| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Ten Ways Marijuana Testing Can Go Wrong
Follow TIS on Twitter: @Truth_is_Scary & Like TIS of Facebook- facebook.com/TruthisScary 
Jason Wilson, Laboratory Technologist for Kenevir Research/TheWeedBlog
There is a lot of skepticism in the cannabis community toward laboratories. The purpose of this article is to show how cannabis testing can go wrong, in order to help educate and empower people so they can recognize suspect results or methods and find a lab that produces results they can trust.
1) Residue Buildup in Analytical Instruments aka “ghost peaks”
One way that an instrument can produce bogus results is through residue buildup in the machine. When repeated analyses are performed, residues build up in the machine, eventually leading to highly exaggerated results. This is why regular tuning and maintenance of laboratory instruments is absolutely necessary for ensuring quality control.
2) Incompetence
Just because a machine produces a number and someone reports it, that does not ensure the validity of the result. The general rule of thumb is that any analytical laboratory should be managed by someone with a PhD and published in peer reviewed research journals. Most natural products laboratories also require that the person be actively pursuing further research and publishing papers regularly. You should feel comfortable asking your lab to provide information about the credentials of the lab’s staff.
3) Improper Cleaning of Tools and supplies
It is very important that all surfaces, tools, and gloves are cleaned and sterilized between the preparations of each sample. If this does not happen, there becomes cross contamination between samples and the results become invalid.
4) Mishandling of sample material
If a laboratory technician does not wear gloves, and hair nets if the technician has long hair, to prepare cannabis samples, not only does the sample become contaminated, but the oils on the skin will pick up the oils off of the cannabis sample, including the cannabinoids and terpenes, making the subsequent result invalid.
Source: http://truthisscary.com/2015/04/ten-ways-marijuana-testing-can-go-wrong/
