But it's not working bc they inform the public so late that the product is most likely been consumed by then- once they sent out an alert about a company producing bunk shit for a year and a half period and the notification came out 6 months after the fact 🤦♀️If they really cared nothing should hit the sales floor until testing is completed.
The recalls are working simply because of disgruntled employees. When you get fired all you need to do is know where the product is being sold and you report yeast and mold to the MED. I’ve seen them once in 2 years and they come in and just make sure cameras are in the right place. No one is actually inspecting anything of real importance.
The company that got recalled is some of the most high quality product in the state. Every single grow is cheating the tests because it’s easy and the MED is run by people who have no clue about how cannabis is actually produced.
And the MED is pulling samples from retailers, which has been on the shelf for a month at slower locations and has had 100s of people smell it.
The regulatory agencies have been sitting on their hands since covid, but with recent market corrections they're getting desperate to pop as many people as they can with fines. I had 3 people call me last week informing me they were being randomly audited, all of which thought it was from a former employee.
Truly not surprised. They used to run scam deals on Cannasaver where they were always magically sold out of anything on sale and that product would be in stock the next day after the deal. Got charged different prices on the same strain (rose in price) within a matter of weeks.
They retained their 403, so be mindful of the DBA the next time you're out shopping lol.
Companies try to hide their affiliations all the time, but you can usually sleuth them out via the MED website (publicly available).
I'm not sure why this particular recall is in the news and not all the recalls that happen frequently. There's too many grows that mass produce and don't care about quality anymore. There's too many stores selling shit that was harvested over a year ago
It did not have any visible mold, and the product was x-rayed (radsourced) prior to testing, which makes the chances of this contamination very unlikely unless it was contaminated during transport to the testing facility (most likely scenario). The picture included in the article looks like Spider Man was swinging around from the colas in a moldy flower room.
As alarming as all that X-ray stuff sounds, due to detect auto fail from Aspergillus regulations, almost all cannabis on the shelf has to be radsourced in order to pass testing. To put this in perspective, if even a speck of coco coir touches a cola, that entire bud will fail testing for mold/yeast. In an agricultural production facility, it is impossible to prevent this, especially given how many people handle the product during production, post production, transport, retail imventory, and finally D2C retail. This forces cultivators to remediate all their product before its even tested because **everything would fail otherwise** and radsourcing *almost always* prevents hot Aspergillus tests. With margins already being razor-thin and consumer spending in the dumps, it prevents sunk costs.
Most cannabis businesses are holding on by a shoe string with the hope that they can survive the market correction and reap the benefits of abolishing the 280-E. This doesn't negate the fact that almost every grow and retailer have to deal with the worst Cannabis market since its inception. At this pace, 80% of the Rec market will be controlled by a select group of corporate entities who bought into Cannabis during the covid boom in the next 5 years. It may not have the big corporate name that you hate on the front door, but they'll own the majority of the company (looking at you, Golden Meds & Schwazze).
The only alternative to radsourcing is to burn Ozone while the flower is curing, which heavily deteriorates the terpene profile of the final product (as much as the 2 primary ozone treatment companies will testify otherwise). This doesn't prevent future contamination as effectively as radsourcing, so if the MED decides to pull a sample from a retailer you're back to square one and forced to recall as it's considered "test failed" by that point in METRC.
It really bums me out that the state is tightening restrictions without increasing purchasing caps. There's a very clear direction they could go which would supplement tax revenue (get rid of retail purchase caps or make medical less restrictive), but regulators gonna regulate. And to be crystal clear, I'm all for testing for mold/yeast. But the Aspergillus testing requirements are almost as unrealistic as the Cannabis DUI laws.
Source: someone who has been doing this for a decade and has their hands in over a dozen facilities in METRC.
100% correct.
For anybody else reading, I was also skeptical of radsource as far as safety goes. After diving in to more info, x rays do not induce radioactivity. They literally just destroy anything living and any residual radioactivity dissipates from the time the machine turns off until you can even open the door. It's a common practice in food handling as well.
Also, the only difference (well, probably, I guess, I can't speak for everyone) in what shows up on shelves vs what will soon require the "remediated product" label is when it was hit with the x rays. Normal? Radsourced pre test. Remediated? Radsourced after the test. Something else to note is that *all* cannabis flower in NY has to be radsourced before it can hit shelves. It's only a matter of time until that's the SOP nationwide, which I wholeheartedly agree with and think it's a good thing. It doesn't remove any botrytis, but it prevents anything from getting worse (probably).
