Pennsylvania’s Wild West of unregulated weed

For seven years, while Pennsylvania lawmakers have debated whether to legalize recreational marijuana, a gray market has blossomed for an array of products that look and smell a lot like weed.

From South Philly to the King of Prussia Mall, wellness shops sell it in unlabeled jars. West Coast-style dispensaries, staffed with expert “budtenders,” sell it in grams and eighths. At gas stations or corner stores, patrons can pick up a tin of pre-rolled joints – endorsed by celebrities like boxer Mike Tyson – or a pouch of gummies.

The sales occur out in the open thanks to the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill, which legalized hemp products that contain a minuscule amount of Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive cannabinoid in marijuana that gets users high. But other intoxicating THC forms that can be derived from hemp exist in legal limbo. And that apparent loophole has created a multibillion dollar industry nationwide, largely free from regulation and oversight.

An Inquirer investigation has found that Pennsylvania consumers of these products, which are often advertised as legal and free from toxins, have been deceived by misleading claims on the packaging, putting them at risk of unexpected health problems or criminal charges.

Over the last several months, reporters purchased 10 different hemp products from 10 stores around the region, and then paid for a laboratory to test the items for potency levels and potentially harmful adulterants.

The tests — conducted by Trichome Analytical, a lab that services New Jersey’s recreational cannabis program — showed that nine of the samples exceeded the .3% Delta-9 THC potency level cited in the Farm Bill, making them illegal to sell in Pennsylvania. Those items contained Delta-9 THC at levels 200% to more than 2,400% over the federal limit. Six samples, strengthened by other hemp-derived THC variants, were as potent as most dispensary-grade marijuana.

Trichome chemists said seven of the samples were just conventionally grown black market weed, despite labels claiming to be legal hemp products.

Eight samples tested positive for contaminants that are illegal to sell in many state-run recreational cannabis programs. Seven contained aspergillus, a fungus with spores that can cause respiratory infections when smoked. Three exceeded legal limits for pesticides in New Jersey, including carbofuran, a neurotoxin banned in the United States, Canada, and the European Union. One sample contained mold, pesticides, and high levels of chromium, a carcinogenic metal. The health effects of these contaminants in gray-market products are rarely studied.

Many of the items came with “certificates of authenticity” — lab tests to confirm their products’ safety or legality. But The Inquirer found that at least two companies had used bogus certificates that concealed contamination or misrepresented the potency of their product.

There are hemp products on store shelves that do in fact meet legal standards, including a Mike Tyson-branded product tested in The Inquirer’s small sample study. But in the absence of a regulatory process to ensure compliance with state and federal laws, The Inquirer’s test results raise questions about the safety of these products and underscore the nearly decade-long failure by Pennsylvania lawmakers to pass meaningful legislation in this area.

“What they’re selling is straight weed, because the market is so gray,” said Tony Payton Jr., a former Pennsylvania legislator who now works in the cannabis industry. “There’s no enforcement.”

In Philadelphia, few shop owners The Inquirer visited showed concern about the legal or health risks of these products.

At a privately owned CBD wellness shop called Hemperiffic, on Snyder Avenue in South Philadelphia, reporters purchased “Jelly Zonut,” a product marketed as hemp. Testing showed it was traditional cannabis that also contained mold and the banned pesticide carbofuran.

The store owner, who refused to give his full name, said he didn’t know where the product came from and that wholesalers call once a week to sell their goods. Although he said the contaminated weed came with a certificate of authenticity, when asked by a reporter for the paperwork, he said he was unable to produce any or recall the name of his supplier.

Told the product was likely illegal, he said he was unconcerned. He said his brother is an FBI agent, who told him he had nothing to worry about.

“A lot of these retailers don’t even know it’s illegal,” said Kristen Goedde, founder of Trichome, noting that many wholesalers will provide phony certificates of authenticity to assuage concerns. “They think this is fine, but they’re on the front lines and they’re the ones going to be held accountable.”

