and packaging due to improper handling and storage.
This hits home. A buddy and I were talking the other day and equate it to drinking cheap beer. Most people would rather have multiple cheap bud lights after work as opposed to a $25 4pack of craft brew. They wanna get fucked up for cheap. People that would buy from my buddy, go to the dispensary now because they say it’s more convenient. It’s shit weed, but it’s what’s in their ever shrinking budget.
That really resonates with me! Sums up some of the many reasons I’m so pleased to be following the Craft Cannabis path.
I love most every aspect of our shared passion, the plant itself is magnificent in all of its variety and beauty, growing it properly is an enjoyable education complete with an unending string of the “Science Fair” projects producing each harvest. We’re blessed with the fellowship of the Overgrow website serving as our Cannabis University. A major hat tip to @LemonadeJoe and the crew for hosting the party.
I am smokin like a grower which means I’ll never need to ingest any cannabis that has been contaminated or needs any remediation beyond a decent cure.
AND, I’m running about $40 US per ounce growing high octane heinous herb! What’s not to like?
Well, Hemp is legal and cheaper than that so I can see it happening. Totally reasonable to imagine “shaggy” machine trimmed high yielding stuff like Blue Dream selling for $20$/ounce. And everyone bein happy, customer value and produced still makin good money.
Our current cannabis supply chain is pretty damn wasteful. You’ve either got the cost of operating illegally, which can be very damn high, or youve got our idiotic legal framework. The testing, the applications, the taxes every time product changes hands, the packaging process, the cost of doing business with poor banking support. Really is a “hands tied behind back” situation.
I think the price ceiling is almost unlimited, look at fancy collectable whisky, but the floor is going to continue to fall.
Having said all that - nothing would surprise me when it comes to goddamn politicians. If they ban homegrow, hammer grey market, and protect dispo monopolies we could be stuck in $70$/eighth world. Cigarettes are twenty bucks a pack in New York City. The problem is nobody is working for legalization anymore, they all see a meal ticket. If you wanna simply legalize cannabis it’s dead simple - Cannabis = Hemp inherit farm bill framework. If you wanna “regulate” cannabis you’re part of the goddamn problem. Not you specifically! Generalized you.
I think that’s why I’ve chosen to grow my own, I get to control what’s in it, and I know exactly where it came from. I know the legal/recreational Market in my area it’s kind of shitty as well because the dispensaries only have a couple of different strains and it’s way overpriced. When they opened the recreational part of the dispensary in my area I stopped in just to pick up an eighth because I was curious… and that’s the last I said I’d buy from them because I can’t justify spending 70 bucks on 1/8 of Bud that didn’t stand out from anything I’ve grown myself. Now don’t get me wrong it was definitely decent cannabis, I just can’t spend money like that with the way I smoke. Sometimes I smoke because I want to get stoned and other times I smoke just because I like the taste and smell and getting stoned is always fun lol
Your luckyit was even decent , I’m a grower and picked up a 1/8 of gushmints because I wanted to show some finished flower to somebody and not have to wait till October, it smelled like mildew as soon as I open the container (no returns of course) so I dumped it out my window in there shitty little parking lot and left. The store fronts are a sad shadow of what they once were and the industry as a whole is destroying the culture of cannabis we have all embraced for so long. I’m actually attending the emerald cup this year just so I can see a few old timers and blow dank smoke at all the vendors peddling there crappy mids and super model looking weed that lacks any real uniqueness or flavor beyond gas or cream.
@shag can’t say from personal experience, but I really start to wonder when I see 5 gallon jugs of “terps/flavors” go out the door at the grow store.
What if wholesale produce suppliers did that shit. They have some shit “soil”, shit genetics,sprayed with who knows what, bad practices in general. “My plants suck, they’re sick, my products suck, maybe I just need to add more whatever claiming enhanced grape flavors.” Not adding flavors outright is the claim. Stuffs spendy too. Right.
Never bought weed at a store, but I’d imagine the lack of flavor is a result of poor storage practices. It’s expensive to keep a place cool, terpenes start to evaporate at like normal room temperature
