Pre-Rolls, Phase 3 Regulations, Heavy Metals - What You Need to Know

Cannabis control boards will be taking a closer look at their regulations due to the wave of concerned citizens who want to see flavored e-cigarettes and cannabis vaporizers banned for potentially causing the death of several people. It is clear now, more than ever, that a regulated cannabis market is important to keep consumers, who will seek out cannabis regardless of its legal status, safe. However, with regulation comes more safeguards, testing, and compliance requirements which creates challenges for your business. So it is best to be prepared for these changes – this guide on pre-roll testing regulations will help you understand what steps you need to take to ensure that you are producing a safe and compliant pre-roll to your customers.

NOTE The following guide is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as legal advice.

The first thing to understand about testing regulations in the cannabis industry is that it is a highly localized system. The regulations around pre-rolls can vary widely between states, for instance, in Alaska infused pre-rolls cannot currently be made whereas in Washington, California, Colorado, and Nevada they can be. The second thing to understand is that the cannabis industry is dynamic and these regulations often change. For instance, in Washington at first pre-rolls could be tested for heavy metals however eventually this changed when the state realized there were not enough certified labs which could test cannabis products for heavy metals and temporarily suspended heavy metals testing. The last thing to understand is that the cannabis industry is fragmented and the pre-roll testing regulations are not consistently applied. This problem shows itself in a few ways – first the actual methodology to test various product types is not clearly defined. In certain states it is fine to test only the flower or oil which goes inside the pre-roll whereas in California with Phase 3 regulations the entire pre-roll must be ground including the rolling paper and the filter tip. On an interesting side note in Oregon a pre-rolls net weight includes the rolling paper and the filter. So a “one gram” joint is really 0.7 grams of flower. Another issue with testing pre-rolls is certain testing labs have been found to alter results especially when recreational regulations first roll out in the state and bad operators have yet to be weeded out. And the last issue is that the exact tests and limits for certain pesticides, heavy metals and other substances aren’t consistent across each state. Overall the best course of action is to hold your pre-roll to the strictest standards and that may mean mixing and matching regulations from various states in order to ensure compliance nationwide.

As we have seen cannabis pre-roll testing regulations roll out from state to state we have seen that the Phase 3 regulations from California have been strictest for pre-rolls. Phase 3 testing requirements in California set forth that pre-rolls should be tested mycotoxins, heavy metals, and terpenoids among a few other additional tests. The major challenge for brand has been the heavy metals testing – the regulations for heavy metals in cannabis are especially strict with limits for heavy metals as low as 0.2 parts per million. When we compare that to the Toxics in Packaging Legislation, which has been adopted by nearly every state in the US, states that packaging must not contain more than 100 parts per million of 4 heavy metals chromium, lead, hexavalent, and mercury. Or the Consumer Product Safety Commission which requires that Children’s toys have no more lead than 90 parts per million. You can see the heavy metals requirements for California vs. Colorado below:

California – Phase 3 Pre-Roll Regulations

Cadmium 0.2 PPM, Lead 0.5 PPM, Arsenic 0.2 PPM, Mercury 0.1 PPM

Colorado

Cadmium 0.2 PPM, Lead 0.5 PPM, Arsenic 0.2 PPM, Mercury 0.1 PPM

As you can see the California Phase 3 Regulations for pre-rolls are twice as strict as Colorado’s heavy metal requirements. So in this case we would recommend most brands to stay below the limit of California’s heavy metals requirements regardless of what state they are in.

In order to stay within the heavy metal limits, it is very important to control the quality of your materials from the flower to the pre-rolled cones. Pre-rolled cones can be a source of heavy metals if you deal with vendors which do not properly test their own raw materials for heavy metals to the same strictness as cannabis.

Here at Custom Cones USA that is exactly why we test all our pre-rolled cones for pesticides, mycotoxins, heavy metals and residual solvents at testing labs in California and Washington. We use the same labs which are entrusted by the state to test Cannabis and approve it for recreational use. The reason we test our pre-rolled cones according to Phase 3 regulations in California is we want to make sure there are no surprises for the brands which work with us. By following the regulations in California, which in our opinion are currently the strictest in the entire cannabis industry, we know that we are helping our brands to secure passing results with their state regulators.

To ensure we are able to follow the ever-evolving regulations around pre-rolled cones we must first start with a solid foundation to be able to root cause issues and figure out resolutions in order to move forward. This is why our documentation starts with our internal pre-rolled cone traceability system – as quoted from our documentation report “Each production line is assigned a dedicated quality control manager whose duty it is to check product for defect and take appropriate actions to correct those defects. If defect levels rise above 1% it is the managers’ duty to shut down the production line and require recalibration of tools or retraining of direct reports. Quality control is centered around our traceability system – each production line is assigned a letter and number code. Any product which is produced by that production line can be traced back by this number/letter code. The code can be found on the box – this code contains the date of production as well as the production line identification code. In this way any issues which arise can be directed to the appropriate quality manager who can then take corrective action with the employees who worked the production line on the date of production”

For us being able to trace the cone from raw material to the customer’s hands is extremely important in order to be able to react quickly to new regulations and ensure compliance with current pre-roll regulations. From there we have production specifications sheets which clearly state the ultra fine French rolling paper we use contains no filler agents or burn additives. The product specification sheet further covers some physical properties of the rolling paper such as air permeability, opacity, brightness, tensile strength, stretch, and basis weight.

All our suppliers and our own pre-rolled cone manufacturing facility are ISO-9001 Certified. The reason we sought ISO-9001 certification is to ensure our partners and ourselves have the systems in place to produce products which brands operating in a regulated market can use safely.

Further our rolling paper manufacturer produces their rolling paper in accordance with FDA and EU requirements for any type of paper which may come in contact with food.

Lastly as mentioned earlier we keep test reports on our pre-rolled cones which show compliance with Phase 3 regulations in California for pre-rolled joints. Please reach out to us with your unbranded or branded cone project and we will go beyond to ensure that your cones are compliant with your local regulations.