Chemically speaking, pesticides found in cannabis cover a wide range of classes: acids to bases, volatile or semi-volatile, water or fat soluble, short-lived or long-lasting. To a chemist, the only property that pesticides have in common is the function of controlling pests. It's no surprise that some pesticides can be remediated easily from cannabis products while some cannot. Testing for this wide array of chemicals in hemp products can be challenging, especially since the defined acceptable levels of cannabis pesticides are generally very low — at or below part-per-billion levels.

These complications, along with cannabis presenting a challenging sample matrix, mean that testing for cannabis pesticides requires the most cutting-edge instrumentation. The most common solution is an LC/MS/MS triple-quad. Depending on the particular state regulations, a supplementary GC/MS/MS triple-quad may be required.