Every cannabis product sold in a Washington dispensary has been tested by a state-licensed lab. The result of that testing is a Certificate of Analysis — a COA — that lists what's in the product and what isn't. We can pull a COA on most products on request. Here's what's on one and what each number is telling you.
The five sections of a COA
A typical Washington cannabis COA has five panels of data plus a header. We'll walk through each.
Header — who, what, when
The top of the COA names the producer (the licensed company that grew or made the product), the product (strain or formulation), the batch number, the harvest or production date, and the testing lab. The batch number is the trace-back ID — if the producer ever recalls a batch, that's the number that matches.
If you ever want to check whether a product on our shelf has a current COA, the batch number is what we'd look up.
Cannabinoid panel — the headline numbers
This is the panel everyone looks at first. It lists the cannabinoids the lab tested for and the percentage by weight in the product. The two most common columns:
- Total THC — combined THC and THCA after decarboxylation. This is the "potency" number on the label.
- Total CBD — combined CBD and CBDA. CBD is non-intoxicating; CBD-heavy products have markedly different effects than THC-heavy ones.
Modern COAs increasingly list minor cannabinoids:
- CBG — often described as a focus-leaning, non-intoxicating cannabinoid. Common in low percentages.
- CBN — typically present in older flower and in sleep-marketed products. We say what's on the label, not what it does.
- CBC — even less common; non-intoxicating.
Some COAs split THC into "THCA" (the unactivated acid form, present in raw flower) and "Delta-9 THC" (the activated form, present after heat). When you smoke flower, the THCA converts to Delta-9 THC. Most product labels show "Total THC" as the headline.
Terpene panel — the smell, the flavor, often the effect
Terpenes are aromatic compounds (cannabis has them; so do citrus, pine, lavender, basil — every plant). Most modern COAs test for 15-25 terpenes. The big ones:
- Myrcene — earthy, musky. Common dominant terpene in indica-leaning strains.
- Limonene — bright citrus. Often associated with uplift.
- Pinene — pine-forward. Often associated with focus and clear-headedness.
- Linalool — floral, lavender-like. Often associated with calm.
- Caryophyllene — peppery. Unusual among terpenes in that it directly binds CB2 receptors.
- Terpinolene — fruity-floral. Common in head-leaning sativas.
Total terpene percentage matters for the experience as much as THC percentage. A 20% THC flower with 3% total terpenes will usually outperform a 28% THC flower with 0.5% total terpenes for most consumers — terpene content is what gives the flower its smell and shapes how the high feels.
Pesticide panel — pass/fail by analyte
Washington requires every batch to test below threshold for a list of pesticides. The COA lists each pesticide tested and either a numerical concentration (in parts per billion) or "ND" (not detected) or "Pass / Fail." Anything that fails is destroyed at the producer level — it never reaches a dispensary shelf.
Pesticides commonly tested for include myclobutanil, abamectin, bifenazate, imidacloprid, and ~40 others. Most COAs show a clean pass-line with all 40+ analytes at "ND" — that's what a clean test looks like.
Microbiological panel — pass/fail for living contaminants
This panel tests for total yeast and mold, total aerobic bacteria, salmonella, E. coli, and aspergillus. Same pass/fail mechanic — anything that fails doesn't ship.
Aspergillus is the one most worth knowing about for medical-cannabis-curious customers — it's a mold whose spores can cause respiratory infection in immunocompromised people. WA tests for it and rejects on detection. That's a meaningful safety floor.
Heavy metals + residual solvents — pass/fail again
Heavy metals (lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury) can accumulate in cannabis from the soil. Tested every batch.
For concentrates and vape cartridges, there's an additional residual solvents panel — testing for leftover butane, propane, ethanol, hexane, and other solvents that were used during extraction. Pass/fail again.
What "premium" looks like on a COA
When we describe a product as premium, here's what we're usually pointing at on the COA:
- Total terpenes greater than 2% — high terpene content correlates with full flavor and complete high.
- Total cannabinoids greater than 22% — strong but not hot-housed; mid-20s on flower is the sweet spot.
- All pesticide / microbio / heavy-metal panels showing ND across the board — clean baseline.
- Single-strain extraction — for concentrates, the COA shows the extract was made from a single strain, not blended trim.
Fail any of those and we'd describe it as "fine, gets the job done" rather than premium. We don't sell anything that fails the state-required panels — every product on our shelves passes those by definition. The "premium" call is the next tier above that floor.
Asking us for a COA
Producer COAs sit on a shared portal. If you want to see one for a product you're considering, ask the budtender — we can usually pull it up in under a minute. Useful when you want to know the dominant terpene, the exact CBD level, or the batch date.
This information is general cannabis education for adults 21 and over. WAC 314-55-102 lays out Washington's required testing standards; the full list of analytes and thresholds is on the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board's website.
