LOS ANGELES — A higher percentage of California marijuana products are passing strict safety tests, but the sudden closing of a lab that state authorities found wasn't correctly checking for pesticides has raised new questions about the system intended to protect the purity and potency of legal cannabis.
California broadly legalized marijuana at the start of the year, and mandatory testing began in July 1. During the first two months the failure rate was about 20 percent, but state data collected through November showed improvement — about 14 percent of nearly 24,000 products were blocked from store shelves by tests.
Cannabis-infused cookies, candies and tinctures continued having the most trouble in test labs: About 26 percent were rejected, though that also was an improved rate compared to the July-August period, when one-third failed.
