CBD cannabis washed with pentane to lower THC levels

The cannabis light – also known as CBD herb – is washed with pentane by some European producers to bring the THC content below the permitted level, according to a recent article in CannabisIndustrie.nl. In addition to the health risks, it is highly flammable and has already caused deaths in Italy.

You're probably familiar with the concept of CBD cannabis. After all, in several European countries, you can legally purchase cannabis with low THC content and higher CBD content. However, it often happens that harvested CBD hemp contains more THC than is permitted in the country where it is sold.

To make "cannabis light," ccomplies with the THC regulations, namely not to exceed 0.3%—for example, in France—manufacturers or retailers «wash» the cannabis in hexane and/or pentane to remove excess THC.

What brought it to light: a deadly explosion at a cannabis lab in Italy

It was a LinkedIn post that first drew attention to these practices. The post described two deaths and two injuries—one of whom was a minor at the time—resulting from an explosion and fire at a cannabis laboratory in Italy, according to *La Repubblica*. The courts are still investigating what actually happened. For now, the judiciary believes that the suspects violated the drug law because what they were doing in the laboratory is not permitted.

The plaintiff’s theory is that the fire may have been caused by a technique used to reduce the THC content in «cannabis light,» which was «invented» by one of the company’s partners without any technical or scientific knowledge and without any authorization. On the first floor, a laboratory had been set up with ultrasonic “washing machines” in which the cannabis was washed with pentane to reduce the THC level and thus comply with regulations so that it could be passed off as CBD hemp.

This doesn't seem to be anything new, as confirmed by a comment by Boris Baňas, an expert in APIs and validated ingredients specific to Novel Foods:

«Unfortunately, this is true of most of the smokable hemp in the EU.". EU hemp is basically hay that nobody really wants to smoke […] So what's going on? The purchase is made in Switzerland, where the THC limit is 1%. This stuff is indeed smokable. 

To reduce the THC content to 0.2/0.3%, the flowers are washed and dried. They are then sprayed with a CBD solution and flavored with terpenes. »

No one would knowingly want to use CBD like that. Furthermore, pentane is highly flammable.

In the Netherlands, CannabisIndustrie.nl has observed that some’CBD "weed" containing harmful synthetic cannabinoids was being sold as a strain high in THC. In addition to regulation, the solution would lie in test results provided by retailers.