By Multiple Contributors
It is no coincidence that when a regulation passes there is a company waiting in the wings to address the needs of the new framework for compliance. This is the part of a new market you don’t see until the groundwork is laid. It usually goes either one of two routes, certification or compliance. The folks behind these operations are opportunists who create consoling illusions for the consumer base or bonus certifications for your employees or products to give you a competitive edge. They are either a flash in the pan, or go so deep as to forming industry groups and lobbying for “change.”
The latest wave of this phenomenon falls in the compliance category and “change” in this case is to create obligatory remediation determined by inaccurate or premature testing standards; Theranos anyone? Cannabis cultivators and manufacturers are required to submit product to testing to show cannabinoid levels and residual pesticides, if any. Last year there was a passed policy to test for heavy metals, mycotoxins, and now microbiological testing to include the ever controversial, Aspergillus, which is a common microbe found in just about everything.
Why is this interesting? These testing recommendations are all a part of an audit ran by Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan in 2019, and the company to create testing protocols were in operation by the following year. This week in politics, Shemia stepped down as well as other prominent figure in building cannabis infrastructure, Amy Margolis. While the details of the scandals and conflicts of interest are still being ironed out, OHA is moving forward with the recommended testing standards while investigations and negligence are underway.
What’s more is the company in question, VIST, claims to create a better product for the consumer. While this is purely speculative, I HIGHLY doubt they have done one iota of consumer research to ask whether consumers want their cannabis products to be remediated in the first place. How many hands do you want something you are going to ingest or combust and inhale to pass through? How do you think the consumer base feels about this?
Moving on, we are in year 8 of legal recreational access to cannabis. Owners and operators have seen all the MLM and snake oil hustles coming through. It isn’t our first rodeo, so to speak. To show how the community really responds to these types of opportunist, take a look at the following thread. This exchange has had the names redacted to shield the identity of the contributing sources.
These are screenshots taken by a founding partner of VIST to defend their stance in light of skepticism. “I started this company on paper in Nov of 2020, WELL before any of these new regs were even being talked about. Our packaging does NOTHING to “help pass tests” as he puts it. It’s simply a high tech, zero oxygen packaging system designed to enhance the weed and preserve terps and cannabinoids without allowing ANY oxidation or degradation. We preserve and purify weed. Our systems literally put weed in suspended animation during its sales cycle.Straight up, we are about to change the entire retail purchasing experience with similar tech for dispensaries to display weed in oxygen free jars. You guys were on my list of people I wanted to talk collabs with. You witnessed firsthand how I blew up and disrupted the vape market with Orchid Essentials (the most expensive vape on the market at the time and we couldn’t keep shelves stocked because of demand…). Got even a better team behind this. We are taking on the “Whole Foods” consumer market (see pdf attached). And every dispensary we have talked to wants to be part of it because they see where this is going.”
Lobby for testing, check. Facilitate testing regulations, check. Provide remediation solution to failed tests, check… well, no guarantee.
For a breakdown of how this affects the small tier farms, Uktokia farms has a great commentary going on how they are educating themselves as an operator, and protect the integrity of their products. That’s what it is all about, folks, the integrity of the product. We have to recognize that this red tape comes strategically during one of the worst economic downturns and is creating yet another law degree deserving rabbit hole for farmers.
Cultivators and consumers, I commend you for keeping abreast of these changes and turning a critical eye to the motives behind such policy changes. To see the breadth of services and hustle VIST is proposing, please see the following attachments. To keep up on community organizing and news, make sure you are subscribed to our newsletter.