A Spanish engineer who has spent sixteen years scanning flower explains how the industry got here — and what it would take to get out.
In November 2024, Justin Singer, CEO of the Denver edibles manufacturer Ripple, got fed up with the lack of control over the industry he himself participates in and sent staff into Denver-area dispensaries with instructions to buy the flower, shake and pre-rolls they’d normally buy for themselves, then shipped the fifteen products, unmarked and unaltered, to a state-licensed laboratory. He later shared the contamination results with Colorado Public Radio: four products would have failed state limits for yeast and mold, four carried high coliform levels, four showed chemical components of pesticides.
Only two of the fifteen came back compliant with Colorado law on every measure. On potency alone, twelve of them reported THC content outside the 15% margin the state allows. On average, the labels claimed 34.2% more THC than the products contained. For shake, the gap was 59.1%.
That is, in a nutshell, what the industry calls THC inflation: the drift between the potency printed on a package and the potency inside it. What follows is an attempt to understand what that drift does to price in cannabis markets, and to ask a question with no obvious answer: what can be done about it?
Natural Limit to Total THC
If you love the plant, then you might already know that THC is not distributed through the flower. It is produced almost entirely in the trichomes, the resin glands coating the surface.
Rubén Valenzuela, an agronomic and industrial engineer specializing in near-infrared spectroscopy, also loves the plant and has spent sixteen years in the cannabis market, so he’s a bit more technical. He is also co-founder of a company that manufactures portable analyzers for cannabis testing, a commercial …
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Author: Rolando García / High Times
