With Arkansas’ 5-month-old medical marijuana industry reaching $10 million in total sales, Arkansas’ top cannabis tester, Steep Hill Arkansas CEO Brandon Thornton, is adding staff and high-tech equipment at his west Little Rock offices.
Thornton, whose operation is part of California-based Steep Hill Inc., is also warning Arkansans to buy cannabis vaping products only from licensed dispensaries.
“Where are people buying these dangerous vape cartridges?” he asked rhetorically, noting a nationwide series of deaths and hospitalizations linked to vaping. “Well,” he answered himself, “from a drug dealer.”
The vaping industry is on the defensive from many sides, from President Donald Trump to state Sen. Jim Hendren of Gravette, who have both proposed restrictions.
“We are testing vape products and topicals, any kind of infused product you’re seeing sold legally out there,” said Thornton, who has built his staff from three to seven to meet growing demand from the state’s three operational cultivation centers and several dispensaries that are starting to grow their own.
“We had a little room to grow, so we’ve added instruments and people,” he told Whispers. “We’re trying to forecast when the rest of the grow dispensaries and cultivation sites will come online,” he told Whispers. Two cultivation sites in Newport are gearing up for production, and 23 of Arkansas’ 32 licensed dispensaries have yet to open, though most are expected to be in business by the end of the year.
Trust and Testing
Steep Hill tests samples for purity and for contamination by heavy metals, pesticides or microbiological agents. “A lot of these bad vape cartridges — especially cannabis cartridges — are coming from people who are intentionally adding materials to cut down on the amount of cannabis oil they use,” Thornton said. “It’s a way to get more cartridges out of an amount of concentrate, and none of that stuff is tested; it’s all black market.”
Thornton said Steep Hill has consulted the Arkansas Department of Health on the vaping crisis, assuring state officials that medical products in Arkansas “are 100% cannabinoids, with no additives.”
The cartridges making teens and older people sick are not coming through cultivators and legitimate dispensers, Thornton said, adding that he suspects some black-market offerings are products that failed testing in other states.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these black-market vape cartridges failed and somehow went out the back door in Oregon, Washington or California,” he said. “If you’re buying from a dispensary, you’re getting a product that’s been tested, from somebody who cares enough about the process not to resort to additives.”
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