Pubdate: Fri, 19 Jul 2013
Source: Herald, The (Everett, WA)
Copyright: 2013 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190
Author: Jeff Barnard, Associated Press

POT TESTING SPROUTS WITH ONSLAUGHT OF NEW LAWS

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - Marijuana testing used to mean checking to 
see if someone had been smoking it.

But with Oregon, Washington and Colorado all making pot more widely 
available to the public, laboratory testing for safety, purity, 
potency and active ingredients is adding to the legitimacy of the drug.

"This does demonstrate a shift in how we are beginning to treat 
marijuana in this country," said Mason Tvert, spokesman for the 
Marijuana Policy Project. "Legal products are regulated and sold in a 
controlled marketplace. And that's what we are going to see - are 
already beginning to see - with marijuana, be it for medical purposes 
or simply for adult use."

Last year, Washington and Colorado legalized marijuana for 
recreational use and moved to put the states in charge of regulating 
its sale to anyone old enough to drink booze.

Retail sales are expected to begin next year in the two states, after 
regulatory machinery is developed and in play. And like alcohol, 
marijuana is going to carry health warnings and a rating for potency, 
along with certification that it meets safety limits for pesticides, 
molds and microbes such as E. coli and salmonella.

Medical marijuana has been legal in Oregon since 1998, but patients 
had to grow the pot themselves or find a grower to do it for them. 
The Oregon Legislature recently legalized dispensaries where growers 
can sell marijuana that isn't directly provided to patients.

Gov. John Kitzhaber is expected to sign the law that also calls for 
pot sold in dispensaries to be tested for pesticides, mold and 
mildew. Rules have not yet been worked out on how that testing will be done.

Even such limited testing is good news for patients, said Dr. Alan 
Bates, a state senator who voted for Oregon's new law and a family 
doctor who prescribes marijuana for some of his patients. "I'm 
especially worried about pesticides being inhaled or ingested," Bates 
said. "We should treat it as a medical thing. If I told you there 
were herbicides and pesticides inside regular mediation, I don't 
think people would be happy about that."

Demand will determine if Oregon joins Washington and Colorado in 
requiring potency testing.

"That is important not only for medical researchers, but also 
patients, so they can go to a dispensary and say, I need a high-CBD 
strain," said Todd Dalotto, owner of Can! Research, Education and 
Consulting, a marijuana research company, and chairman of the Oregon 
Medical Marijuana Advisory Board, which is helping write the new 
rules for marijuana.

CBD is short for cannabidiol, a compound found in marijuana credited 
with a number of medical applications without providing a high 'This 
could also be something that the market can shake out." he said.

Market demand has already spawned a testing industry, with labs 
sprouting along with medical marijuana laws. Oregon, Washington and 
Colorado all have labs within their borders. State-mandated testing 
will involve certification of those labs.

"Once we have it standardized or certified, we should all be getting 
the same numbers," said Genifer Murray, CEO of CannLabs in Denver. 
"Then people can pick a lab based on customer service and other 
things, versus if they are the cheapest. At least we will be all on 
the same playing field."

Analytical 360, a Seattle lab that employs 10 people while testing 
medical marijuana for growers and dispensaries around Washington, is 
bracing for new competitors moving into the state from California. 
The lab also expects to open a branch in Oregon.

"It's like a gold rush," said Ed Stremlow, chief operating officer. 
"We expect a lot of competition."

He said Analytical 360 is already ahead of many competitors by doing 
mass spectrometry, a more expensive, technically demanding process 
that can detect pesticides and the active ingredients in marijuana - 
such as THC, the compound that gets users high - in their natural 
form, rather than a chemically altered form.

A full battery of tests will be expensive, adding about $500 to a 
5-pound lot of marijuana, which now sells for $1,500 to $3,500 a 
pound, he said.

Regulations will also make it possible to trace contaminated pot to 
its source, the same way it's done with hamburger.

Murray said Oregon is making a mistake by not testing for potency, 
especially in edible forms of pot such as cookies and brownies. In 
Colorado and Washington, labels are likely to detail the 
concentrations of different compounds in the products.

"If it's medicine, you need to dose it," she said. "You can't just, 
say, take a few puffs every few hours. You can't die from eating 
cannabis, but you sure can feel like dying if you eat too much."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom