Cannabis oil is offered for sale on the Ontario Cannabis Store Web site. HANDOUT Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on The Trillium , a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Levels of THC in cannabis oils sold by the Ontario Cannabis Store — compared to the amounts identified on product labels — were wrong outside the variance allowed by federal cannabis regulations in 40 per cent of samples, a study at McMaster University showed.
Researchers bought 30 different oil products online from the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS), the government-owned monopoly cannabis wholesaler and online retailer, and analyzed them in a lab.
One sample contained 120 milligrams more THC than the label indicated.
Their findings were reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association .
Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the main psychoactive chemical in cannabis.
About 20 per cent of cannabis users overall — including both medical and recreational users — use cannabis oil, federal surveys show . However, about half of medical users reported using oil. Oil was widely available to medical users before legalization.
Medical users may well be trying to find a level of THC that will deal with symptoms, but be low enough to avoid intoxication as they go about their daily lives. Incorrect labelling of THC could lead to "inaccurate dosing," the researchers noted.
This could be a problem if, for example, a person decides they have reached their ideal dose based on an incorrect label and goes on to over-consume with a correctly labelled product, or vice versa.Reports show that since legalization, many medical users seem to have found it simpler to buy cannabis from the recreational market."It is worth noting that none of the products we tested contained greater amounts of THC than on the label at any level that would be expected to have different psychoactive effects," study co-author Amanda Doggett wrote in an e-mail. "This was a positive finding, because it meant there were no public safety concerns with any of the products we tested.""The present issue for individuals using cannabis for medical purposes is that labelling discrepancies may make […]
Lab testing shows THC levels wrong on 40% of oils sold by Ontario Cannabis Store
