Vape stores and smoke shops around the state are selling illegal marijuanatainted with toxic pesticides, according to the results of testing performed this month by two labs on dozens of joints, vapes and edibles purchased in stores from Tallahassee to Miami and online by the Herald/Times.
Many of the tested items, all sold as hemp products, registered with a potency that by legal definition classified them as marijuana. Some were contaminated with pesticides that are either banned outright or are unauthorized for use in the industry.
The results – delivered as Florida voters decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana — reveal that the state’s approximately $10 billion hemp industry is already selling marijuana over the counter in an under-regulated market that is allowing potentially dangerous products to slip through to customers.
Three-and-a-half grams of Skunk Breath hemp flower sold in a baggie labeled in black marker at The Smoke Bodega in Tampa had 19.6% total THC, the psychoactive substance in marijuana that gets people high. Havana Hemp Zkittles flower purchased in One Stop Smoke Shop in North Miami Beach had 22% total THC. Habit Sauce Lava Cake, a rechargeable vape pen bought in Tampa at Kush Cloud, had 76.1% total THC, by far the highest amount among all the products tested for the Herald/Times.
Of the retailers and manufacturers whose products were found to be contaminated or potent far beyond the legal limit, nearly all that responded to questions pushed back on the lab results, saying their products are tested to meet the standards of the law for both potency and purity. Some also disputed the legality of Florida’s hemp regulations, the framework under which the Herald/Times’ conducted its investigation.
Under Florida regulations, hemp is cannabis that contains a total THC concentration of 0.3% or less of delta-9-THC, the compound widely known for producing the mind-altering effects associated with marijuana, and THCA, which converts to delta-9-THC when heated. Anything under that threshold can be sold over the counter to customers who are at least 21, even if it contains similar, intoxicating substances like delta-8. Anything more powerful is considered marijuana, and is illegal outside Florida’s medical marijuana program.
To get a sense for how often marijuana is being sold as hemp — and whether the products are pure — reporters for the Herald/Times purchased 41 different hemp items from a half-dozen Florida cities, both online and at stores, and one more sent through the mail from an out-of-state company.
Twenty-two joints, canisters or bags of hemp flower, 12 vapes and seven gummies were tested for potency, pesticides and mold by Lakeland’s Modern Canna Laboratories, one of only three certified by the state to test both hemp and marijuana. This is what the lab found:
Among 41 samples tested for potency, 35 contained illegal total THC concentrations. Five gummies and one vape were below the legal threshold.
Every flower product purchased was too potent to be considered hemp under Florida regulations. Some contained potency levels comparable to the marijuana sold at the state’s medical dispensaries.
Among 26 flower and vape samples tested for pesticides, 12 failed. The most common pesticide detected was a fungicide called myclobutanil, which is banned in Florida for inhalation and releases the toxic chemical hydrogen cyanide when vaped or smoked.
Among nine flower samples tested for mold, two failed.
Seven samples were also sent to a lab in Michigan, to help verify the results. The conclusion of the tests — performed at a discount by both labs, given the public interest in the issue — were similar for each product.
Most of the 34 retailers and manufacturers whose products were tested by the Herald/Times disputed the findings.
“Our company reviews all lab reports before purchasing from licensed growers, whose crops are tested by the Dept. of Ag before being harvested,” Howard Ullman, owner of the Miami-Based Havana Hemp, wrote in an email. “Your lab test most likely was done improperly.” One Stop Smoke Shop, which sells Havana Hemp, could not be reached for comment.
Aileen Diaz, co-owner of The Smoke Bodega in Tampa, said “our federally legal cannabis products are often tested multiple times before it is available to consumers.”
Companies questioned Modern Canna’s testing method. They suggested products had been tainted after leaving the manufacturer. And they argued that, according to federal guidelines, the Herald/Times had the products tested for potency at the wrong time, inflating their results.
