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According to Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, the EPA must establish residue tolerances for pesticides on all crops, and since none have been established for marijuana, pesticides cannot be legally applied.

That includes herbicides, fungicides, and rodenticides too. Neem oil, a naturally occurring oil from the neem tree, is legal if sold as the soil conditioner Neem meal, but if sprayed on leaves to control mites it is also not regulated by the EPA for marijuana and therefore is illegal to use. Linegar said the idea of an oil is to smother the pest, and that other lightweight horticultural oils have been developed for the same purpose (heavy oils will smother the plant itself). Neem oil manufacturers claim some insecticidal properties in addition to smothering pests.

For oils or any other crop protection material: if there is an EPA tolerance listed for any plant on the label it cannot be legally used on marijuana. "We've made it very clear that it's illegal to use pesticides on marijuana and that our office has the responsibility to investigate, and doctors have responsi-bility to report to the public health officer, any illness that may be related to pesticides," Linegar said. Penalties for the misuse of a pesticide can vary, depending on the nature of the violation. The Agriculture Department has the authority to levy fines of up to $5000 per violation. The fine level is determined by the seriousness of the violation combined with the violator's knowledge of the regulations. Physicians' reports to the public health officer are routed back to Agriculture for investigation.

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Marijuana Pesticide Contamination Becomes Health Concern As Legalization Spreads

 

 

BELFAIR, Wash. -- Other than a skunky aroma, the waiting room at the Cannabis Care Foundation in Belfair, Wash., resembles your typical pharmacy. Chairs line walls next to stacks of magazines -- in this case, issues of Rolling Stone -- and a steady stream of patients step up to the counter with doctor's notes.

One by one, salesman Adam Dempsey leads them to the back of the shop, where they can choose from an extensive weed menu -- products with names such as Frankenstein, Garbage, Snoops Dream and Sour Diesel.

"I take it every day myself," said Dempsey, sporting a black hat with a green embroidered marijuana leaf and a plain white T-shirt over his tattooed arms. He works security and customer service at the non-profit store, which through a cooperative arrangement gets much of its cannabis crop from patients themselves.

Marijuana's primary mind-bending ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), Dempsey suggested, helps tame his attention deficit disorder.

But experts warn that unwelcome chemicals, including pesticides, may be tagging along with the THC and threatening the health of marijuana users.

"There's a pretty considerable amount of contaminated cannabis," said Jeff Raber of The Werc Shop, a Pasadena, Calif.-based lab that tests products primarily for California dispensaries.

"There are no application standards," he added. "Since we're not telling growers that they're allowed to use anything, they often use whatever they can get their hands on. And that's a lot of bad things."

Many of the chemicals applied to pot plants are intended only for lawns and other non-edibles. Medical cannabis samples collected in Los Angeles have been found to contain pesticide residues at levels 1600 times the legal digestible amount.

Because the product is generally inhaled rather than eaten, any toxins it carries have an even more direct route into the lungs and blood stream. Raber noted the situation is all the more concerning for patients smoking medical cannabis, whose health problems could make them more vulnerable to the risks pesticide exposure brings -- especially if they suffer from a liver disease.

Still illegal in the eyes of the federal government, marijuana use is condoned by a growing number of states. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia now allow the medical use of cannabis, and Colorado and Washington recently approved pot for recreational use. Many of the states where some form of marijuana use is legal, including Washington, have begun drafting regulations that would require independent labs to test products before they are sold.

While efforts to legalize both medical and recreational cannabis could lead to "a greater awareness of and demand for clean, pesticide-free marijuana," said Raber, the burgeoning market remains troublesome.

Raber published a study this month that attempted to answer some lingering questions about pot and pesticide exposure. He and his colleagues investigated pesticides they'd commonly detected on marijuana products in their lab -- bifenthrin, diazinon, and permethrin -- as well as a plant growth regulator called paclobutrazol. One concern was whether those pesticides could actually get into a user's body.

The short answer: yes. However, amounts varied depending on how the pot was smoked.

The researchers determined that as much as 60.3 percent to 69.5 percent of chemical residues would be inhaled with a hand-held glass pipe, but as little as 0.08 percent to 10.9 percent got through with a filtered water pipe.

"When you filter, you see a dramatic reduction in the amount of pesticides," said Raber.

Not all cannabis is the same, of course. Each strain comes with its own unique combination of chemical compounds, and scientists have yet to get a handle on how any of the chemicals applied to the plant might interact with those natural chemicals, especially when burned and inhaled together. Then there are all of the other forms in which cannabis is consumed -- from oils to teas to candies.