Whether police enforce the law can depend on geography. Pennsylvania State Police, for instance, view all hemp-derived THC products as illegal, while the Philadelphia Police Department says some are permissible.

Some states have attempted to ban the sale of alternative hemp-derived products such as Delta-8 or THCA to end confusion about what is or isn’t a legal product. And 24 states have fully legalized traditional cannabis use for adults, bringing in billions of tax dollars.

In Pennsylvania, dithering over recreational sales by state lawmakers has allowed a patchwork approach where the niche market of unregulated hemp products flourishes alongside a regulated medical marijuana system approved in 2016. In recent weeks state lawmakers began to hold hearings on the risks of the unregulated hemp market.

Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) said, in a statement, that the legislature would “continue to discuss options of how best to address access to these substances, especially as it relates to minors.”

At the Good Vibes smoke shop in Bensalem, Inquirer reporters purchased a pre-rolled joint branded as “24k kosher x Tangie,” packaged by the Florida-based Flying Monkey. Its label indicated it was legal hemp-derived THCA, a non-psychoactive compound that converts to intoxicating Delta-9 THC when smoked.

But lab tests showed the product was conventionally grown weed that also contained six different pesticides, including levels of the fungicide Trifloxystrobin 330 times over the legal limit in New Jersey.

“We test a lot of products, and not just in New Jersey,” said Tom Barkley, lab director of Trichome Analytical. “This is more pesticide and in higher levels than we’ve ever seen before.”

Mom-and-pop smoke shops like Good Vibes typically buy their hemp products from a vast network of wholesalers and manufacturers across the country. These suppliers range from celebrity-backed companies to nascent outfits with no published phone number — like Flying Monkey, which did not return requests for comment.

Some smoke shop products sold in the region may also contain not only lab-made synthetic cannabinoids but also some harder designer drugs.

The DEA-funded Center for Forensic Science Research & Education (CFSRE) in Horsham shared with The Inquirer testing data that showed one unregulated vape pen sold in Philadelphia last month contained traces of dimethylpentylone, a synthetic stimulant often used in the club drug Ecstasy. This particular vape — branded after the Rick & Morty adult cartoon — spawned viral social media posts in which young people theorized that the ultra-potent cartridges contained fentanyl or other drugs.

The popularity of these products has grown with teens, with studies showing one in ten U.S. 12th graders have reported trying Delta-8, a semisynthetic THC variant that is a profit driver in the unregulated hemp market.

Chris Goldstein, a Philadelphia-area cannabis reform advocate, described the current system as the worst of all possible worlds — one where illicit or toxic cannabis products are openly sold, even as police in Pennsylvania continue to arrest street weed dealers. (Federal crime data showed more than 1,600 arrests related to the sale of marijuana in Pennsylvania in 2023, the most recent year available.)

Goldstein blamed the prevalence of hemp-hawking storefronts in Pennsylvania on the state’s restrictive rules around cannabis sales, but he also cited the broader failure of the federal government to craft coherent rules for sale of the drug.

“These stores are a product of prohibition,” he said.

Almost overnight, the Farm Bill triggered a growth industry fueled by an appetite for products containing CBD, a nonintoxicating derivative of hemp with professed therapeutic powers. The hemp-derived cannabis industry reached $2.8 billion in national sales in 2023 — a more than 1,000% increase since 2020.

Farmers in Pennsylvania also saw opportunity. A single acre of hemp — which can also be refined into a variety of products including rope, paint, textiles, and food — could reap tens of thousands of dollars in sales, said Erica Stark, chair of the Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council.

“Everybody and their grandma thought they were gonna hop on the gravy train of CBD production,” Stark said.

Soon, there was a glut of CBD and stores selling products touting its medicinal properties. That led eager purveyors to exploit the law to create more powerful products, theorizing that derivatives of the legally grown hemp were also permissible.

The process of turning legal hemp into something that essentially mimics a marijuana product works like this: Hemp has very low levels of THC, but large amounts can be processed into stronger THC concentrates and sprayed onto legal hemp flowers, making them more potent. In some cases, CBD from legal hemp is chemically altered — often in home labs — to create powerful, semisynthetic THC versions like Delta-8 or THCP. Because these forms are chemically different from traditional Delta-9 THC, some argue they avoid state and federal drug laws.

