The people of the United States, along with the rest of the world, are very excited about the potential of CBD, but they also have a lot of questions about the future of the CBD industry. Cannabis lab testing in Las Vegas involves testing all sorts of cannabis and hemp byproducts such as CBD drinks, CBD edibles and CBD oils for vaping. Kevin Fox from MyCBD.org was specifically interested in CBD lab testing and had the opportunity to talk to the director of operations at Digipath Labs along with the CEO, Todd Denkin.
“We are located in Las Vegas, Nevada.” responds Todd denkin. “It’s a little chilly here today. We have been here in Las Vegas for the last for years testing marijuana and hemp for potency, heavy metals, microbials and everything else the state of Nevada asks of us. We do the testing for all cannabis products across the board.”
“Did you start with just cannabis or did you do cannabis and hemp to start?’ Kevin asks.
Todd Denkin answers, “We do both, cannabis is obviously more heavily regulated than hemp and other CBD products. A lot of the hemp and CBD rules that are coming out are based on the cannabis rules and regulations in Nevada.”
Shelby chimes in, “The hemp program in Nevada didn’t start until last year though so that’s when we started getting a bulk of our hemp testing. Our hemp pilot program did not start until last year.”
“Why is it so important to have third party marijuana lab tests?” Kevin asks.
“Do you like to know what’s in your food, gasoline, water and milk? You should also know what is in your CBD products. Everything we consume is tested to ensure that whoever is making the product is what they claim it is. Because there is not a lot of education on CBD it is even more important to get a CBD product tested.”
“Currently in the state of Nevada you are only required to get potency testing but we are see a lot of CBD companies go above and beyond to get the testing so that when they present it to a dispensary or a CBD store it is almost used as a marketing tool. Look my product is clean.” Shelby adds.
“What kind of new testing are you seeing with these hemp products? What are they looking for?”
“Most everyone wants potency. How much CBD and which CBDs do we find. Everyone else want to know how much THC is in the product. Potency is important from a legal standpoint so that everyone knows how much of each molecule is in each dose. There is also terpene testing that people like to do because terpenes have a really big impact on the effectiveness of CBD. There is also all sorts of safety test from pesticides to a microbiology screen. We also test for heavy metals and moisture. We give everything a visual inspection as well.”
“A lot of people are seeing heavy metals in their soil so they want to do testing up front on their soil and water so they can know what they are starting off with. We try and help them from beginning to end.” Shelby adds.
The interview continues with Kevin asking Todd Denkin if he thinks there is a double standard in CBD lab testing. Conducting cannabis lab testing in Nevada has given Digipath Labs ample opportunity to consider the cannabis industry in all respects, but Mr. Denkin does not see a double standard in the testing cannabis, including CBD lab testing. He is also asked when the appropriate time for a CBD product manufacturer to start getting their products lab tested and what he sees for the future of the CBD industry. They are also asked about what sort of toxins and contaminants they find in cannabis, where Mr. Denkin talks about the rarity of finding pesticides or micro-organisms like e. Coli.