What’s actually in Philly’s “gas station” weed? Highlights from our Reddit AMA

Inquirer reporters Max Marin and Ryan W. Briggs wanted to figure out what’s actually in the hemp products that have become ubiquitous in smoke shops and gas stations around the Philly region. They visited dozens of places, tracked down questionable manufacturers, and employed a testing lab to get answers.

After testing 10 different products from 10 different stores, they found that the items are rife with toxic and illicit chemicals.

Marin and Briggs answered questions about their latest investigation during a Reddit AMA with r/philadelphia. Here are some of the highlights. Some questions and answers have been edited for length, clarity, and tone.

Corner smoke shops and vape stores exploded in popularity in Philly during the pandemic, and eventually became a hub for unregulated slot machines and other nuisance activity. During our reporting on the “skill game” boom, we noticed many of the stores were also selling mystery “hemp” products and decided to follow up.

A few years ago, it seemed like only a handful of shops were selling this stuff. Now there are multiple storefronts on every commercial strip in almost every community in the region. It’s sort of a wild economic trend at a time when so many brick-and-mortar businesses are struggling to stay open. And there was so much confusion about what was being sold — and how. Some people think these shops are legit dispensaries, and even elected leaders and public health officials are often baffled at how to respond to their prevalence.

We wanted to capture a geographic spread between the city and the `burbs, so we tried to hit different neighborhoods and include at least one shop from each of the four collar counties. But the shops and the products themselves were selected almost completely at random. Sometimes we’d ask the shop owners stuff like “which one of these is the most popular?” and take their recommendations.

Trichome Analytical is one of several labs that does testing for recreational cannabis programs and they welcome individual clients. The lab generously offered us a nonprofit discount for this project. But safe to say chromatographic testing is not cheap, and the price goes up with the number of tests you want to run. We had to limit the number of contaminants we tested for to keep it within budget (keep in mind we had to buy an eighth of flower for each sample, too). All told, it cost a couple grand.

Yes! That’s laid out in the main story. Kudos to Mike Tyson: his pre-rolled joints (Tyson 2.0 Blue Dream Shorties) passed for contaminants (mycotoxins, pesticides, heavy metals) and was below the federal D9 limit. That was the only sample in our small pool that didn’t fail any of our criteria.

The short answer is no. As we wrote, these stores are unregulated, so there is no official database out there.

I don’t think either of us are qualified to divine the tea leaves here, but I would say slim to none given [Sen.] Majority Leader Joe Pittman’s chilly response to the latest bill …

Some states (Rhode Island, for example) have tried cracking down on alternative THC products. And, notably, Pennsylvania state police have raided a string of hemp stores in PA over the years.

But in some states, the hemp industry now represents a sizable chunk of the economy. Texas sought to ban THC products outright, but the governor vetoed the bill after pushback from farmers and other advocates. Banning “all THC products” would effectively ban hemp (again), which is used for a lot more than getting high.

The legal ambiguity of the products also represents a genuine issue. Some are actually legal per the Farm Bill (see also: the Mike Tyson joints that we tested that came in under the federal THC limit). And in Pa., one store owner sued the Lancaster DA after his shop was raided, arguing that Delta-8 products weren’t explicitly illegal.