Are these legal? No. But you can’t prove it.

Some recreational and medical marijuana producers have pivoted their business to hemp, due to the explosive growth and comparative lack of regulation, three industry figures said.

Instead of spending time and money spraying hemp flowers with lab-made THC isolate, Stark said some producers started selling actual cannabis — either illegally grown or imported from recreational states — labeled hemp.

“It’s all deception,” she said.

In conversations with more than a dozen proprietors selling hemp products around the region, few claimed to know exactly where the products on their shelves originated or what’s in them. But some openly acknowledged they knew the potency of what they were selling.

“Are these legal? No,” said one retailer at a Center City store, who declined to be named because of concerns about law enforcement. “But you can’t prove it.”

Other shop owners insist they are trying to do everything above board.

Matt and Debbie Pruette own Microgrown, a boutique storefront located on a leafy backroad in Upper Chichester Township. It’s a high-end shop with an educational focus, geared toward the medicinal benefits of hemp products — nothing like the smoke shops that today line many strip malls or street corners, they argue.

“We never realized how many people at night drink themselves to sleep,” Debbie Pruette said. “We help them get off alcohol, give them something more natural to get themselves to sleep.”

“But let’s be honest,” her husband interjected. “People still wanna get high.”

The farm-to-table shop sells products made from the couple’s licensed hemp farm in Delaware County. But they mostly import their flowers from the Pacific Northwest.

“100% clean and legal,” their website asserts.

Yet an Inquirer test of their imported hemp flower showed 1% Delta-9 THC, more than 200% above the legal limit. It also contained piperonyl butoxide, a pesticide accelerator that would have failed New Jersey’s state-required test.

Matt said the pesticide result is unfortunate, but he noted that chemical testing is not required in Pennsylvania. As for the potency, he said it demonstrated why the .3% limit is “arbitrary,” as hemp grown legally under the Farm Bill can naturally increase in potency up to 1% after harvest.

“One percent would still be illegal,” he said, “but it’s completely understandable.”

In 2022, Kevin Osterhoudt, medical director of the poison control center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said he went to the King of Prussia Mall and bought a red plastic bag of unregulated THC edibles: Lucky Charmz, styled after the popular breakfast cereal.

“It’s got a cute little elf on it. It looks like a favorite little cereal,” he explained to other doctors at an online panel about THC toxicity last year, holding up the pouch of potent edibles. “500 milligrams of what? I’m not really sure. But imagine what happens when a two-year old finds this and thinks it’s a delicious treat.”

CHOP’s poison center reported 27 calls for THC cases in 2019 in Pennsylvania, the year after the Farm Bill passed. By 2023, the number hit 332.

The hospital does not track the types of products that triggered the calls and whether they came from state-run programs or the unregulated market. But Osterhoudt said the surge was fueled in part by unregulated hemp products like Lucky Charmz due to the lack of controls over potency and child-friendly marketing.

“Americans love to say they hate regulation, but there are benefits that come from regulation,” Osterhoudt said in an interview. “Because this is a fringe market, the concentrations of those products can be much higher.”

Due to concerns over child access, Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana dispensaries are barred from selling most chewable THC products. State-run programs also restrict the amount of THC in a single packet of edibles. New Jersey limits the total package to 100 milligrams of THC.

The long-term adverse effects on children consuming unregulated hemp products sold on shelves across Pennsylvania remain poorly studied. Some young adult users of Delta-8 have reported severe mental health episodes and even psychosis.

Max Leung, a University of Arizona professor who has studied cannabis contaminants, said that while the precise effects of smoking THC that contains mold, pesticides, or heavy metals were rarely studied, some health risks were self-evident.

“The concern is if you have a patient with a neurological condition, say a seizure or epilepsy … and then on top of that you expose them to a chemical that’s neurotoxic,” Leung said. “That’s not a good combination.”