"This raises a lot of questions on how to set up better structures to provide clean, regulated supplies," Raber said.

Public health experts interviewed by The Huffington Post lamented the dearth of data on the subject. Some research has been done on pesticides and smoking tobacco, but since tobacco is not a food crop, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not set tolerances on pesticide residue levels.

Tobacco is also generally smoked through filtered cigarettes, and for the most part not targeted for use by already unhealthy adults, as medical marijuana is.

"If the pesticide is inhaled, then this is quite worrisome," said Dr. Beate Ritz, an environmental health epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Pubic Health. "And these patients might be much more vulnerable."

"Pesticides affect the nervous systems of insects. Our nervous systems are similar to theirs," added Ritz, noting that for patients with terminal illnesses, the benefits of smoking marijuana might outweigh long-term risks of pesticide exposure, such as cancer and heart disease. But acute risks such as flu-like illnesses and respiratory problems, she said, would still be a serious concern.

Given all this, it seems reasonable to ask whether pesticides are even necessary to grow marijuana plants. The answer depends on whom you ask.

James Dill, a pest management specialist with the University of Maine's Cooperative Extension, explained that pests create difficulties in managing the crop. Too much moisture and growers face a fungus or mildew problem; too much dryness and spider mites can take over.

"All of the sudden you could be smoking a mold," said Dill. "That's not meant to be ingested."

It can be easy to see why growers motivated to fend off these foes, and by constraints on time and space to grow plants faster and taller, might resort to chemical help.

There are some alternatives.

"If they're smart, they use companion planting like garlic and onion chives to provide a natural barrier," said Dempsey, the Washington marijuana dispensary salesman.

Still, he admitted that his suppliers, many of whom are also his customers, are still just "learning how to grow."

The Cannabis Care Foundation doesn't have any special testing equipment, nor does it send marijuana out to a lab for analysis. But Dempsey suggested that he and his coworkers can "tell pesticides right away" by smell, taste, touch or by using a microscope. He added that they reject a good amount of cannabis due to mold, pests or pesticide contamination.

But Raber expressed doubt that such surface-level analysis would be sufficient.

"There is no way they could detect pesticide molecules inside of the plant that were put there through the roots," he said. "Nor could they smell the tens to hundreds of compounds you'd like to look for that could potentially be put on there by a cultivator."

Pesticides can be dangerous even at levels far lower than someone would be able to see with a microscope, he added. But he also emphasized that most dispensaries and cultivators want to provide a clean, safe product. In many cases, both seller and grower are unaware that a crop has become contaminated.

"Cannabis is well known to pull up a lot of crap out of the ground," he said.

Evan Mascagni stumbled across the issue of contaminated cannabis while filming his upcoming documentary, "Toxic Profits," which highlights the global sale of pesticides banned in the U.S. He noted concern among many in California that because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, the U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn't allow any organic certification for its products.

Some independent efforts such as Clean Green Certified have sprouted, but even crops from growers who think they are complying with organic standards sometimes test positive for pesticides.

"You can only imagine the pesticides that are being used on marijuana grown elsewhere by profit-driven farmers" who may not care about the health of consumers or the environment, Mascagni told HuffPost in an email.

Pot-smokers aren't the only ones at risk from the application of pesticides on marijuana crops. Also potentially in danger are the people spraying the chemicals -- especially if the practice takes place indoors -- and others that may eat, drink or breathe downwind.

Dempsey maintained that growers can produce cannabis without using pesticides.

"This is a pharmacy," he said. "We need something that helps a patient get healthier, not something that kills them."

 

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My own IPM strategy is one of maximum safety at each step. First is cleaning / removing slow/lag-behind plants. Second is Environment manipulation (temperature! Especially at night! Humidity! ice water foliar spray! CO2 levels!). Third is Bio-controls (ladybugs, nematodes,SM predators, SM destroyers, arachnids). The ladybugs and the spiders you can catch yourself for free. The ladybugs will die in the light, yes, but I've had a naturally occuring population for months now. Their pop swelled to maybe 25 visable (and many more hidden) when fungus gnats were a problem, but now are down to 1-2 visable.

 

So far so good right? And I've never needed to take things any further than that. I try to do all three at once for the hat trick, make sure the bugs do not become a problem. As long as you get to whatever problem it is as soon as the effects are noticed (or before, like when you see a darn gnat flying around or something else on a sticky card) every thing will be alright.