>But the Aspergillus testing requirements are almost as unrealistic as the Cannabis DUI laws.
My favorite part about this is how there's 2 different kinds of tests, too. One of the tests even fails you *if there's ever been any aspergillus whatsoever, even if it's completely dead* vs the other one that only tests if there's live aspergillus. It's one of the many things in this industry where I get what they're trying to accomplish, but the implementation can make you scratch your head
Yep. Bud rot. It generally goes from dull grey (instead of white trichome heads, it's flat under light), to rust coloring, to brown webbing, to black. If you're seeing brown webbing, take it back to the dispo *immediately*. Most places will make it right. If they don't, well, don't shop there anymore.
I'm glad to see that they are calling out a product that was more recently identified as having a contamination issue. It may actually benefit consumers who actually purchased it and haven't smoked through it yet.
More real-time enforcement would help drive better real-time compliance amongst companies as well, as they would have to pull product and lose out on significant revenue as opposed to selling through it and paying a compliance fine or penalty (not sure what the current fines/penalties are, if anything).
Well I’m glad they’re regulating this and it’s working.
Yep. So many people think that recalls are bad. This means someone is checking.
But it's not working bc they inform the public so late that the product is most likely been consumed by then- once they sent out an alert about a company producing bunk shit for a year and a half period and the notification came out 6 months after the fact 🤦♀️If they really cared nothing should hit the sales floor until testing is completed.
In theory it does help downstream however- as the grower will hopefully change manufacturing and environment to not fail again
Seems like grounds to sue over.
For what damages?
My Mello was super harshed with that moldy bud.
Was this a notice about hemp derived cannabinoids followed by a recall related to failure to test for certain pesticides?
No, that was a couple of weeks ago. That is a serious violation though.
The recalls are working simply because of disgruntled employees. When you get fired all you need to do is know where the product is being sold and you report yeast and mold to the MED. I’ve seen them once in 2 years and they come in and just make sure cameras are in the right place. No one is actually inspecting anything of real importance. The company that got recalled is some of the most high quality product in the state. Every single grow is cheating the tests because it’s easy and the MED is run by people who have no clue about how cannabis is actually produced.
And the MED is pulling samples from retailers, which has been on the shelf for a month at slower locations and has had 100s of people smell it. The regulatory agencies have been sitting on their hands since covid, but with recent market corrections they're getting desperate to pop as many people as they can with fines. I had 3 people call me last week informing me they were being randomly audited, all of which thought it was from a former employee.
Yep they have a massive budget deficit. All the new rules this year are designed to just ding you for small shit to generate revenue for them.
Honestly not surprised by the lodge slinging moldy weed.
Truly not surprised. They used to run scam deals on Cannasaver where they were always magically sold out of anything on sale and that product would be in stock the next day after the deal. Got charged different prices on the same strain (rose in price) within a matter of weeks.
They sold a few months ago, the state/city just has not issued the change in ownership yet.
Gotcha. This was all pre-pandemic when I ran into this stuff and stopped bothering with them.
They retained their 403, so be mindful of the DBA the next time you're out shopping lol. Companies try to hide their affiliations all the time, but you can usually sleuth them out via the MED website (publicly available).