“We follow the applicable laws,” said Nick Warrender, the CEO of Urb, a Wisconsin-based hemp-extract manufacturer whose tangie banana vape pen tested at 5.92% total THC – nearly 20 times above the legal levels for Florida hemp. Warrender shared a lab result for the same product showing high levels of the psychoactive substance delta-8 but no detection of delta-9. He said the different results weren’t evidence of problems with his product, but rather a need for consistent standards for testing.
Under federal law, hemp manufacturers are required to test their products 30 days before harvest to ensure compliance. Companies often make the results of lab reports available with their products when marketing them online.
Florida requires a second round of random batch testing before products intended for human consumption go to market. The state Department of Agriculture also largely bans a cannabinoid called THCA that converts to delta-9-THC when vaped or smoked — a rule that is the source of at least one administrative challenge.
Patrick O’Brien, the owner of Chronic Guru farms and dispensaries — which owns a lounge in Orlando where customers can drink hemp tonics — says he, too, is complying with state and federal law laid after Congress legalized hemp in the 2018 Farm Bill.
“There is no gray to this whatsoever,” said O’Brien, who told the Herald/Times he has trained thousands of Florida hemp and marijuana farmers. “This is no loophole.”
As for the retailers selling the product in stores around the state, those contacted said they do what they can to purchase hemp from reliable sources.
“All the stores in Miami sell some kind of hemp products, but the retailers have no idea about the testing. We’re not going to retest them. That’s why it’s already been sold legally,” said Noe Ruiz, owner of Cloud City Smoke Shop, which sold the Herald/Times illegally potent Destino Farms hemp flower joints that tested positive for pesticides, and a canister of flower with unsafe levels of mold and yeast.
“For us, it’s just another product we sell in the store.”
Flying under the radar
The Herald/Times’ findings echo those by the American Council for Independent Laboratories, the country’s largest trade organization for testing labs, which investigated hemp products in six other states early this year. The Florida Department of Agriculture also said Modern Canna’s results are consistent with its own efforts to regulate the hemp market, which have led to the removal of more than 1.1 million packages of products from shelves since June of 2023.
State lawmakers have been aware of the potency of hemp products. They passed a bill this year that would have effectively banned psychoactive hemp. Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed it, citing concerns about what it would have introduced “dramatic disruption and harm” to the thousands of small businesses that comprise the industry.
The results of the Herald/Times’ investigation are notable in the context of the approaching decision on Amendment 3, which would open the door for medical marijuana companies to compete with hemp retailers and manufacturers in a recreational market. Matt Hawkins, the founder of Entourage Effect Capital, said the market has the opportunity to develop into a $7 billion industry.
Critics warn that an over-the-counter marijuana market would harm the state. But studies, sources and the Herald/Times’ own testing suggest it’s already here, unofficially. And while marijuana companies have been criticized for their safeguarding of their products — including tainted products that have been recalled — the hemp industry, which today is meeting the demands of Florida’s retail market, is considered by some to be less regulated.
“Even the legal, regulated cannabis industry is not known for prioritizing consumer safety,” Jonathan Caulkins, who studies illegal drug markets at Carnegie Mellon University, said after discussing the Herald/Times’ findings.
“It’s an aggressive kind of industry, on average,” he said. “And within that space, the hemp side of it are the ones who, by reputation, are the move-fast-and-break-things people.”
Unlike Florida’s medical marijuana dispensaries, which grow the marijuana they sell, hemp products in Florida can be grown around the country, distributed by middle men and sold in everything from gas stations to grocery stores.
Herald/Times reporters visited smoke shops, vape stores and lounges in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa and Tallahassee. They purchased hemp buds sold in branded canisters and unlabeled plastic baggies, pre-rolled joints, one of which was rolled in keef, and gummies that promised both a tropical punch flavor and “high potency.” The stores varied from smoke shops selling pipes and bongs to full-blown lounges.
The average joint or canister of hemp flower purchased by the Herald/Times and tested by Modern Canna contained 14% total THC. That’s comparable to some of the flower sold at Florida’s medical marijuana dispensaries.
Beyond potency, on nearly half the 26 flower products tested, Modern Canna also found any of nine pesticides at concentrations that are illegal and unsafe for human consumption under state law.
The most commonly found chemical was a fungicide called myclobutanil, which has been found both in hemp and marijuana products. It is banned in Florida for inhalation and releases hydrogen cyanide when vaped or smoked, which will concentrate in the body over time, said Dr. Oliver Grundmann, who researches the effects of natural products on the brain at the University of Florida’s College of Pharmacy.
Grundmann said the level of myclobutanil found in a Mr. Weedzy THCA joint bought in an Orlando smoke shop was “extremely high and likely concerning in regards to both acute and chronic exposure.” He said it could cause an immediate, temporary health reaction like dizziness or fatigue as well as a future, ongoing complication like memory problems. Representatives for the company behind Mr. Weedzy couldn’t be reached for comment.
In smaller doses, exposure to chemicals found in the products tested by the Herald/Times have been known to cause vomiting, headaches, diarrhea, shortness of breath and skin or eye irritation.
In instances of prolonged exposure, several have been tied to serious health conditions. Bifenthrin is classified as a possible human carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency. Chlorpyrifos is banned in California after research suggested it had “serious health effects in children and other sensitive populations” including “impaired brain and neurological development,” according to the California Department of Health. Studies suggest that chlordane, present in a Hidden Hills Club Liquid Diamond vape cartridge purchased in Fort Lauderdale last month and tested for this story, has links to cancer. Chlordane has been banned from all uses by the Environmental Protection Agency since 1988.
In an email, Jordan Marquez, of Hidden Hills Club, challenged the accuracy of Modern Canna’s results.
“Our comprehensive testing and independent laboratory results consistently confirm the absence of pesticides,” he wrote, “which raises concerns about the accuracy of the results provided by your testing laboratory, as these findings do not align with our documented compliance records.”
Steph Sherer, who founded Americans for Safe Access in 2002 to promote healthier cannabis use for medical patients, said her biggest concerns with pesticides are related to long-term exposure.
“It’s not like you use one of these products with these pesticides and you turn purple, and then you’re like ‘oh, I should stop using that,’” she said. “For all of these pesticides, [with] long-term exposure, [there] are things they may not see until they have children.”
Hemp companies push back
Some companies told the Herald/Times that, if pesticides were found on their products, they were likely tainted after leaving the manufacturer.
Thynk Industries, a hemp and psychedelics business management firm, sent a six-page letter defending Destino Farms, a Miami-based hemp manufacturer and distributor whose products contained excessive levels of THC, pesticides and, in one case, yeast and mold. The letter said Modern Canna’s testing results for pesticides and mold were “unusually high” and there was a “strong possibility” that the products were contaminated during handling, storage or lab processing — after the products left Destino Farms.
It “appears highly unlikely” that the amounts of pesticides could have come from “normal agricultural practices,” wrote Chris Girard and Aaron Pelley, of Thynk Industries. “Our clients take great care to ensure that their cultivation and production processes are fully compliant with the law.”
Regarding seven grams of Destino Farms Alaskan Thunderf–k flower found to contain 17.2% total THC and levels of yeast and mold high above industry standards, Girard and Pelley said contamination likely occurred “during post-harvest handling, storage or testing.”
“Without clear information on storage conditions, timelines, or procedures, it’s difficult to conclude that the contamination occurred during the manufacturing process,” they said.
Problems were found in products purchased around the state.
A Kush Cake joint bought in Tampa and produced by the St. Petersburg company Uplift had a total THC of more than 13% and nearly 62-times the legal limit of the pesticide chlormequat chloride, which in high enough doses can cause an irregular heartbeat, tremors, seizures or even death, according to a New Jersey Department of Health fact sheet on the “hazardous substance.”
Girard and Pelley also sent a four-page letter defending Uplift.
