Product safety isn’t guaranteed even where weed is legal
How bad can weed be? State regulators have a long way to get their arms around the marijuana-narcotic content of the U.S.
The number of Americans who use marijuana doubled over the past decade, according to a survey by Gallup. In many parts of the U.S., weed is legal under state law — and many Americans now use it as casually as they might have a beer or glass of wine.
Shaw said that cannabis is a bioaccumulator, meaning that it takes up everything in the soil and stores it in the plant. Research has identified heavy metal concentrations in smokable products like cigarettes, and cannabis, as a major long-term health concern.
But for consumers who do choose to partake, there’s another layer of concern: Traces of other harmful substances like pesticides, molds and heavy metals might be lurking in a tasty-looking edible or nicely packaged vape. State regulators are trying to get their arms around the problem but, researchers say, they have a ways to go.
It’s possible to cause harm with an ER visit for vomiting or Clostridium botulinum, or to cause harm with cancer-causing organisms in the long term.
Cannabis recalls increased in California from the 1950’s to the present: The role of the weed, alcohol, and cannabis-related regulations
Even many storefront shops around the U.S. are selling black market weed. Consumers face a lot of challenges right now. If you want legal, regulated weed, you have to do your research and really understand how your cannabis products are sourced. That’s not always easy.
There are over 600 contaminants that were regulated in a number of states that had legalized cannabis at that time. “But interestingly, in each jurisdiction there’s only anywhere between 60 to 120 contaminants that are regulated.”
Those restrictions have left a huge opening for underground producers and distributors, some backed by criminal gangs. NPR has found those products are often grown and processed in unsanitary conditions with banned pesticides and unhealthy working conditions. And they typically don’t have trustworthy potency guidelines.
The market lacks transparency and accountability. Whether I was getting cannabis or alcohol or my broccoli from an unregulated market, I’d be concerned about any number of issues,” says Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
“When you move from prohibition to legalization, it takes time to significantly reduce the size of the illegal market,” said Beau Kilmer at the RAND Drug Policy Research Center.
After the end of the alcoholic beverage prohibition in the US, there was a black market for moonshine, according to Daniel Okrent, a historian. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, a number of states had statewide prohibition laws. They existed even though they were ignored.
Over time, legal cannabis producers think the regulated marijuana brands will win out. That’ll make it easier for consumers to know which products to grab off the shelf.
In California there were more than 60 recalls. That includes cannabis flower buds, pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes, edibles and vape products. That’s up from just four cannabis recalls the year before in the state. Officials tell NPR that’s due to an increase in testing.
Zarha Ruiz, who’s in charge of environmental compliance and manufacturing safety at the California Department of Cannabis Control, says the uptick in recalls is a sign the system is working and makes her proud of the hard work her teams have done.
She says that it’s indicative of how the department is working to ensure that tools and resources are used to keep consumers safe.
“The general public largely assumes, ‘Hey, it’s in a state-regulated store. It has to be pure and regulated like any other product I buy in a state regulated market. “
If you buy cheap suspect weed, Mitchell warns you not to be foolish. 10 years from now, someone who smoked cleaner weed might develop a lung problem if they don’t stop.
He can get to the dispensary, but he needs to go to a place that’s reliable and has marijuana he can trust. That’s a luxury available to someone who has deep knowledge of the industry.
Marijuana Enforcement and the Safety of the Cannabis Industry: A Brief History of the Breakdown of the Colorado Cannabis Industry and the Problems It Revealed
“People assume it’s safe because of guardrails that are in place by state enforcement,” said Mitchell. “But when you actually look at the end result, I think that’s up for debate definitely.”
Over time, Justin Singer has become concerned about the lack of enforcement of the cannabis industry in Colorado and the safety of the marijuana supply.
A breaking point came when Singer released a much cheaper product to the market, and increased sales by 500%, a spike he expected would certainly trigger an inspection from the state Marijuana Enforcement Division.
