Pot Laced With Pesticides Forces States to Act as EPA Stays Away

Whenever Josh Wurzer buys legal California pot, he makes certain it was grown without pesticides.

That’s because Wurzer, as president of cannabis-testing company SC Labs, knows how prevalent the use of health-threatening chemicals are in an industry that until recently operated mostly in the shadows. Three to four of every 10 samples that SC tests reveal the presence of pesticides that shouldn’t be used on cannabis, including one that turns into a poisonous gas when ignited, he said.

“I don’t want some farmer with no one looking over their shoulder spraying away all kinds of pesticides that they don’t really understand, that they are not really trained to use,” said Wurzer, who has a doctor’s prescription to buy pot. “I choose to get cannabis from people I know aren’t using pesticides.”

With 29 states and the District of Columbia now allowing medical or recreational cannabis use, the $6 billion U.S. industry is expected to reach $50 billion by 2026, according to investment bank Cowen & Co. Yet many states are just beginning to check for pesticides, while some have no testing program at all. California, where voters approved medical marijuana 20 years ago, won’t begin testing for impurities until recreational sales begin Jan. 1.

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Colorado last year found that 49 percent of cannabis samples tested in response to complaints had residue of unapproved pesticides, according to state Department of Agriculture data. The failure rate so far this year is 13 percent, demonstrating how testing improves the safety of marijuana, said Jan Stapleman, a spokeswoman for Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-02/pot-laced-with-pesticides-forces-states-to-act-as-epa-stays-away?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social



Some ugly ugly crap is being used, including insecticides!