In January 2020, recreational marijuana became legal in the state of Illinois. Since then, $1.9 billion worth of weed has been sold.
Yet, despite some of the strictest testing standards for cannabis in the nation, Illinois consumers still can’t be certain that the heavily taxed legal weed they buy from state-licensed dispensaries is free from excessive levels of contaminants such as mold, yeast and bacteria, testing commissioned by the Chicago Sun-Times found.
Read our stories on:
- What’s in your weed? Sometimes excessive levels of contaminants — and not always the promised potency.
- Illinois cannabis regulation: moldy weed but no consumer alert or recall, secret investigations.
- Tainted marijuana’s possible health effects.
- Why cannabis that failed Illinois’ state-mandated testing flunked.
- A consumer guide to getting and understanding the “nutrition labels” for legal weed — which dispensaries make tough to get.
- How we tested legal weed and investigated why some marijuana never makes it to dispensary shelves.
If you like reading these stories or have suggestions for further reporting, we’d like to hear from you. Please contact cannabis reporter Tom Schuba at tschuba@suntimes.com or consumer watchdog reporter Stephanie Zimmermann at szimmermann@suntimes.com.