Just in, if you are buying illegal marijuana in New York City, be careful where you buy it. Some cannabis in NYC bodegas have tested positive for E.coli, Salmonella, and lead. Roughly 40% of products purchased from 20 illicit stores in the city were found to contain some of these harmful contaminants according to a report commissioned by the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association.
Along with harmful contaminants, some of the products also included double the amount of advertised THC. This is due to the lack of regulation and illegal nature of the cannabis industry within the state. This should all be resolved soon with dispensaries opening within the next few months. These new dispensaries are heavily regulated and will be held to a high standard or risk losing their rights to sell.
All of the items acquired during this report also failed the state’s proposed branding regulations. This means many of the products included images of copyrighted food brands. This mix and match of popular food brands could be dangerous due to kids possibly confusing these cannabis products with real food.
This study was done last August with many of the stores selling the drugs found on Google Maps or Facebook. Many of these shops are trying to fit between the legal boundaries of legal cannabis and dispensaries. Due to dispensaries not being open and weed becoming legal recently, these shops are trying to make a quick buck by selling low quality cannabis products.
Read the entire Bloomberg article here.
