Investigating Counterfeit Cannabis Edibles Using Vibrational Spectroscopy

Counterfeit products are an interesting and varied forensic science problem that threatens public health and violates intellectual property. With the rise of the legal cannabis market and the wide range of laws governing its use, a proliferation of counterfeit cannabis edible products have become available to consumers. Cannabis usage is ubiquitous, with edibles being a favorite and frequently used form. There are different types of counterfeit cannabis edible products available including high quality, low quality, diverted, and burner distro (product sold out the backdoor to the black market). The product quality of all of the different genres of counterfeit has not been scientifically investigated. The goal of this research is to utilize established methods for analyzing counterfeit pharmaceutical and cannabis products to develop an optimized analytical scheme that effectively distinguishes counterfeit products from genuine ones. This case study examined two different edible product types, gummies and a chocolate. For the gummies, two different flavors were purchased of 4 different types of counterfeits (high quality, diverted, low quality, and burner distro) plus the genuine product. For the chocolates, one flavor was acquired for two types of counterfeits (high quality and diverted) as well as the genuine product. This portion of the project employed both IR and Raman spectroscopy on the products and their packaging. It was found that IR spectroscopy, specifically ATR-FT-IR was especially useful for examining and revealing information about the packaging materials which can then be employed in counterfeit cannabis investigations.