What the BC Government Found When They Tested Illicit Cannabis

The BC Government's Community Safety Unit seized 25 samples of dried cannabis flower and 25 vape cartridges from illicit cannabis retailers. These were sent to Health Canada's Drug Analysis Service laboratory and the National Research Council of Canada for independent chemical analysis.

The testing looked at three things: THC concentration (to see if products were delivering what they claimed), pesticide contamination (to see what chemicals were present that should not be), and vitamin E acetate in vape cartridges (a compound linked to serious lung injury in the United States). The results were published in the BC Government's Chemical Analysis of Illicit Cannabis report.

It is worth noting that this testing only covered a portion of the contaminants that legal cannabis producers are required to test for. The illicit products were not tested for heavy metals, mould, or the full suite of microbial contaminants. What was found represents a floor, not a ceiling.

The 25 dried cannabis samples showed THC concentrations ranging from 8.1% all the way up to 24.3%. That sounds like a wide range, and it is. But the important detail is that 20 of the 25 samples came in below 20% THC.

Why does that matter? Because legal cannabis products available at licensed retailers in BC average 25.7% THC. Illicit cannabis is frequently marketed as premium, high-potency product, but the testing shows that most of it is delivering less than what comparable legal products offer.

None of the illicit dried cannabis samples had THC information on the packaging. Customers buying from unlicensed sources have no way of knowing what they are actually getting. The chart below shows the THC concentration found in each of the 25 samples.

The vape cartridge results were more troubling. THC concentrations ranged from undetectable in one sample all the way up to 74.5%. The average across the 24 samples where THC was detected was 34.2%.

For context, a review of nearly 100 vape cartridges available at BC Cannabis Stores found an average THC concentration of 75.2%. The illicit products were delivering less than half the THC of comparable legal products on average.

Seven of the 25 illicit vape cartridges had an advertised THC concentration on the packaging. Those seven products claimed an average of 83% THC. The actual tested concentration for those same seven cartridges averaged 19.9%. That is not a rounding error. It is a gap of more than 60 percentage points between what was advertised and what was actually in the product.

If you have ever bought an illicit vape cartridge and felt like it was not working the way you expected, this is likely why. You were not getting what you paid for.

One hundred percent of the 25 dried cannabis samples tested positive for pesticides that are not authorized for use on cannabis in Canada. Not most of them. All of them.

The average sample contained approximately eight different pesticides. One sample contained 13 unique pesticides. The most commonly found pesticides were myclobutanil and piperonyl butoxide, each detected in 24 of the 25 samples.

Myclobutanil is a fungicide used on food crops. When it is burned or heated, as happens when you smoke cannabis, it can convert into hydrogen cyanide gas. It is not approved for use on cannabis in Canada for this reason. Piperonyl butoxide is not a standalone pesticide but a synergist, meaning it is added to make other pesticides more potent. Its presence in 24 of 25 samples strongly suggests it was deliberately applied.

The report used a reference indicator of ten times the legal limit of quantification to estimate whether pesticides were deliberately applied versus accidentally present from environmental exposure. By that measure, 60% of the dried cannabis samples showed pesticide levels consistent with deliberate application.

Every single vape cartridge also tested positive for unauthorized pesticides. The average cartridge contained nine different pesticides. Two samples contained 16 different pesticides each.

The concentrations in vape cartridges were significantly higher than in the dried cannabis samples. This is because the extraction process used to make vape oil concentrates everything in the source material, including pesticides. Whatever was in the flower becomes more concentrated in the oil.

Myclobutanil was found in all 25 vape cartridge samples. In the cartridges, the average concentration where deliberate application was indicated was 268.2 parts per million, with a maximum of 1,503.9 ppm. Piperonyl butoxide was found at an average of 691.5 ppm in the samples where it exceeded the reference indicator, with a maximum of 2,808.1 ppm.

To put those numbers in perspective: these are pesticides being inhaled directly into the lungs at concentrations many times higher than what would be found in the source flower. The report concluded that five of the most frequently found pesticides in illicit vape cartridges were present at concentrations strongly suggesting deliberate application.

Vitamin E acetate, the compound linked to the EVALI lung injury outbreak in the United States, was not detected in any of the 25 vape cartridge samples. This was the one area where the illicit BC products did not raise a red flag.

That said, the absence of vitamin E acetate does not mean the products were safe. The pesticide contamination alone represents a serious and ongoing health risk for anyone consuming illicit vape products.

Licensed cannabis producers in Canada are required to test their products against a list of 96 pesticides for dried cannabis and 64 for cannabis oil. They must follow Health Canada's Good Production Practices, and if any contaminant is detected, they are required to conduct a root cause analysis and address the issue before the product can be sold.

Illicit cannabis has none of this. There is no testing requirement, no oversight, no accountability, and no mechanism for a consumer to know what is actually in the product they are buying. The BC Government report makes this point clearly: without product testing, a consumer cannot be sure of the concentration of their cannabis's active ingredients or whether their cannabis contains contaminants.

The legal system is not perfect, but it is the only system that gives you any protection at all.