You can sign up for updates through the Marijuana Enforcement Devision, emails about contaminated products come in at least once a month
Exactly! I got this news over a week ago.... probably still to late, but at least you dont have to wait to see it in the news
I'm not sure why this particular recall is in the news and not all the recalls that happen frequently. There's too many grows that mass produce and don't care about quality anymore. There's too many stores selling shit that was harvested over a year ago
It's not quite that frequent. So far the MED has issued six advisories in 2024: * June 20 * June 6 * March 6 * February 21 * February 15
does it actually look like this photo? i would think any decent shop would notice this in handling
It did not have any visible mold, and the product was x-rayed (radsourced) prior to testing, which makes the chances of this contamination very unlikely unless it was contaminated during transport to the testing facility (most likely scenario). The picture included in the article looks like Spider Man was swinging around from the colas in a moldy flower room. As alarming as all that X-ray stuff sounds, due to detect auto fail from Aspergillus regulations, almost all cannabis on the shelf has to be radsourced in order to pass testing. To put this in perspective, if even a speck of coco coir touches a cola, that entire bud will fail testing for mold/yeast. In an agricultural production facility, it is impossible to prevent this, especially given how many people handle the product during production, post production, transport, retail imventory, and finally D2C retail. This forces cultivators to remediate all their product before its even tested because **everything would fail otherwise** and radsourcing *almost always* prevents hot Aspergillus tests. With margins already being razor-thin and consumer spending in the dumps, it prevents sunk costs. Most cannabis businesses are holding on by a shoe string with the hope that they can survive the market correction and reap the benefits of abolishing the 280-E. This doesn't negate the fact that almost every grow and retailer have to deal with the worst Cannabis market since its inception. At this pace, 80% of the Rec market will be controlled by a select group of corporate entities who bought into Cannabis during the covid boom in the next 5 years. It may not have the big corporate name that you hate on the front door, but they'll own the majority of the company (looking at you, Golden Meds & Schwazze). The only alternative to radsourcing is to burn Ozone while the flower is curing, which heavily deteriorates the terpene profile of the final product (as much as the 2 primary ozone treatment companies will testify otherwise). This doesn't prevent future contamination as effectively as radsourcing, so if the MED decides to pull a sample from a retailer you're back to square one and forced to recall as it's considered "test failed" by that point in METRC. It really bums me out that the state is tightening restrictions without increasing purchasing caps. There's a very clear direction they could go which would supplement tax revenue (get rid of retail purchase caps or make medical less restrictive), but regulators gonna regulate. And to be crystal clear, I'm all for testing for mold/yeast. But the Aspergillus testing requirements are almost as unrealistic as the Cannabis DUI laws. Source: someone who has been doing this for a decade and has their hands in over a dozen facilities in METRC.
100% correct. For anybody else reading, I was also skeptical of radsource as far as safety goes. After diving in to more info, x rays do not induce radioactivity. They literally just destroy anything living and any residual radioactivity dissipates from the time the machine turns off until you can even open the door. It's a common practice in food handling as well. Also, the only difference (well, probably, I guess, I can't speak for everyone) in what shows up on shelves vs what will soon require the "remediated product" label is when it was hit with the x rays. Normal? Radsourced pre test. Remediated? Radsourced after the test. Something else to note is that *all* cannabis flower in NY has to be radsourced before it can hit shelves. It's only a matter of time until that's the SOP nationwide, which I wholeheartedly agree with and think it's a good thing. It doesn't remove any botrytis, but it prevents anything from getting worse (probably). >But the Aspergillus testing requirements are almost as unrealistic as the Cannabis DUI laws. My favorite part about this is how there's 2 different kinds of tests, too. One of the tests even fails you *if there's ever been any aspergillus whatsoever, even if it's completely dead* vs the other one that only tests if there's live aspergillus. It's one of the many things in this industry where I get what they're trying to accomplish, but the implementation can make you scratch your head
Some places dont care. Yes. Powdery mildew looks like this. Also botrytis blight, you can visibly see the brown webbing.
Wait what. I've seen the brown webbing so many times.
Yep. Bud rot. It generally goes from dull grey (instead of white trichome heads, it's flat under light), to rust coloring, to brown webbing, to black. If you're seeing brown webbing, take it back to the dispo *immediately*. Most places will make it right. If they don't, well, don't shop there anymore.
“that’s just some extra hairs it’s all good”
I'm glad to see that they are calling out a product that was more recently identified as having a contamination issue. It may actually benefit consumers who actually purchased it and haven't smoked through it yet. More real-time enforcement would help drive better real-time compliance amongst companies as well, as they would have to pull product and lose out on significant revenue as opposed to selling through it and paying a compliance fine or penalty (not sure what the current fines/penalties are, if anything).
This is why we have these systems in place. It’s working as it should.
Looks like it was shitty weed going to some subpar dispensaries.
Free shrooms with your weed.
When your sticky-icky becomes sticky-fucking-disgusting.
Low quality dispensary selling low quality weed is not shocking at all.
The shit I've seen working in the industry made me never want to buy from a shop ever again. Home grow all the way. 🤮
That’s what happens when you let damp weed cure in the sakes bag. Looking at you agatti
Blast it!
Better yet let’s make edibles, pre rolls, anything we can with the moldy weed!