Pubdate: Wed, 13 Feb 2013
Source: Pottstown Mercury (PA)
Copyright: 2013 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.pottstownmercury.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2287
Author: Kristen Wyatt, Associated Press

MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION RAISES SAFETY QUESTIONS

DENVER (AP) - Marijuana may be coming out of the black market in 
Colorado and Washington state, but the drug, at least for now, will 
retain a decidedly underground feel: Users may not know what's in it.

Less than a year away from allowing pot sales, regulators are 
grappling with how to ensure that the nation's first legal marijuana 
industry will grow weed that delivers only the effects that pot smokers want.

Whether it is establishing rules to govern the growing of marijuana, 
including the use of pesticides and fungicides, or accurate product 
labeling, officials know they will be doing it alone.

Federal agencies that regulate food and drugs are staying out because 
pot remains illegal under federal law. That means the states are 
starting from scratch to protect consumers from pot that could be 
tainted by mold, mildew or unwanted chemicals.

Whatever regulatory scheme officials in the states choose, there is 
little reliable product history to even know where to begin 
identifying marijuana safety risks, said David Acheson, a food safety 
consultant.

When it was illegal, few users could come into the health department 
to complain that a stash of weed they bought was bad, said Acheson, a 
former assistant commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration.

"As it becomes legal, we could see many problems emerge. We just 
don't know," he said.

Medical marijuana product safety has long been a concern in Colorado. 
Critics say the regulations were too loosely lax, and that any new 
regulations for pot should be stringent, and rigorously enforced.

Colorado has one operational product testing facility for marijuana 
potency and content. Product testing is voluntary and paid for by 
interested pot consumers and sellers, not state regulators.

"I've seen stuff in grow houses - oh my God, you don't even want to 
know about," said Genifer Murray, the owner of CannLabs, a Denver lab 
that tests marijuana. She said she has seen cans of bug spray next to 
marijuana, plants covered with powdery mildew and lax sanitation.

"There's no other plant like this that you smoke and eat and use as 
medicine," Murray said. "Everybody's entitled to a safe and effective 
product, and right now it's completely hit and miss. What exactly are 
you buying?"

Colorado requires labels on edible pot, including an ingredient list 
and recommended expiration date. Potency and dosing, though, are 
currently left to the buyer to figure out. Labels read, "Levels of 
active components of medical marijuana reported on product labels are 
not subject to independent verification and may differ from actual levels."

The state has detailed production safety guidelines and a threepage 
list of pesticides and other chemicals that can't be used on 
marijuana, including arsenic and mercury. But in Colorado's 
three-year history regulating medical-marijuana production, the state 
has levied no enforcement actions for a safety or sanitary violation.

Colorado and Washington officials are considering going further when 
it comes to marijuana for sale to all adults, though neither has 
decided what to do.

The states will first have to decide whether to treat marijuana like 
something that is smoked or something that is eaten.

Colorado currently copies tobacco pesticide regulations to apply to 
medical marijuana. But regulators rejected a proposal to certify 
"organic" pot grown without any pesticides, leaving consumers with no 
way to verify organic processing claims.

Other blank spots facing marijuana product safety:

- - Sanitation. Marijuana is a crop difficult to insure, giving 
unscrupulous growers an incentive to hide moldy or otherwise foul pot 
rather than throw it away.

- - Edible marijuana. There are no food-safety inspections on 
cannabisinfused food products. Some in the marijuana industry say the 
public is at risk from ingredients not related to pot, and that 
salmonella or E. coli outbreaks should be of concern.

- - Workplace safety. Marijuana producers say the industry is overdue 
for worker-safety protections. Of special concern is the production 
of concentrated marijuana, or hashish, which is frequently produced 
using butane or other explosive solvents.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the 
nation's oldest marijuana-legalization advocacy group, says marijuana 
could be treated like alcohol or like an herbal supplement.

Federal law doesn't require rigorous testing of supplements to prove 
they are safe, or even that they work. NORML says pot should be 
treated like echinacea or vitamin C pills, with government product 
intervention only if consumers get sick or a safety issue comes to 
light. "Look at lettuce. Look

cantaloupe. They're

at regulated a whole lot more than cannabis, but the reality is even 
with those regulations, you can still have outbreaks. That doesn't 
mean lettuce and cantaloupe themselves are dangerous," said Paul 
Armentano, a California based deputy national director for NORML.

The group doesn't mind that federal agencies aren't helping. Noting 
that liquor regulations vary from state to state and even town to 
town, Armentano said a patchwork of marijuana safety regulations is likely.

Dr. Alan Shackelford, a Denver physician who helped write Colorado's 
medical marijuana safety regulations, said that the absence of 
federal oversight gives Colorado and Washington big jobs in 
pioneering consumer safety standards for marijuana.

"Anything that is going to be offered for sale to the public needs to 
have safety and health standards," Shackelford said. "Time will tell 
what those should be for marijuana."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom