Canada’s legalization of cannabis oil and other nonmedical cannabis products in 2018 has not led to better quality control and accurate product labeling, new research suggested.
The first study of the label accuracy of cannabis oil products in the legal Canadian market found “discrepancies at multiple levels,” the authors wrote. One third of products purchased for the study differed from their online tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) descriptions, and 16.7% had conflicting information on the label.
“Research from US legal markets has found issues with label inaccuracy of THC and CBD content on legal cannabis products, but despite nearly five years of legalization, no study had similarly looked at products in the Canadian market,” study authors James MacKillop, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences, and Amanda Doggett, PhD, postdoctoral fellow, both at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, told Medscape Medical News.
The study was published on June 5, 2024, in JAMA Network Open.
“A key benefit of legalization is the regulatory framework that governs product composition, but if the label accuracy requirements aren’t being adhered to, then this goal of the Cannabis Act is not being realized,” they said. “In fact, one reason we selected cannabis oils was because the uniform formulation (unlike plant matter or foods) was expected to set a high benchmark for accuracy.”
Read the full article at Medscape
