Journal:High levels of pesticides found in illicit cannabis inflorescence compared to licensed samples in Canadian study using expanded 327 pesticides multiresidue method
| Full article title | High levels of pesticides found in illicit cannabis inflorescence compared to licensed samples in Canadian study using expanded 327 pesticides multiresidue method |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of Cannabis Research |
| Author(s) | Gagnon, Mathieu; McRitchie, Tyler; Montsion, Kim; Tilly, Josée; Blais, Michel; Snider, Neil; Blais, David R. |
| Author affiliation(s) | Health Canada |
| Primary contact | Email: David dot Blais at hc dash sc dot gc dot ca |
| Year published | 2023 |
| Volume and issue | 5 |
| Article # | 34 |
| DOI | 10.1186/s42238-023-00200-0 |
| ISSN | 2522-5782 |
| Distribution license | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
| Website | https://jcannabisresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42238-023-00200-0 |
| Download | https://jcannabisresearch.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s42238-023-00200-0.pdf (PDF) |
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Abstract
Background: As Cannabis was legalized in Canada for recreational use in 2018 with the implementation of the Cannabis Act, regulations were put in place to ensure safety and consistency across the cannabis industry. This includes the requirement for licence holders to demonstrate that no unauthorized pesticides are used to treat cannabis or have contaminated it. In this study, we describe an expanded 327 multi-residue pesticide analysis in cannabis inflorescence to confirm if the implementation of the Cannabis Act is providing safer licensed products to Canadians in comparison to those of the illicit market.
Methods: An extensive multi-residue method was developed using a modified quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) sample preparation method using a combination of gas chromatography—triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC–MS/MS) and liquid chromatography—triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) for the simultaneous quantification of 327 active pesticide ingredients in cannabis inflorescence.
Results: Application of this method to Canadian licensed inflorescence samples revealed a six percent sample positivity rate, with only two pesticide residues detected—myclobutanil and dichlobenil—at the method’s lowest calibrated level (LCL) of 0.01 μg/g. Canadian illicit cannabis inflorescence samples that were analyzed showed a striking contrast with a 92 percent sample positivity rate, covering 23 unique pesticide active ingredients with 3.7 different pesticides identified on average per sample. Chlorpyrifos, imidacloprid, and myclobutanil were measured in illicit samples at concentrations up to three orders of magnitude above the method LCL of 0.01 μg/g.
Conclusion: These results demonstrate the need of an extensive multiresidue method capable of analyzing hundreds of pesticides simultaneously, to generate data for future policy and regulatory decision-making, and to enable Canadians to make safe cannabis choices.
Introduction
In 2018, Canada legalized the recreational usage of Cannabis, supplementing the framework for cannabis for medical purposes, which had been in place since 2001. With the Cannabis Act [Cannabis Act 2018] and its associated regulations [Cannabis Regulations 2018] coming into force in 2018, Canada sought to standardize and enforce consistency, health, and safety across Canada’s legal cannabis industry. To ensure safe cannabis products to Canadians, Health Canada regulates microbial and chemical contaminants, including pesticides. In addition to the existing analytical testing requirements under Canada's cannabis regulations, since January 2019, the industry must also follow the mandatory requirements for testing cannabis for pesticide active ingredients [Mandatory cannabis testing for pesticide active ingredients requirements 2019], where license holders must demonstrate that none of the 96 unauthorized pesticide active ingredients are used to treat cannabis or have contaminated it.
Prior to the regulations going into effect in January 2019, some 18 percent of licensed cannabis products contained unregistered pesticides, with myclobutanil, bifenazate, boscalid, and fludioxonil pesticides most commonly present (Moulins et al. 2018), and myclobutanil notably being classified as moderately hazardous by the World Health Organization (WHO). [WHO 2019] This study aims to determine if unregistered pesticides are still prevalent in the licensed market. To gain a broader view of pesticide usage during cannabis production, we streamlined, expanded, and validated a single method using a combination of gas chromatography—triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC–MS/MS) and liquid chromatography—triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) for the simultaneous quantification of 327 pesticide active ingredients in cannabis inflorescence, going well beyond the mandatory testinf of 96 pesticide active ingredients. [Mandatory cannabis testing for pesticide active ingredients requirements 2019] Although use of the licensed, legal cannabis market has been gaining ground in Canada since legalization, up to 13 percent of Canadians still report consuming illicit cannabis almost exclusively. [Canadian Cannabis Survey 2021] As such, illicit cannabis samples were also analyzed for pesticides in this study to determine how they compare to the Canadian licensed cannabis market.
Methods
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Notes
This presentation is faithful to the original, with only a few minor changes to presentation. Some grammar and punctuation was cleaned up to improve readability. In some cases important information was missing from the references, and that information was added. The original has multiple instances of citations jumping out of numerical order as the text progresses; because this wiki lists references in order of appearance, by design, citation order is affected and slightly different from the original. No other changes were made in accordance with the "NoDerivatives" portion of the license.