Many wholesalers ship products across the country, bearing certificates of authenticity (COAs) that purport low levels of THC to comply with the terms of the Farm Bill.

One white-coated strain dubbed “Permanent Marker,” which is sold at local chain Deep Six Cigar & Kava Bar’s smoke shop in the King of Prussia Mall, was among the cleaner samples The Inquirer had tested. While Goedde, the founder of Trichome, said it was “just weed,” and not hemp as advertised, it contained no mold or pesticides.

But the COA posted online by the supplier — the Florida-based Uplift, a wholesaler that claims to sell THCA flower as strong as dispensary-grade products — inflated its total THC content to make it seem more potent: Uplift claimed the product contained 55% total THC, but The Inquirer’s testing found it was just 30%.

Deep Six owner Nick Kruczaj, a retired Chester police officer, declined to speak directly to The Inquirer. Through a representative, he produced a COA from a supplier showing the product was .01% under the legal limit. The store no longer carried the product, the representative said, adding that Deep Six would begin dropping hemp products altogether.

Despite a federal limit on traditional THC, some manufacturers and distributors exaggerate the amount of hemp-derived THCA or Delta-8 in their products to appeal to consumers — often by digitally altering or completely fabricating a COA, according to several cannabis testing labs.

The newspaper contacted six labs that Uplift claimed had tested its products. One said Uplift had altered a genuine report to inflate the THC potency. Two said Uplift had never been a client, contending the company must have lifted the lab’s COA template from the internet and fabricated the numbers.

Florida-based wholesaler Flying Monkey also misrepresented COAs for its “boutique” line of pre-roll joints, according to ACS Laboratory, the testing group listed on the documents. ACS Laboratory said Flying Monkey digitally altered its COA to claim it passed a test for pathogens and heavy metals — which were detected in The Inquirer’s testing — when it had, in fact, failed the test.

“They eliminated the failures,” said Roger Brown, president of ACS Laboratory. “This happens all the time with these guys. It’s really absurd and dangerous.”

Neither Uplift or Flying Monkey responded to repeated requests for comment.

Deceptive marketing practices are widespread within the hemp-based cannabinoid producers, according to interviews with more than a dozen industry experts. The deceit can carry serious implications for unwitting consumers.

Robbie Grogan, a 40-year-old father in Elizabethtown, was fired from his job as a transit agency inspector in 2018 after a routine drug test came back positive for THC. Grogan said he was stunned, believing that he didn’t use marijuana products. He and his wife had been taking an Oregon-made CBD product that purported to contain no THC.

“They seemed legit enough. They had this website. They had lab results,” Grogan said. “Right on the bottle: 0% THC.”

Drug testing revealed that was false, according to a consumer protection lawsuit Grogan filed against the manufacturer, ThoughtCloud.

Grogan was forced to rebuild his career after being fired, which came when his wife was pregnant with their first child. The litigation is ongoing, but ThoughtCloud is no longer in business and has no listed attorney on the case.

Grogan’s attorney, William K. Roark, cast his client’s story as a cautionary tale about the unregulated market. He said the Farm Bill’s .3% threshold is arbitrary, as hemp’s chemical profile is so volatile that the THC level can balloon over time as the flower product naturally dries.

“A farmer could go to bed with a field full of lawful hemp, and the next morning, the chemical profile has altered enough so all of the sudden, he’s growing marijuana and committing a federal felony,” Roark said. “Now you’ve got a product that, if you put it in your vape pen, it’ll send you to Mars.”

Deception in the industry even occurs between manufacturers, according to Cesar Reveron, owner of the Florida-based hemp company Black Bunker Distribution.

Reveron claimed that the Black Bunker product that Inquirer reporters bought — which contained aspergillus and exceeded the federal potency limit — was counterfeit. He said the label on the Frosty Nuggs Black Ice flower sold in North Philadelphia had a different gloss and alleged someone had spoofed his company’s branding.

“That’s not our product at all,” Reveron said.

