Burning Issue: The Cannabis Industry Has a Pesticide Problem

people don't care...

Turtle, are you saying that consumers don't care what possible toxics are in/on the cannabis they smoke/eat, etc.? Is that your feeling? 

I care, I want it clean.

i agree w/ turtle, most people don't care.

shit, most people don't care what kind of food they eat either...as long as it is cheap, and gets the job done.

a lot of bad cannabis out there, and even worse ethics/morals....which is sad.

Oregon has testing rules on tolerable levels of pesticides, herbicides, and fungus, but they are still getting the kinks out and its been a headache for some growers and distributors because of the limited number of certified labs.  I grow my own so I know exactly what goes into it and its not an issue for me personally.

>Turtle, are you saying that consumers don't care what possible toxics are in/on the cannabis they smoke/eat, etc.? Is that your feeling? <

precisely. "most" people i come across couldn't give a rat's ass.

i am lucky because my buddy has been an organic grower for 25 yrs....and can source other like minded avenues as well. 

"some" people care very much. your avg. dude, not so much....

also my "intelligent" co-worker has been using tinfoil.....

i gave him my long since used dugout...

i was like, "you know that's not really great for you"?..

You are lucky, indeed. I am, too. Many of us care about organic cannabis, organic food, the things that sustain us. I can't forget that I live where that's easy.

This is a big concern for me and I'm just becoming aware. Any tips on how to deal with this for someone not as fortunate to be close to the origin?

You gotta put this in perspective. 

Sure im sure everyone would prefer there be no pesticides in the weed we are smoking. 

Last weekend, I got a phone call. My friend said he had some weed for me. I didn't ask him what kind it was or if it was pesticide free because unfortunately that's not how things go down around here. There was one choice of weed. I had to go to the parking lot at 7-11 to get it. 

Next time I'm gonna ask if it's pesticide free just to see the reaction. 

<<<>>>This is a big concern for me and I'm just becoming aware. Any tips on how to deal with this for someone not as fortunate to be close to the origin?

yes, grow your own. 

No matter what state you live in, just about anyone can put a plant or two in the closet and know exactly what goes into it. It's legal where I live but we had plants for decades, even when and where it was still verboten.

years ago when my friend moved to humboldt...he told me many of his "grower friends" would buy from him for their personal.........really tripped me the fuck out.

I personally am very grateful for lab analysis.  I seek the org.  What the purpose of a dispensary (or og friends) if you dont have choice? I like outdoor in natural sun, nice organic soil with not too much fertilizing. Im playing catch up from the days when you had no idea what was in it or on it. so there is that. Gimme spots on the apples....

I don't know what I put in my lungs from '89 to '96. Since then I think it's been mostly chem free. 

I dont ask. 

Paraquat  free... wish i had your all choices...

What about the buds, will it lead to

Big ones

Wet ones

Big wet ones

?

Then no one cares

>>grow your own.

Just like abstinence is the only 100% effective form of birth control, the above is unfortunately the only way to know with complete certainty what your weed has been exposed to.  

if sold at stores and/or regulated commercially, mandatory testing regulations/lab standarization should be in place.

people claiming organics need to prove it, unfortunately....

I mix DMT in my soil and spray my plants with PCP.   The bugs won't fuck with it.

50$ contaminated eights lol

long live the custie 

damn, i want some of hoover's flowers! 

it's even worse than the article in that first post indicates... here's an email alert that was circulated in NorCal (mainly Humboldt) about a month ago

bottom line... know your grower, know your source

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An urgent message to NorCal growers for the coming year:

Prop 64’s success brings legalization to California. With legalization comes regulation. We celebrate legalization and the opportunity to rid our industry of the bad actors that produce poisonous product and those degrading the environment.

And we have to start right now, with our own crops. We’ve received shocking lab reports, both about the quantity of pesticides showing up in our growers’ products, and worse, uncertainties about just HOW crops came to be contaminated.

Recently, all of California’s testing labs upgraded their standards to reflect standards set by Oregon and Washington for pesticide testing (see footnote 1, below). Product that tests hot for pesticides cannot be sold in the legal market. This is a necessary step to protect the health of cannabis consumers. For instance, Myclobutanil, legal for use in California on grapes, almonds and strawberries is legally listed as a “general use pesticide,” but heating up the chemical, as is the case when smoking cannabis, converts Myclobutanil into hydrogen cyanide—a chemical weapon component!

You may have been hearing the reports (footnote 2). Over 80% (footnote 3) of the NCA Cannabis source material is contaminated with pesticides. How is that possible?

At first I thought this was total exaggeration. Then I felt a certain smugness. As a manufacturer of concentrates and a distributor of flowers and one of the founders of Tea House Collective, I know our growers. They are environmentalists; they are small family farmers who they live on their land. No one uses pesticides!

I assured our clients—big brand names who buy kilos of oil from us--about the cleanliness of our product. We are completely safe.

And then the test results started coming in: Myclobutanil, Pyrethrin, Fenoxycarb. WHAT?!

You know these growers. I know these growers. Some sit on environmental boards. Some have won awards. They don’t do pesticides. But their product is contaminated. How can this be?

Working with the former lab director for Steep Hill, now a consultant to First Mc Processing, as well as other industry colleagues, we have identified some of the areas of concern:

Clones

If you purchase clones, please, please beware. Know your source!  If those little babies were sprayed with miticide, they have absorbed it and it will remain in the plant tissues all the way through flowering. This is a major source of contamination. The same caution goes for any purchased nursery plant, even those grown from seed.

