A new study conducted by New York’s Columbia University researchers used a massive database from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in an effort to determine whether cannabis users had higher levels of any of 17 different metals in their blood or urine. 

The study ultimately revealed that cannabis-only users had higher lead levels in their blood and urine, compared to non-users of tobacco and cannabis, along with elevated levels of cadmium — ultimately affirming the need for testing of cannabis products for heavy metals in the legal market and the need for regulated cannabis as a whole.

Examining Cannabis Use and Heavy Metals in Body

Cannabis is a hyperaccumulator, a class of more than 700 plants that accumulate metals from soil, water and fertilizers at levels far greater than average, often hundreds or thousands of times more than other plants. 

To investigate the amount of metals in the blood and urine of cannabis users, researchers analyzed data from 2005 to 2018 representing 7,254 participants who reported on their diet, health, demographics and drug use, while providing single blood and urine samples. Researchers could not tell what kind of cannabis these individuals used, where it was sourced from or where participants lived, though they adjusted for other factors that can affect exposure to and excretion of metals (namely race/ethnicity, age, sex, education, and seafood consumption).

The study found that cannabis-only users had 27% high blood lead levels and 21% more lead in their urine when compared to non-users of tobacco and cannabis. They also had higher levels of cadmium — 22% more in their blood than non-users. Lead and cadmium can cause long-term health damage, like cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cognitive impairments and increase the risk of cancer. 

In regulated cannabis markets where products are tested, any cannabis that fails must be destroyed or remediated, with legal cannabis states often issuing recalls for any products that fail and mistakenly hit store shelves.

Tobacco Users Fare Much Worse

None of the other 15 elements researchers evaluated — like arsenic, cobalt, manganese and mercury — has a clear causal association with cannabis use, though tobacco users saw much higher levels. 

Urinary cadmium levels among tobacco users were three times higher than those of cannabis-only users and their blood lead levels were 26% higher. The study also found that tobacco use was associated with higher levels of antimony, barium, tungsten and uranium. 

In general, regulated cannabis undergoes more intense testing than tobacco, and previous studies have long documented the heavy metal content in cigarette smoke.

Underscoring the Importance of Legal Cannabis Regulation and Testing

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest known study on biomarkers of metal exposure in participants who exclusively use marijuana in a representative population of U.S. adults,” authors noted. The study findings reinforce that regulated, legal cannabis provides for more consumer safety, as illicit cannabis does not undergo this same testing.

Authors note that the study was limited by its small sample of exclusive cannabis users, along with its inability to hone in on the type of product used (i.e. vapes, combustibles and edibles) which kept researchers from determining the difference in metal concentrations by product.

Given that the data was taken from 2005 to 2018, it’s also uncertain how much cannabis was obtained through the legal or illicit markets — though it’s likely that most was illicit use, as the first states to legalize cannabis only began in 2014 and adult-use legalization was still limited in the years that followed.

“We found overall associations between internal metal levels and exclusive marijuana use, highlighting the relevance of marijuana for metal exposure and the importance of follow-up studies to identify the long-term implications of these exposures,” researchers stated. 

“Future investigations of cannabis contaminants must assess other contaminants of concern and potential health effects to inform regulatory, industry and other key stakeholders, to safeguard public health and address safety concerns related to the growing use of cannabis in the United States.”

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Regulators in New York this week lifted a stringent requirement that cannabis growers in the state had decried as an “existential threat” to their operations. 

NY Cannabis Insider reports that the state’s Office of Cannabis Management on Tuesday sent an email to cultivators to note that it had “updated its Laboratory Testing Limits document to remove the pass/fail limits associated with the Total Viable Aerobic Bacteria Count and Total Yeast and Mold Count for unextracted cannabis products (e.g. cannabis flower, pre-roll, etc.).”

New York cannabis growers lamented that the testing limits for bacteria, yeast, and mold were far too onerous, and jeopardized their ability to get the product in front of customers. 

The state gave conditional licenses to cultivators earlier this year to begin growing the first adult-use cannabis crop outdoors. 

But growing outdoors made those testing limits difficult to attain. 

“This is a step in the right direction for the success of this new market,” said Aaron Leentjes, a conditional cultivator and co-founder and owner of UNIFI Cannabis, as quoted by NY Cannabis Insider. “Because growers were not given an option to cultivate indoors, it’s nice to see OCM adjusting their testing guidelines to be more in line with the realities of outdoor cultivation.”

In its email sent on Tuesday, the Office of Cannabis Management said that, although testing will still be conducted, “there will not be a defined limit for unextracted cannabis products in the adult-use program.”

“It is the responsibility of the licensee to consider these results and any impact to the stability and expiration dating of the product, as well as any risks to the health of consumers,” the OCM said in the email, as quoted by NY Cannabis Insider. 

Recipients of the first two-year “conditional cultivator” licenses were given the green light to grow up to an acre’s worth of weed outdoors, although they were also permitted to keep some plants in greenhouses. 

“There’s a market that we’re building for small players, for big players, for medium-sized players, for family businesses, for big corporations as well,” Chris Alexander, executive director of the Office of Cannabis Management, said of the first round of cultivation this summer. “We do think it will be sufficient to provide that initial supply to our dispensary locations that we get up and running.” 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is facing re-election next week, said last month that the first state-regulated marijuana dispensaries are still on track to open by the end of this year.

“We expect the first 20 dispensaries to be open by the end of this year,” Hochul said at the time. “And then every month or so, another 20. So, we’re not going to just jam it out there. It’s going to work and be successful.”

In that same interview, Hochul took credit for getting the legal marijuana program up and running after she took over for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo last August. 

“Talk about the rollout being jammed up,” she said. “When I became governor, nothing had happened. Nothing. It was shut down because there was a battle between the administration and the legislature over who would be the executive director and the chairs of the cannabis review boards,” she said. “So, I was given a lot of credit because within one week, I named people. I got things going. So, when I speak to people about being part of this industry, the first thing they say is ‘thank you.’ Because otherwise we could still be waiting and waiting and waiting, even for the most basic steps to be taken. So we’ve been moving along quickly.”

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Leafly’s comprehensive guide to marijuana testing regulations in all 50 states

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