To the National Cannabis Industry Association, a group that lobbies for both the hemp-based and traditional marijuana sector, a few bad actors shouldn’t overshadow those trying to do it right.

“They are the exception and not the rule,” said Aaron Smith, the cofounder. “The majority of the hemp products are manufactured by good actors.”

But he agreed that more enforcement is necessary — and it should be evenhanded. The lack of regulation for hemp producers has led many adult-use cannabis companies to shift their business models, sidestepping the stringent requirements for state-run marijuana programs.

“Ultimately,” he said, “these products need to be treated the same.”

States like Rhode Island and California, which have recreational marijuana systems, are starting to crack down on semi-synthetics like Delta-8 or edible products containing hemp-derived THC.

More recently, the Texas legislature passed a blanket ban on all THC products in response to an explosion of some 8,500 stores selling unregulated hemp products across the state. But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed the ban last month after intense pushback from an industry that accounts for billions in sales statewide.

Pennsylvania lawmakers have been debating recreational cannabis since 2018, with little progress to show.

While federal lawmakers mull how to close the supposed Farm Bill loophole, enforcement in the commonwealth remains scattered to a variety of regulatory agencies, local governments, or police agencies with more pressing criminal concerns.

Between 2022 and 2024, state agricultural officials ordered 32 farms with hemp permits to destroy or remediate their crop for testing over the federal THC limit, according to data provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. The agency has also independently cracked down on businesses selling cannabinoid-infused food and drink, which is banned under Pennsylvania’s Commercial Feed Act and Food Safety Act.

“The PA Department of Agriculture is concerned about products that are mislabeled or deceptively labeled, and works within current legal authority to protect consumers,” Shannon Powers, the department spokesperson, said in response to The Inquirer’s findings.

But smoke shops, gas stations, and convenience stores are outside the department’s purview, she said, and enforcement falls to local authorities.

In Philadelphia, local police and the Department of Licenses & Inspections have spent years waging a battle against some operations by issuing repeated cease operation orders. Yet similar shops have reopened or continued operating with little interference, often while flouting other laws with the use of unlicensed slot machines.

In April, the Philadelphia Police Department’s Neighborhood Nuisance Task Force raided a smoke shop called Exotic Snacks in South Philadelphia, charging the owner with selling marijuana over the counter.

But Corporal Jasmine Reilly, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department, said enforcement is complicated because the department regards hemp products like Delta-8 as legal.

“We have to rely on the label saying that it’s Delta-8,” she said.

Yet a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania State Police said the agency has taken a far more expansive stance — that any store other than a medical dispensary selling recreational THC products is engaged in illegal activity.

“PSP’s position is that under current Pennsylvania law, THC from hemp in any consumable form is just as illegal as THC from marijuana,” Sgt. Logan T. Brouse said. He declined to provide a count on how many retailers had been raided by the agency.

Uneven enforcement has led to lawsuits from store owners arguing they were unfairly targeted for selling what they argue are legal products.

On the same street as Exotic Snacks in South Philly, Hemperiffic and West Coast Hemp remained open for business a month after the raid. In May, a 24-year old customer named CJ went shopping in West Coast Hemp. He said marijuana helped him through a cancer diagnosis and that he relies on it for his mental health.

CJ said he patronized the gray market shop because under Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana law, cardholders are barred from getting a concealed carry permit for firearms — a right he refused to forfeit.

“I’m not going to gamble the safety of my wife and daughter just so I can get a medical marijuana license,” said CJ, who declined to be named fully given the questionable legality of his purchases.

Some lawmakers have tried to address the patchwork system in Pennsylvania that creates such issues. State Sen. Sharif Street, Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party chairman who represents parts of North Philadelphia, introduced a bill to ban Delta-8 in Pennsylvania three years ago.

Street said his bill was met with disinterest. This month, he introduced another bipartisan bill to finally approve a recreational sales system — his third such attempt in four years.

“I’m a proponent of adult use legalization with regulations,” Street said, “but this is The Wild West.”