Last week, I was having a lively discussion with a colleague about mold counts here in NY as opposed to his home cannabis state, California. The discussion got excited, maybe a touch passionate, and I blurted, “Yeah, but the main issue with no pass/fail and just transparency is that no one has access to the COA until they’ve purchased the product!”
Completely aghast, I realized that New York’s yeast and mold transparency rule does no good for the consumer. Let me explain.
COAs in New York’s Cannabis Market
In 2022, the Office of Cannabis Management removed the Pass/Fail thresholds for total yeast and mold counts. Testing for mold and yeast is still mandatory, but products are no longer required to meet specific Colony Forming Units (CFUs) on the Certificate of Analysis (COA).
Certificates of Analysis—COAs for short—are meant to disclose pertinent information on the products you are consuming: mold, yeast, heavy metals, pesticides, etc. But here in NY, the displays do not have COA links, nor do the online menus. Customers gain access to the COA in a few different ways.
Firstly, if they know what they want, they can search the cultivator’s website and hope they have a page dedicated to COA’s on their website. If they are at the counter, they can ask for it during the purchase process, and every budtender is happy to assist. They can also request it by calling or emailing, or purchasing it and finding out after. This leaves the task of public safety to the brands’ willingness to pull products that test high, and to dispensaries for ensuring products meet their standards.
News flash—we, as a society, don’t like extra steps. I’d argue that few people go out of their way to ask for a COA. High, that’s me, the person who never wants to be an inconvenience but wants convenience. I have personally seen some high mold counts and then found mold growing on the bud in our great legal market. We need access to COAs before we purchase. Period.
In New York, we have wet and unpredictable seasons, which, to my chagrin, are vastly different from those in California. Why does this matter? In NY, we were required to do outdoor grows, and many of our farmers brought in genetics from climates that do not mimic our own. The plants were never intended to thrive in our climate, yet here they are doing their best.
The other side of this is that we can’t afford to purchase a product we can’t return when we find out it contains something harmful. I’ve been in the NY market for a while and only know of a few dispensaries that actively review COAs before adding products to their shelves.
The other thing to note is I’ve been speaking about this on YouTube and my Instagram, and consumers and budtenders are just finding out that there are no thresholds in our rec market like there are on our medical side.
Create Better Access to New York’s Cannabis COAs
What are we, as consumers concerned about our health, supposed to do? Why not make this easy for all of us?
Brands and Dispensaries in NY, don’t be a barrier—make this information readily available throughout the entire shopping process, both online and in-store. This could easily be remedied by adding COA links to product descriptions or including the metadata in product photos.
Let’s be realistic, New Yorkers are intelligent, curious, and truly care about what they’re consuming. But how are we to make informed choices if the information we need is buried behind QR codes, humans, and purchase walls? If we’re going to continue building a cannabis market that is rooted in equity, education, and empowerment, then transparency can’t be optional—it must be the standard.
To the brands, the dispensaries, and yes, the regulators, let’s do better. It is time we prioritize consumer safety like we prioritize compliance. Make all COAs easily accessible, understandable, and visible at every stage of the buying process. We deserve a market that treats us like the active participants we are.
We’re not asking you for perfection, we’re asking you for reasonable access. And until we get it, we are going to keep talking about it.
