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The Schwag Report, Volume One

Northern Lab

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Northern Lab Advanced Member

Northern Lab

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I want to thank LongHairBri and ToadInCan for their help in acquiring these samples. :goodjob::thumbsu:

 

FEEL FREE TO COPY AND DISTRIBUTE!

 

 

http://northernlabservices.com/uploads/The_Schwag_Report.pdf

 

The Schwag Report

Volume One

By: Dan Tomaski, Owner of Northern Laboratory Services

 

 

‘Brickweed’, ‘dirtweed’, ‘the dirty brown’, ‘commercial’, ‘regs’; everyone has their term to describe

what is commonly known as ‘schwag’. Schwag is normally low quality, compressed, mass produced,

cannabis sold by drug cartels. Some of it is grown domestically, and some of it is imported. Almost

none of it is suitable for medical use, and may even be dangerous to life and health, especially to those

already weakened by a debilitating medical condition.

 

I own and operate Northern Laboratory Services, a medical cannabis purity and potency testing

laboratory based in Gaylord, MI. We use a dual column Gas Chromatograph equipped with a Flame

Ionization Detector and Electron Capture Detector. This equipment allows us to determine the potency

and purity of medical cannabis. We test for three major cannabinoids – THC, CBD, and CBN – and 6

major pesticides – Fipronil, Bifenthrin, Cyalothrin, Cyfluthrin, Permethrins, and Cypermethrins.

 

We recently decided to acquire samples of some of this cartel schwag as a fact finding exercise with the

hopes of educating patients, legislators, and the public about what is in this cartel product, and what

some patients are going to be forced back into using if the Michigan Legislature and Courts decide to

gut our 2008 voter initiated amendment to the Michigan State Constitution allowing for medical use of

marijuana by qualifying patients. This law also allows caregivers or patients to grow medicine

themselves, so they no longer have to rely on sub-standard cartel product and risk life and limb to

acquire it from a street dealer. Now it seems, with the recent court of appeals ruling closing down many

‘pot shops’ around the state combined with a severe shortage of quality caregivers, some patients are

going to be forced back into using this black market poison.

 

We tested four different samples of cartel product from around the state, two from the Metro Detroit

area and two from the Northern Lower Peninsula. These samples proved to be very low potency, had

lots of visual contaminants like mold, and dirt, suspected insect droppings, along with other

unidentified contaminants, and were loaded with pesticides. For reference, spinach has a federal

tolerance of 20 ppm of Permethrins, 14 ppm of Cypermethrins, and 7 ppm of beta-Cyfluthrin.

Common pesticides containing these chemicals are Raid Yard Guard, Spectracide 3X Insect Control,

and Raid Concentrated Deep Reach Fogger. Seems like the samples with the highest levels of what we

suspect to be insect droppings also had the highest levels of pesticide. The results are listed below:

 

http://northernlabservices.com/uploads/The_Schwag_Report.pdf

 

 

Here are the federal tolerances for residues on food crops:

 

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=f2b22f00f7db7fb2666e85f6c0f8dc60&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title40/40cfr180_main_02.tpl

 

Cyfluthrin

 

Permethrins

 

Cypermethrin

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Northern Lab Advanced Member

Northern Lab

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Is there a PDF available of tests done on homegrown as a comparison?

 

I have performed numerous tests on cannabis available from individual caregivers. Without exception all have been completely clean, however, these caregivers already knew they would be clean because they use no pesticides. They just wanted independent proof to show their patients. I do not test paying customer's product for pesticides unless they ask me to. If you are a patient, however, and you have some suspect product you acquired from your caregiver or another source, I will check it for pesticides free of charge.

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solabeirtan Advanced Member

solabeirtan

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Heres' a little info on your insecticides:

 

Permethrin:

 

Personal healthcare

 

Permethrin is used on humans to eradicate parasites such as head lice and mites responsible for scabies; the common prescription is Permethrin with 5% concentration for scabies, and OTC (over-the-counter) treatment for head lice/crabs is usually permethrin with 1% concentration. However, the British National Formulary states that permethrin has low efficacy in eradicating head lice.

