Labelling requirements specify what a regulated cannabis package must carry and what it must not. Typical mandatory items: product type, net weight, THC and CBD (often as total THC and total CBD), lot or batch number, producer licence, packaging date, health warnings and a standard cannabis symbol. Common prohibitions: health claims, appeal to young people, false or misleading statements.
In practice
Read the label for what it actually states. A packaging date is not a harvest date. Potency is a single lab result, which can be inflated or not representative of the whole lot. Whether irradiation must be disclosed varies by place. Terpene data is often voluntary.
GenetixBay's buyer-beware position: flower labelled above about 35% total cannabinoids is not credible, and most flower labelled mid-20s to 30s really tests lower. See buyer beware: label claims.
Rules differ by country, state, province and city, and change often. This is a general definition, not legal advice: check local rules.
Don't confuse with
THC (Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol) is the neutral, decarboxylated cannabinoid mainly responsible for cannabis's reported intoxicating effects; the living plant makes it almost entirely as THCA.CBD (cannabidiol) is a non-intoxicating neutral cannabinoid formed when CBDA decarboxylates; hemp-type and CBD-dominant cannabis make it mainly as CBDA in their trichomes.Cannabis irradiation is treating harvested flower with ionising radiation, gamma, electron beam or X-ray, to cut microbial counts; permission and labelling rules vary.Terpenes are volatile hydrocarbon compounds built from five-carbon isoprene units; in cannabis they are made in the trichome heads and are a major part of aroma and flavour.Total cannabinoids is the sum of all cannabinoids a lab measured in a sample, usually reported in % w/w, with acid forms either summed raw or decarboxylation-adjusted.Child-resistant packaging is a container that most young children cannot open in a standard test while most adults can, required for cannabis in many markets.A COA (certificate of analysis) is a lab's signed report of what it measured in a specific sample, such as cannabinoids, terpenes, moisture and contaminants, with methods and limits.Compliance testing is mandatory lab analysis of cannabis or hemp for potency (often total THC) and contaminants, required before sale or to prove legal status.Total THC is a calculated figure, Δ9-THC plus 0.877 × THCA, estimating the maximum THC a sample could yield after full decarboxylation.
