Just as fly-by-night outfits roll out fake Gucci gear in an attempt to fool consumers, or at least undercut the Real McCoy, sketchy operators are now targeting a sector of the cannabis industry \u2014 producers of pre-loaded vaporizer cartridges.<\/p>\n
The difference is that we aren\u2019t talking about carrying around a purse here. When you inhale vaporized cannabis distillate produced with no transparency or accountability, you may be getting a lungful pesticide residue and other such harmful matter.<\/p>\n
Once again, market forces are distorted by the illegality of cannabis products, giving a boost to unscrupulous operators.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As\u00a0Rolling Stone<\/a>\u00a0put it in an expos\u00e9 on the unseemly phenomenon in December: \u201cIn states where marijuana is still illegal, cartridge concentrates are popular thanks to their relative lack of smell and resemblance to cartridges containing nicotine. Branded cartridges from major industry leaders like King Pen, Brass Knuckles and Heavy Hitters are particularly coveted for the assumed assurance that they contain a premium concentrate free of contaminants like pesticides, cutting agents, and heavy metals. But what if the cartridges are fakes?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Manufacturers aggressively market their empty cartridges, designed to mimic known brand names, on Instagram and other social media. \u201cBlack market dealers who purchase the cartridges can fill them with whatever they want \u2014 pesticide-ridden distillate, heavily-cut oils, synthetic cannabis, to name a few\u2014and consumers would have no way to tell, and little recourse even if they could,\u201d the Rolling Stone report continues. \u00a0<\/p>\n A particular perverse paradox of the situation is that China, where marijuana is\u00a0thoroughly illegal<\/a>, is the major producer of these bogus cartridges. Just as the legit cannabis business\u00a0exploits the cheap labor<\/a>\u00a0of China\u2019s industrial zones, so do the duplicitous operators.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to a December investigation by\u00a0Merry Jane<\/a>, which first reported on the counterfeit carts: \u201cOn Alibaba, a Chinese-based e-commerce hub, pages upon pages of fake Brass Knuckles and King Pen cartridges are listed from sellers almost exclusively based in the manufacturing hub of Shenzhen \u2014 the same place where legal weed companies source their authentic hardware.\u201d<\/p>\n Legitimate and counterfeit operators are in a race now, the prior updating their packaging to stay ahead of the former; the former scrambling to keep pace.<\/p>\n Kate Denton, the chief marketing officer at\u00a0Loudpack<\/a>, which owns the\u00a0King Pen<\/a>\u00a0line of cartridges, told Merry Jane: \u201cWe are taking a hard line against counterfeiting and have engaged our legal team to identify the unlicensed vendors and others that are offering to sell, selling, or distributing counterfeit products. We have implemented advanced monitoring systems, but [counterfeits] are also one of the reasons that we are constantly evolving our product.\u201d<\/p>\n King Pen is said to be preparing a \u201cmajor comprehensive lawsuit\u201d against a number of international counterfeiters.<\/p>\n There are issues with the carts themselves as well as the stuff they are loaded with. In addition to residual pesticide, solvents or even flat-out adulterants in the distillate, you have to worry about lead in the actual carts.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is a concern for the legit industry too. \u00a0As Cannabis Now\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0in February, California cart makers must now comply with \u201cphase 3 heavy metal testing,\u201d imposing more stringent standards that took effect at the end of last year. Those produced before the standards hit in may have higher levels of lead.<\/p>\n And, as pointed out in a\u00a0memo<\/a>\u00a0released by\u00a0K Street Consulting<\/a>, pirate operators that submit to no testing whatsoever could exploit the window if the compliant products are not brought on quickly enough. The market, like nature, hates a vacuum.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, what is a conscious cannabis concentrate consumer to do? Develop a strong knowledge base about the product, for starters.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some tip-offs to bogus products are provided by a detailed (if not strictly grammatical) analysis on the website\u00a0Dab Connection<\/a>. For instance:\u00a0\u201cOne of the easiest ways to identify fake Brass Knuckles is [that] real Brass Knuckles have a hologram on the side. Most fake Brass Knuckles cartridges do not. This is the first thing to look for and if there is no hologram you instantly know you have a fake.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But some knock-off brands are more exacting in their deception. \u201cWith fake Brass Knuckles carts we can tell by a myriad of errors in design. Fake Heavy Hitters vape cartridges look very identical. With fake Stiiizy pods, they look exactly the same as the original ones\u2026\u201d\u00a0Stiiizy<\/a>\u00a0is currently in the process of updating their packaging in response to this threat, following the lead of\u00a0Dank Vapes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Also look for misspellings and typos on the packaging \u2014 or missing information. Dab Conection writes: \u201c[R]eal Brass Knuckles have strain information on the bottom. When that information is lacking, you can be sure it is a fake cartridge.\u201d<\/p>\n Seattle\u2019s\u00a0The Stranger<\/a>\u00a0spoke with Daniel Luebke of\u00a0Heylo Cannabis<\/a>, a local distillate processing company, to come up with \u201csix warning signs of a bad vape pen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n First, beware if \u201cIt Tastes Like a Mojito.\u201d Inappropriate terpene profile is a dead give-away that the concentrate has been jazzed up with something other than cannabis, probably to mask other impurities. \u201cGreat pot tastes great, full stop,\u201d the guide says. \u201cIt needs nothing else, and when you start adding extra flavors you are almost always covering for an inferior product.\u201d<\/p>\n Also watch out if \u201cThe Oil Is Runny,\u201d or if \u201cIt Makes a Huge Cloud.\u201d As Luebke told The Stranger: \u201cCannabis doesn\u2019t produce that type of cloud, the problem is what is a huge cloud created by? It usually would be propylene glycol, aka formaldehyde.\u201d Sounds like a buzzkill to us.<\/p>\n And of course don\u2019t buy it if \u201cYou Don\u2019t Know What It Is.\u201d The solvent used in production of the distillate should be named on the label. If it isn\u2019t there, assume the product is \u201cboth illegal and sketchy.\u201d Finally, stay away if \u201cthe Cartridge Keeps Breaking,\u201d or \u201ct\u2019s Cheap As Fuck.\u201d Those last two are just common sense.<\/p>\n But the surest method to assure quality of to buy from an authorized retailer.<\/p>\n In a statement to Rolling Stone, a representative for\u00a0Heavy Hitters\u00a0said: \u201cIn order for consumers to stay safe and know they are buying authentic Heavy Hitters products, they should only buy from licensed California retailers. Verified Heavy Hitters retailers are all listed at\u00a0HeavyHitters.co. This is a public health issue, and we want to ensure consumers are not put at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, that is only helpful if you are in California or another state that has a legalized and regulated cannabis market. In the rest of the country, if carts are available at all, it is a good bet that they are bogus.\u00a0<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, have you ever been sold a fake vape cartridge?<\/p>\n The post How to Avoid the Bogus Dab Carts Flooding the Illicit Market<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Just as fly-by-night outfits roll out fake Gucci gear in an attempt to fool consumers, or at least undercut the Real McCoy, sketchy operators are now targeting a sector of the cannabis industry \u2014 producers of pre-loaded vaporizer cartridges. The difference is that we aren\u2019t talking about carrying around aContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,11556,240,11557,555],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36757,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36756\/revisions\/36757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Cannabis Caveat Emptor<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: How to Avoid the Bogus Dab Carts Flooding the Illicit Market<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"