The kind of person who wants to be treated fairly, Singer said. If there were no referees, one team was allowed to cheat and another team tried to follow the rules, professional sports wouldn’t be fun. It would be hard to watch, and you would not be able to participate.
coliform bacteria, which shows unsanitary conditions in a grow house or in storage, is not required for testing in Colorado. Four of the 15 products had high levels of coliform. Four of the products were found with pesticides in them, which poses a threat to the lungs and bloodstream if you smoke pot. Singer says it reminds him of the bad old days, before weed was legal.
“I consider Colorado weed today to be on par with New York street weed in 2008. Singer thinks that the cartels cared much more about their consumers than they did about many people here. I have the data to back it up.
As the industry became well established, Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division increased its staff and started to require testing of marijuana for things like heavy metals and yeasts and molds, and set limits for the contaminants. The MED issues health and safety advisories when contaminants are found.
If we require dog food to follow these guidelines but do not require that for cannabis, which people are using as medicine, then I don’t know what industry is doing,” he said. I know that the industry feels like it’s overregulated, and in some ways it is.
The director of the Marijuana Enforcement Division, Dominique Mendiola, would not comment directly on data from Ripple cofounder Justin Singer, nor on whether the supply of marijuana is safe, but said there is a robust process in place for ensuring marijuana is free of contaminants.
The MED has issued a number of health and safety notices. Marijuana products that have been sold and eaten months or even years before are included in the advisories. That suggests either the product was contaminated at some point after it left the grow or in storage — or testing is not always finding dirty weed.
Mendiola said that they do see the need to continue to work on that. Ensuring that we are reaching consumers effectively, that we are providing information that they need to determine if they have certain products that are a threat to health and safety, or if they don’t?
She said they updated the health and safety notice page online and will soon distribute flyers to educate consumers about safety issues.
Source: Even where weed is legal, product safety isn’t guaranteed
The Marijuana Industry in Colorado: Is It Legal to Bring It On? Ethan Shaw, The Flower Collective, and Other Experts
After a huge amount of investment was put into the marijuana industry during the peak of the swine flu, the prices have crashed. Licensing revenue that supports MED enforcement is limited by the closing of businesses. She mentioned they are downsizing in order to cut costs.
“We’ve been, for a few years now, looking at those opportunities to save costs, cut expenses, in a way that still allows us and ensures that we’re able to carry out our regulatory obligations,” said Mendiola.
“I think at this point in Colorado you’re dealing with the safest weed you can have in the United States,” said Ethan Shaw, co-founder of The Flower Collective. There are a lot of things Colorado has learned that other states haven’t, and one of those is heavy metals.
Shaw noted that the rate of recalls in Colorado has slowed down. He said that the financial struggles of the industry in Colorado meant fewer producers.
“It’s hard to make judgements on if it’s right or wrong when there’s like zero data to really go into the health impacts,” said Tess Eidem, a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder’s lab for aerobiology and disinfection.
Source: Even where weed is legal, product safety isn’t guaranteed
Irradiated Cannabis Spectroscopy: How Can Growers and Retailers Survive the Cannabis Market Censorise?
What is clear, said Eidem, is that marijuana growers in Colorado and other states are allowed to use irradiation technology to treat their product when it fails testing. The process is approved in food, with required labeling. She said that growers can hit the cannabis buds with x-ray until it passes testing. The EPA says that the process breaks down the bonds of molds andbacteria so they die or stop growing.
Currently, what’s required is that products pass a final test. The process can be difficult for growers, who are already suffering from a downturn in sales. Stores and grows are closing.
Shaun Opie, with E4 Bioscience in Michigan, is an expert in marijuana contaminants and lab testing. He said there’s a lot of pressure to market the money that was sunk into the harvest.
Opie said it would be a good idea for states to implement a shelf surveillance testing program, to monitor the product that actually makes it to consumers.
There are over 600 contaminants that were regulated in a number of states that had legalised cannabis at the time, including heavy metals, yeasts and moulds, Ripple Co-founder and CEO Justin Singer revealed. Singer said he expected that a 500% increase in marijuana sales would trigger an inspection by Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division. Singer released a cheaper product to the market.