Sub-Contractors

If you work with a sub-contractor, whether a friend minding your garden while you’re away or a share-cropper, be certain to educate them. They may not have the same sensibility as you do; some might just be trying to save their butts and the crop in an emergency infestation. If they spray while you are away, your crop will be unsaleable. It will be worthless.

Soil

One possible avenue of contamination is the compost that people are trucking in to Humboldt from Sonoma County.  We suspect that much of it comes from composted vineyard waste, which could be heavily contaminated with Myclobutanil.

The best option is to not buy soil, but to build it (footnote 4) organically or biodynamically. If you must buy soil, make sure to have it tested (footnote 5) if it hasn’t already been.

Products from the Internet

Just like prescription drugs, products sold over the internet from other countries such as Canada are frequently mislabeled, sometimes deliberately. That new organic pesticide promoted as the best thing ever? It could be that it is not organic at all. It could be Avid with a bogus label. This happens all the time. Beware the sales pitch and use only OMRI certified products.

What else can we do? At this moment we must be vigilant. Follow the links below to educate yourself on can be used and how. We must produce safe product for the legal market -- and all markets.

Who wants to poison people for profit?

Not the Humboldt I know and love. And not the Humboldt I promote.

Karyn Wagner

If you have safe product please don’t hesitate to contact us.

[email protected]

http://www.paradigmcannabis.com/

Footnotes

1--Pesticide testing link to http://www.beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/watchdog/document...

2--Reports -- http://www.eastbayexpress.com/LegalizationNation/archives/2016/03/09/pes...

3—over 80% --  http://steephill.com/pdf/uploads/pressrelease/230e778e18d25bf4740957e90b...

4—build it -- http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/How-To-Make-Garden-Soil

5—tested  -- http://www.dbsanalytics.com/

Postscript, with updated information: THESE PESTICIDES CAN PASS THROUGH 5 GENERATIONS OF CLONES, BE DETECTED, AND INVALIDATE YOUR ENTIRE CROP. PRODUCE YOUR OWN SEEDS, AVOID COMMERCIAL CLONES, MAKE YOUR OWN SOIL. BAGGED SOILS OFTEN CONTAIN USED GRAPE SOIL CONTAINING  PESTICIDE CONTAMINATION. This awareness arises from more rigorous testing, the new standards.

We have been following this issue for the last 6 months.

The Labs are not yet fully in sync although each of them is scrabbling hard to come up to speed.

We deal with the major 3 labs at this moment- all of them are trying to conform with what they THINK will be CA regs and are currently OR regs.

Steep Hill

SC Labs

CW Labs

The labs  are all in various forms of upgrade.

Besides Myclobutanil (one of the most common pesticides AVID) — and very common with those that grow clones. 

We are finding the following… and what it seems - growers are using off label and because the plant is not “ingested” thinking it is OK

These are NOT OK.

Spinosad -- https://www.planetnatural.com/product/monterey-garden-insect-spray-spino...

Permethrin -- https://www.amazon.com/Permethrin-Insecticide-Termiticide-Termites-Crick...

Palcobutrazol -- http://paclokills.org

        - Bushload by General Hydroponics

        - Gravity by Emerald Triangle

        - Flower Dragon by Grow Envy

        - Phosphoload by Dutch Master

I am very concerned for the Humboldt community. So many growers choose not to become legal. This is a problem. They are used to the “old” system.

No longer will a dispensary be able to buy product from your local dealer.

I hope these notes help.

In CO they test for Rec but not MMJ.

Would be worried about more then just pesticides...how about mold, fungus, insects....etc. Not al tests are the same and some only test certain items, YOU HAVE TO PAY MORE TO TEST EACH ITEM if it is not included in the generic test. Let say you have 29 strains and need to test them. They were ~$100 for generic testing for each sample which needs 7 grams at the testing facilities in CO. That would cost 2900 dollars and you would be 7 grams times 29 strains short. If each time you got in a new batch and tested it would get expensive...Do you test each plant that comes from a certain strain or just one plant from that strain...

Went to a disp once to check for new strains. Saw one that I was very familiar with and the color was not the same as the one I had done.

So I bought a small amount of it to see what it was. The outside was brown though when I broke it open it was green, they had sprayed so much on the outside it changed the color. I threw it away.

Even if you know you grower how to you know he is telling the truth...Sometimes things go wrong in the grow and if you want to save it you have to do something you do not do usually. If you told them, they would not buy it from you. So you would almost have to be there when they are growing to know the real truth...

>>> In CO they test for Rec but not MMJ.

almost seems like it should be the other way around

good info there, Patrick

Who else remembers the paraquat scare in the late 70's early 80's?

cash is King and pesticides are shortcuts for greedy stoners who don't know how to grow....plain and simple....

a friend purchased Mel Frank's MJ Insider's Guide in '90

and has been spoiled since '91

....properly done, small square feet, no PM, no pests, no sprays, ever... straight organic

grow yer own, folks

% of pm flowers in commercial operations in CA? 

i say HIGH

Told this story before:

Knew some people who ran MMJ disp. They would test though they were not required too. They found ecoli on their strains they could not figure out where that was coming from. They were good growers...tried to do the right thing and still had this problem. They cleaned everywhere, came up with new procedures to try and combat the problem and still had it for 6 MONTHS. They finally found out it was from one of their trimmers who chewed tobacco and got it from there. Trimmers all used gloves, facemasks and had to change clothes to trim...

Though they sold the ecoli smoke for 6 months and never told anyone...wonder if anyone got sick?

It seemed to me - that disp grows are so important to their bottom line that most disp would do anything to save their CASH CROP...they have nothing to sell if their crop does not turn out...