Well, it’s starting. People are coming out of the woodwork claiming injuries and adverse effects from vaping the supposedly “contaminated” Craft Carts.
Some people in this industry have known for years that this was going on and that it would continue. This is what happens when companies prioritize making the cheapest carts and prerolls possible using low-grade cannabis biomass. People experience real, sometimes serious, side effects from these products.
The fact that something is marketed as hemp doesn’t automatically make it any worse than the low-quality cannabis products already circulating in the recreational market. Most THCA and Delta-9 products sold in the hemp market are not made from CBD distillate converted into THC. They’re made from cannabis biomass sourced from legal recreational grows, then relabeled and resold through gray-market and legal hemp markets. The same material is being sold under different labels in different markets. This is something people in the industry need to be honest about.
I know for a fact that many of these budget companies use CannaCrunchers distillate. It’s dirt cheap by the gallon and shipped to nearly all 50 states. Third-party COAs and consumer-shared lab results are available from people across multiple states. Based on what I’ve seen, I’d trust some of those results over many COAs coming directly from Colorado producers. We all know there are legitimate concerns about testing standards, pesticides, microbial contamination, and potential conflicts of interest in this state.
And here’s the irony: methylene chloride, a banned substance, was found in BDT alpha-pinene used in these products. In this instance, the alpha-pinene was not cannabis-derived. Yet somehow, the conversation has shifted toward demonizing CBD-derived THC, which isn't even what these products are made from. The actual concern is the contaminated terpene ingredient and its source, not some assumption that hemp products or THC distillate are inherently dangerous.
We should be educating people about what they’re buying, where it comes from, how it’s made, and the risks involved. We also need to be careful about how these controversies are used to push an agenda. Blanket attacks on hemp can lead to legislation that restricts access to medicine, eliminates competition, and determines who gets to produce these products, how they’re made, and under what regulations.
Lastly, BDTs have no place in medical cannabis products. Patients deserve transparency about what they’re inhaling, where ingredients come from, and how products are tested. Contaminated ingredients should never make it into inhalable products, and medical cannabis should be held to a higher standard than simply being cheap to manufacture and profitable to sell.
If we genuinely care about consumer safety, we need to scrutinize the entire industry, follow the evidence, and hold the right people accountable. We cannot condemn one part of the market while ignoring the same problems elsewhere. Consumer safety should never become an excuse for industry politics or misinformation.