 

Permethrin is also used in industrial and domestic settings to control pests such as ants and termites.

more:

 

Cypermethrin:

Human exposure

 

Excessive exposure can cause nausea, headache, muscle weakness, salivation, shortness of breath and seizures. In humans, cypermethrin is deactivated by enzymatic hydrolysis to several carboxylic acid metabolites, which are eliminated in the urine. Worker exposure to the chemical can be monitored by measurement of the urinary metabolites, while severe overdosage may be confirmed by quantitation of cypermethrin in blood or plasma.[1]

more:

 

Beta-Cyfluthrin:

Safe for the environment

 

Cyfluthrin has low toxicity, so it is safe around children and animals after it dries (always read the label).

Cyfluthrin also breaks down quickly in the environment.

more:

 

These are ALL widely used insecticides in agriculture, in the USA, Brazil, Mexico,.... The biggest risks would be to the persons applying these products.

 

There is a huge chance that you ingest far more of these insecticides than you know, from the food you eat from places like |WALmart, and approved by the FDA.

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bumrush Advanced Member

bumrush

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the prohibitionists want us going to their buddies in the streets for their "buzz" Even Doctors as evidenced by the Inane, insane DR Steven Newman at the Michigan State Medical Society are completely ignorant about cannabis. 40 years of lies has had a horrid effect on our cultural and political life. it is time to end the lies or the liars by any means they require.

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Friendofphotons Advanced Member

Friendofphotons

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Great report, and I love the objective data that isn't open to "I think this means...." or "This might be...."

 

This is in no way meant to detract from the usefulness of the testing however a few thoughts come to mind...

 

I fear the prohibitionists will point at a report like this and say, "Look!! Just look what this law is having people ingest! We need more government intervention and control because that is POISON!!" I'm not doing the testing and it's not my equipment, but I think it might be helpful to show the test results you have there, with a caregiver grown column next to it showing the difference between what the patient/caregiver community produces vs the cartel material that they're forcing people towards.

 

That MIGHT stop the misinterpretation of the test results that I'm betting officials are going to try and use against the community. FWIW...

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Northern Lab Advanced Member

Northern Lab

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Great report, and I love the objective data that isn't open to "I think this means...." or "This might be...."

 

This is in no way meant to detract from the usefulness of the testing however a few thoughts come to mind...

 

I fear the prohibitionists will point at a report like this and say, "Look!! Just look what this law is having people ingest! We need more government intervention and control because that is POISON!!" I'm not doing the testing and it's not my equipment, but I think it might be helpful to show the test results you have there, with a caregiver grown column next to it showing the difference between what the patient/caregiver community produces vs the cartel material that they're forcing people towards.

 

That MIGHT stop the misinterpretation of the test results that I'm betting officials are going to try and use against the community. FWIW...

 

Good point. I may do a bit of editing this weekend and put a finer point on that aspect, at least.

 

 

WHAT WERE THE NUMBERS ON THE SCHWAG?!

 

Sorry, just wondered what the PPM# of say,Pyrethrin for instance in the schwag that was analized. Thanks

 

PS: Do you know if they found Malathian in these schwag samples?

 

I don't have a standard for malathion, but we're working on expanding the number of pesticides we test for. I think it's safe to say that if there is this much present for what we do test for, there are likely more pesticides that we're not seeing.

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MrShpongle Advanced Member

MrShpongle

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Information like this makes me think more and more of the parallels to alcohol prohibition in the 20's. Not only were huge numbers of the consuming public ignoring the law (just like with marijuana today), but they had to satisfy their demand either with imported stuff (not really good for the domestic economy) or low quality "bathtub gin", which sometimes contained contaminants such as methyl alcohol.

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Northern Lab Advanced Member

Northern Lab

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Information like this makes me think more and more of the parallels to alcohol prohibition in the 20's. Not only were huge numbers of the consuming public ignoring the law (just like with marijuana today), but they had to satisfy their demand either with imported stuff (not really good for the domestic economy) or low quality "bathtub gin", which sometimes contained contaminants such as methyl alcohol.

 

Bathtub gin is an apt metaphor for this stuff. Great point!

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Silverblue Advanced Member

+Silverblue

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:thumbsu: Thank You Northern Labs for doing these tests. I think it's a great idea and to also show the difference in homegrown Medicine, then send that report to EVERYONE. :goodjob:

 

This also PROVES the real consequences of prohibition, who knows what people have been smoking that caused them to get ill later on. Who knows ow many died from those illnesses. To me this says one thing about prohibition, for those who live through it, it's a living hell, for those who don't, it's murder. :growl:

 

Sb:(

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