Potency and Pesticide Content in Medical vs. Recreational Marijuana
Potency and Pesticide Content in Medical vs. Recreational Marijuana
21 Mar 2016Both forensic toxicology and cannabis-specific testing laboratories are looking for fast, reliable, and cost-effective methods to determine cannabis potency and pesticides in medical and/or recreational marijuana. This application utilizes the advantages of QuEChERS to extract for both pesticides and cannabinoids including tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD), tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA-A) and cannabinol (CBN) in marijuana, followed by either serial dilutions for cannabis potency analysis, or a dispersive solid phase extraction (dSPE) cleanup for pesticide residue analysis. This hybrid method allows for the QuEChERs approach, which is extensively used in the food testing industry, to be utilized in a medico-legal setting.