Pubdate: Tue, 08 Sep 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Authors: David Migoya and Ricardo Baca

PESTICIDES STILL PRESENT IN POT

Nearly six months after the city of Denver began a crackdown on 
unapproved pesticides in marijuana products, a spot-check by The 
Denver Post found that the chemicals were still being sold to consumers.

Eight lab tests commissioned by The Post on recreational marijuana 
extracts purchased at two shops found most contained no pesticides 
that are not approved by the Colorado Department of Agriculture.

But two tests on concentrated marijuana products sold at one store 
found levels of three pesticides the state says cannot be used to 
grow marijuana. Both items were manufactured by Mahatma Concentrates 
in Denver, which made its extracts from raw marijuana grown by 
Treatments Unlimited, which operates the Altitude shops in Denver.

The level for one of the pesticides was six times the maximum amount 
allowed by the federal government on any food product - and 1,800 
times the highest level Denver accepted when it quarantined marijuana 
plants earlier this year. The pesticides found were myclobutanil, 
imidacloprid and avermectin.

Treatments co-owner Chase Bradshaw said his company did use products 
that contained the unapproved pesticides.

"We used to use Eagle 20 (myclobutanil), I will not deny that," he 
said. "However, we were never a business that would use it in an 
illegal manner or preventative manner. It was always as needed, maybe 
once every three months or once every six months, once a year, but 
never as a part of a regimen."

The company has stopped using the pesticide, he said.

None of the pesticides that were found were listed on Mahatma's 
product labels as required by state law, The Post found.

Denver health officials said any trace of a disallowed pesticide in 
marijuana products is worrisome.

"This information indicates a significant public health concern," 
said Danica Lee, food safety section manager in the public health 
inspections division of Denver's Department of Environmental Health. 
"These products contain high levels of residues from multiple 
pesticides, which poses a potential health risk to consumers. The 
Department of Environmental Health will begin an investigation immediately."

The amount of pesticides found in The Post's tests also was a 
surprise to Peter Perrone, lab director at Gobi Analytical in Wheat 
Ridge, where the analysis was conducted.

"I was shocked," Perrone said. "That's higher than the EPA guidance 
would allow on either one of those chemicals on pretty much any crop."

Gobi is the only state-licensed lab certified for pesticide detection 
for the marijuana industry.

That so many of the products that were tested showed no trace of 
unapproved pesticides also was a surprise, Perrone said. A heavy 
majority of the 1,000plus cannabis flower, edibles and concentrates 
he has tested for pesticides since Gobi started its testing program 
in April have failed.

"Maybe 10 percent of those" were clean of pesticides, Perrone said.

Mahatma co-founder and operations manager Brett Mouser said the 
company "doesn't use any banned pesticides" in its own cultivation. 
He provided paperwork that showed Mahatma purchased the marijuana in 
the products that tested positive on separate occasions from 
Treatments in Denver.

"We buy trim on the secondary market, and that trim is what we make 
our wholesale concentrates out of," Mouser said. "It's no secret that 
the industry was dirty. Is it still dirty now? I don't know."

Mahatma's product labels show the plants actually came from its own 
growing operation, "an unfortunate labeling mistake" that Mouser 
blamed on a former employee. He said he did not know how many of his 
products might have been mislabeled in that manner or for how long.

Mahatma internal tracking paperwork shows the original plants it used 
to make the products that tested positive for pesticides were 
harvested at Treatments in December 2014 and March 2015.

That was just before and while Denver health officials quarantined 
more than 100,000 marijuana plants over concerns about pesticides, 
including the three identified in The Post's test results.

Treatments and one of its shops, Altitude East on Jackson Street, was 
among the 11 marijuana operations whose plants were held by the city 
and later tested positive for unapproved pesticides, documents show. 
Over time, most of the plants were released when pesticide residue 
levels dropped to the lowest amount permissible on food crops.

The Post's test results further focus concerns about pesticide use on 
marijuana and highlight just how little information consumers have 
about what they're ingesting and how imprecise the regulations are 
regarding enforcement.

State law requires marijuana businesses to test for pesticide 
residues, but that requirement has not been implemented since its 
passage in 2013 because only one lab is certified to do that type of 
analysis. Companies do test for residual solvents and the potency of 
the marijuana they sell.

Although pesticides are widely used on crops, their use on cannabis 
remains problematic and controversial as no safety standards exist. 
Marijuana is illegal under federal law, and the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, which strictly regulates pesticides, has never 
established any limits nor allowed testing on marijuana.

"The most pressing potential health risk in this industry is likely 
to be pesticides," said Ian Barringer, founder of cannabis testing 
facility Rm3 Labs in Boulder. "There has not been any clear health 
impact to date, but certainly there are concerns about the cumulative 
impact of smoking potentially pesticide-laden marijuana.

"And since there is effectively so little regulation of what 
pesticides are being applied and in what quantities, there is 
ultimately the potential for long-term risk," Barringer said.

Denver health officials last week held up hundreds of lozenges and 
raw marijuana from distribution at two manufacturers until lab tests 
confirmed that product labels inaccurately indicated the presence of 
a disallowed pesticide.

The Post had five brands of concentrate tested with the cooperation 
of the two shops that sold them. State law only allows licensed 
marijuana companies that produce the plant or its products, or sell 
them, to test them at state-approved labs.

Consumers cannot independently have marijuana tested in Colorado, 
though other states allow the practice.

Concentrated marijuana is in a variety of popular products - oil, 
wax, butter or shatter - and is ingested in ways ranging from 
inhalation to rubbing on the skin.

The shops agreed to submit the products to Gobi Analytics for an 
analysis that was paid for by The Post.

Products tested that came from four of the manufacturers - The Lab, 
TR Scientific, Bolder Extracts and Happy Camper Concentrates Co. - 
showed no unapproved pesticides, according to Gobi.

Results on Mahatma's manufactured products, however, found potent 
levels of myclobutanil and imidacloprid, as well as measurable 
amounts of avermectin, all disallowed for use in marijuana production 
in Colorado.

Myclobutanil is considered "slightly hazardous" by the World Health 
Organization; imidacloprid is considered "moderately hazardous."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom