Pesticide Testing for the Cannabis Industry: The Importance of LC-MS/MS for Obtaining Accurate Results in a Complex Matrix

In the early years, regulations for medical marijuana focused on the aspects of production, possession, and prescription. There was little if any regulatory incentive to analyze cannabis samples for anything other than the major cannabinoids. When Colorado and Washington legalized adult-use marijuana in 2012, interest in testing cannabis and related products such as concentrates and edibles grew dramatically. While cannabis samples are analyzed for a variety of items such as potency, terpenes, microbial contamination, metals, and residual solvents, the most controversy has been related to the amount of pesticides (a term used to describe pesticides, miticides, plant growth regulators, and fungicides) present in cannabis samples. Here, Winkler et al determine the target analyses and the maximum residual limit.