“The elevated concentration suggests contamination/adulteration rather than standard application,” they wrote. “Given that Uplift CBD does not use this substance in their processes, it is likely that the contamination occurred post-harvest, potentially from contact with contaminated equipment, or mishandling during transport or storage.”
The rechargeable Habit Sauce Lava Cake vape pen bought in Tampa with 76.1% total THC contained nearly 2.5-times the concentration limit of bifenthrin. The company that makes the pen, Habit CBD in San Diego, did not comment.
Audrey Basar, who owns the smoke shop Kush Cloud where the joint and vape were bought, said that “as a small business owner, we trust our vendors to provide us with products that comply” with the law and the “analyses they provide show they comply.”
In Tallahassee, a Red Dragon flower bud bought from 18 Plus Vapor and Smoke Shop failed tests for both potency and pesticides. It had four times the regulation concentration of chlormequat chloride and eight times the regulation limit of paclobutrazol, a plant growth regulator and fungicide that contains a drug used in hormonal breast-cancer treatment and blocks the production of estrogen.
The store owner, Ali Alabedkamel, said he was surprised. He said that, like a lot of smoke shops, he buys that product all the time from an Orlando wholesaler.
“We don’t buy flower from everyone. It has to be from a good wholesaler we trust,” Alabedkamel said.
Mike Ayesh, CEO of Hydro Energy Inc. and Red Dragon in Lakeland, which distributes the Red Dragon products to wholesalers, said they test for potency and pesticides. But once they ship the products, “a lot of things change when it goes to different hands” in the marketplace, he said.
And he said if products they test come back too potent, they throw them out.
“We’ve lost a lot of business doing that,” Ayesh said.
A spokesperson said the Florida Department of Agriculture “has pursued criminal charges for hemp that is in violation of Florida law” but did not provide details in time for publication. According to Florida law, a person selling illegally potent hemp is only behaving criminally if they have “a culpable mental state greater than negligence.”
Fighting the state
Some hemp companies say the Florida Department of Agriculture’s rule is improperly treating hemp products as illegal. A challenge filed this year by The Hemp Dispensary claims state regulators told the company THCA was legal — only to turn around and ban all but small concentrations of the compound.
“The Department usurped its authority in enacting a new definition of hemp,” the company stated, nodding to the limited power state agencies have in interpreting Florida law under the state Constitution.
O’Brien, the owner of Chronic Guru, which advertises its products as highly potent, said the industry is also pushing back against the Department of Agriculture’s rule that hemp flower be tested a second time for total THC before it is sold.
Products purchased at his Orlando lounge and tested by the Herald/Times — a vape called Koko Puffs, a joint called Sweet Tart and a small jar of flower called Mochi — had total THC levels of 12.9%, 18.8% and 20.5%, respectively. O’Brien said that’s all legal, because plants continue to mature after harvesting and can become highly potent when vaped or smoked, a position supported by at least one attorney who represents hemp companies.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires one test on hemp plants before harvest, but a spokesperson said the Department doesn’t regulate products from the plant.
Former Florida Democratic Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who oversaw the creation of the hemp program in 2020, told the Herald/Times she agreed that federal law didn’t require testing after harvest, but pushed for stricter regulations. Holly Bell, who implemented the hemp program under Fried, said the department performed random inspections and took other steps to keep “non compliant hemp” out of the market.
A spokesperson for Republican Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson’s office said that flower intended to be smoked meets the definition of a hemp product “intended for human consumption,” which requires random batch testing before distribution or sale, including for total THC — a point at which higher-potency strains of hemp, like the kind O’Brien sells, fail.
O’Brien said the change in position threatens the vitality of the industry, which according to the state Agriculture Department includes more than 9,500 companies licensed to sell hemp.
“You’ve got almost 10,000 businesses,” O’Brien told the Herald/Times. “These are family-based businesses, small mom-and-pop people that dumped a tremendous amount of money into investing in these businesses based on these laws that were put in place.”
H/T: www.miamiherald.com
