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Comment by samstave | Hacker News Reader

Would CBD show on a typical 5-panel test which tests for THC?

Well it's a completely different molecule than THC, so no.

that's not the way screens work. definitely not the way immunoassay screens work, which is the most common screen that isn't just making shit up.

confirmatory testing, like a GC/MS or LC/MS/MS can tell them apart because they're different molecules, but the extraction processes for delta 9 THC can/will pick up all the similar molecules (delta 8, COOH, CBD, CBN, whatever).

that's necessary and good because they're not all psychoactive (the COOH in particular), so they've got to be separated out for forensic purposes.

It's not completely different. They appear to be identical in large portion. Check the diagrams at: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6630507B1/en

a cannabinoids immunoassay will tend to react with most of the cannabinoid-esque compounds. so, it's not a question of whether or not the test will "show" CBD, but rather, how much CBD is necessary to get the test to think there was an interesting/actionable amount of THC in the sample.

it works as a sort of linearish equation, where you add up all the compounds at different ratios, like 1.0THC + 0.5COOH + 0.05CBD + 0.05CBN + ... and if that adds up to "enough" then the test will trigger the testing lab to consider the screen positive.

at that point hopefully it goes over to confirmatory testing, where the LC/MS/MS separates all the various compounds apart, and lets the lab know that you had CBD in your system, but not THC.

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