Learn / Before you buy
Reading a Certificate of Analysis
Nothing reaches a Nevada dispensary shelf until its batch has passed laboratory testing. The lab's report on that batch is its certificate of analysis, or COA, and a few parts of it answer most of the questions people bring to the counter.
Which batch it belongs to
A COA describes one batch. The compliance tag on the package ties it, through the state's tracking system, to that batch, and the batch to the harvest it came from. Two jars of one product, packaged from different batches, each have a report of their own, and the numbers on them can differ.
Potency
The cannabinoid results: THC, CBD and related compounds. Flower is often reported with THCA beside THC. THCA is the form in the raw plant, and heat turns it into THC, so a Nevada label may show a potential total THC, which counts the THCA as the THC it could become.
Terpenes
Where the lab reports them, each terpene is listed with its measured amount. The largest few are the best guide to aroma and flavor; our terpene article covers the ones that turn up most on our shelf.
Contaminant screens
Pesticides, heavy metals, microbials and mycotoxins, and residual solvents for extracts. A batch that does not pass cannot be sold, so on anything you can buy, this part of the report records what was checked.
What Nevada requires on the label
A flower or pre-roll label carries the cannabinoid and terpene results the lab found. Every other cannabis product, concentrates, vapes, edibles and tinctures among them, must also state its THC in milligrams. An edible adds the THC in each serving, with a notice that the actual amount in each serving may be within 15 percent of the stated amount.
Ask for it
Every Medizin batch is backed by a certificate of analysis. Ask for it in store.