Pot and pesticides, Part II

by Erica Berry of Food & Environment Reporting Network and Katie Kuntz of Rocky Mountain PBS I-News

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Boulder Weekly brings you this report in partnership with Rocky Mountain PBS I-News. Learn more at rmpbs.org/news.

According to a 2013 study published in the Journal of Toxicology, up to 69.5 percent of the pesticides on a marijuana bud can transfer into the smoker’s lungs. Jeffrey Raber, who directed the study and owns a cannabis-testing lab in California, said the risks to consumers and workers are clear.

“It’s easy to understand that these compounds are toxic. We’ve studied that ad nauseum,” he said. “That’s why regulations exist for every other item we consume.”

Colorado law requires pesticide testing for cannabis products, but nearly two years into recreational legalization, the state has not begun testing.

“The MED (The Marijuana Enforcement Division), along with the Department of Agriculture and other state departments, are working very hard on this issue to come up with a process that our licensees can be compliant with,” said Thomas Moore, a spokesman for the agency.

State laws in Colorado also require cannabis cultivators to comply with the Federal Worker Protection Standard to protect employees from acute and chronic pesticide exposure, but the guidelines are complex and enforcement has been slow to materialize.

According to the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s (CDA) John Scott, his agency has inspected nearly 100 of the 1,000-plus licensed grow facilities in operation. The Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board, meanwhile, has inspected 381 of the state’s 709 producers and processors, issuing six violations for pesticide misuse. For now, the primary way Colorado regulators learn of pesticide misuse is through regular building-code inspections by the Denver Fire Department.

Last spring, citing safety concerns about improper pesticide use, the City of Denver quarantined tens of thousands of cannabis plants at 11 of the city’s grow facilities. Then, in early September, a spot-check investigation and private testing by The Denver Post found illegal levels of pesticide residue were still present on products being sold to consumers, prompting a recall by state and city inspectors.

“We initiated an investigation the very next day after that article came out,” Scott said, explaining how seriously the CDA takes allegations of pesticide misuse. The Denver Department of Environmental Health reports receiving several complaints from workers.

“That’s one of the conversations that came up when all of this started: What is going on in these facilities? Are the people that are working there being put in harm’s way without even knowing what’s going on?” said Dan Rowland, a spokesman for the City and County of Denver.

In mid-May, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent a letter to the Colorado agriculture department indicating that states could apply for EPA testing on certain chemicals used on cannabis. Jim Jones, the EPA’s assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said that though the crop remains an illegal Schedule 1 drug, his office is willing to conduct the necessary toxicology tests to determine safe usage of some pesticides on cannabis. He said states must submit applications for pesticides already regulated for both food and tobacco use. More than four months after the EPA sent its letter, no state has applied.

This article was produced in collaboration with the Food & Environment Reporting Network, an independent, nonprofit news organization producing investigative reporting on food, agriculture, and environmental health. To read the full report in depth, go to http:// tinyurl.com/q5ob8cj.