 

"Since we're not telling growers that they're allowed to use anything"

Doesn't mean you can't use your head. Doesn't mean you can't pick up a darn book. Do you think I came up with my IPM ideas? Absolutely not, I'm not that creative. Even if all you are doing is pushing drugs, my way is easier and ultimately cheaper AND easier for an indoor crop. All indoor gardeners should have complete control of their environment through AC, fans, humidifiers/dehumidifers anyway - why not use them to your advantage when a problem arises or even before? Everyone likes a clean room and healthy plants, regardless of pest levels, right? Nevermind the harm reduction if that's not your thing!

 

Especially when you consider the highly expensive pesticides sold to the MJ community versus the bio-controls sold mostly to greenhouse and hobby gardeners. Hmmm! Not a tough choice man.

 

Fast forward a year (maybe two) and they'll be giving out spec sheets full of pre-harvest intervals, application rates, like any other crop.

Guess what though? We are NOT going to like those sheets either - at least if they are like any other crop I've seen EPA pesticide data for.... That goes doubly if recreational marijuana is ever regulated like tobacco. Scary stuff holy batman!

 

Today, tomorrow, and in the foreseeable future if you want good clean weed you have to hook up with a smart caregiver that cares, grow it yourself, or find a good independent review agency.   

Edited by Guanotea1
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I've met growers who use their ac like a cure all ! and I love it. They see a few late flower plants with mites, and super cool with lights off, keeping them calm until harvest. I thought about what you said. Yes, I may have a some mites and didn't even see them, but because my room is dialed in, no surprises, no late flowering species, no fert issues, and lots of biological controls, they were chopped down swiftly when finished, and went unnoticed.

very possible, and likely. I am a mad scientist in the grow, and would not want to admit missing a mite with my practices, but hey, only human, failing eyes, and product QC could all affect my vision right...lol

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Kingdiamond, here is your response from the thread you have locked me out of.

 

your post to me is below in quotations. my response is beneath it.

 

 

  • LocationDeadford

Posted Today, 04:12 PM

"We are suppose to ensure nothing is posted out in the open forums that is detrimental to our law saying that caregivers  in the state poison their patients for profit makes it look bad to everyone not all caregivers spray but all caregivers will be affected once this thread is used to kill our grow rights and trust me it will rear its ugly head again ."

 

 

 

 

 

my response is being censored in that thread, so I pasted your recent post to me, and responded here. where others can read and respond. open that thread if you wish to engage on the subject further, or start your own spray thread please, respectively

 

dude, it wont be because of this thread. pull the heads from the sand, there are more than 2 million results on a single google search for the exact same topic, may of it from dispensaries around the country dealing with this crap for ten years !. Sickness, prosecution, and fines have already happened.

 

The folks who do spray, and adamantly defend that practice as acceptable and safe are the same folks you will need to shift your baseless blame to, the ones actually doing the harm, and trying to pretend this does not exist.

Of course not all caregivers practice this way, but many, many do, and you were first to admit doing it yourself !  why would you not just learn from the info, the info I did not invent, or opine, but the copy paste pro that I am stuff already. This is news, on tv in the papers, and online, go ahead, try to keep it from the members, see how that goes buddy. I suggest doing the search yourself, get some education on the matter, and start providing solutions for the problem.

You censored me last night out of fear, get over it please. I hold nothing personal against you, and already told you I respect your decision to do so. Censorship??really??

If the truth is fearful to you....good luck with that.\

 

Do you really believe that folks that copy pasted news articles in the state with pesticide marijuana laws are the ones to blame for the chemical romances? really man?

Because I think the entire fault is widely accepted as resting upon the shoulders of the people applying the pesticides in the first place, think about it. I have no point to discuss with you really, or an agenda or an argument, take it up with google, reuters, and syndicated news.

Edited by grassmatch
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I have tried to explain to you in plain English that your former thread was inflammatory and very detrimental to our law which it clearly was / is you refuse to see any opinion other than your own I am  no longer interested in arguing with you its pointless because of your one way street way of thinking if we aernt going in your direction our counterpoints mean nothing to you maybe if you would have toned it down like this thread I would never had to be involved in the first place .

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Considering there are alternatives to spraying non approved chems on marijuana, and many proven preventatives, why would someone use them, I wonder. to save the plant, to sell the plant, to consume the plant, to not have to buy another plant , prevent losses, to preserve the plant for photography and subsequent destruction...these are some reasons I've heard. maybe more we'll see.

 

readers please list reasons why a grower might choose to spray an unapproved chemical on their medical marijuana, in any state, even Colorado for instance, even any you have heard here, at the grow store, etc.

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I did so because you disallowed me to respond to your rants in that thread today. I explained this in the post above. Your actions are not personal to me, and I still got the love for ya.  I don't think you look any badder than you intended to. I did not quote you out of context one bit and you know that. You may reconsider your posts, censorship for a better rapport, if you believe your own words made you look bad. sorry you feel bummed.

 

lets move on to real life solutions for these folks and press on with education. I learn new things daily, change is difficult, egos are big.  I am guilty also. I stop you stop. friends again, because I believe we are on the same page, really I do. and on the same team too.

 

peace out

You want constructive quit pulling my words from a former thread and making me look bad for doing the right thing that would be a good start .

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readers please list reasons why a grower might choose to spray an unapproved chemical on their medical marijuana, in any state, even Colorado for instance, even any you have heard here, at the grow store, etc..

 

It's simple really.

Most information on MJ growing is spread underground, and on the internet.

So one person has great luck killing all the mites in his mite infested room with a hotshot, and now suddenly others are going to the shop to pick up the strip. They aren't spraying anything on the plant - that's good right? It doesn't obviously effect the final product - also good. It's effective - at least for a little while, and cheap. A one and done solution, a godsend... Now the grow stores start picking up on it - it's stocked on hydro shelves now. Sales people and other growers are telling you it's effective, and say you can't taste it in the final product and is water soluble.

Sounds amazing, dig a little deeper and you'll find it's EPA approved for grain storage if I recall.

Dig a little deeper, and you see it's not approved for greenhouses. Not ever.

 

Jorge Cervantes, Ed Rosenthal, cannabis guru's everywhere speak very highly of Neem Oil. It's organic. Funny? Why is it loved so much in the MJ community? Well it is an effective broad spectrum insecticide (and deterrant). Not only that it's listed as a 0 day PHI. And no one else could afford cold pressed name brand neem oil but MJ growers or maybe intense hobbiest gardeners. Everyone knows it will make your product taste bad if used too late - but that aside this is also another godsend right? Wrong IMO. I'll accept NEEM up to one week into flower as part of a late stage IPM solution. But 90+ times out of 100 if NEEM is placed where I want it to be in a proper IPM it will just sit on the shelf forever, certainly indoors. 

 

I think everyone is attracted to the idea of a solution in a bottle. A big part of the problem with all broad based insecticides is that you destroy your ecosystem. When problems reoccur, they hit you progressively harder each time until all that exists in your garden is plants (most likely sickly from pesticides / general poor practices) and pests that are resistant to your pesticides. So now a person wishing to raise their existing crop has two options - abandon the pesticides altogether and go the IPM route, and build an ecosystem, or just simply take a trip to the store and get another different magic bottle to solve your dilemma AKA pesticide rotation.

 

Also people bad mouth people like me who suggest IPM bio/environmental solutions, and people that don't understand IPM but have tried segments of it report on their failures. "I released 1500 lady bugs to deal with mites but they all died flying into the light of my tent" Silly wabbit! Wrong predator and way too much!

 

Bio control is also curiously absent from grow stores. I suspect with good reason, because people probably wouldn't use them correctly anyway and fail. Add to that the logistics of keeping live bugs in stock and the idea goes out the window. And don't forget, cheap, effective long term bio/environmental controls DON'T cost a lot of money - and that's what the hydro store is all about.

 

My rooms will always have some tiny population of mites, just like in nature, scurrying in the corners. Little gentlemen. I don't see any. But they are there. They rue the day their miserable lives started right up until the stronger population of voracious predators eat them at a rate faster than they can reproduce due to environmental conditions. A confluence of math and biology that gives me great pleasure.  

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I did so because you disallowed me to respond to your rants in that thread today. I explained this in the post above. Your actions are not personal to me, and I still got the love for ya.  I don't think you look any badder than you intended to. I did not quote you out of context one bit and you know that. You may reconsider your posts, censorship for a better rapport, if you believe your own words made you look bad. sorry you feel bummed.

 

lets move on to real life solutions for these folks and press on with education. I learn new things daily, change is difficult, egos are big.  I am guilty also. I stop you stop. friends again, because I believe we are on the same page, really I do. and on the same team too.

 

peace out

I didn't disallow anything the thread was locked up by a admin not me .

 

 

This is the end of that former threads discussion give those who rely on pesticides some solid ideas on how to naturally eradicate garden pests if you have the natural golden ticket to everyone's bug issues by all means enlighten and educate the masses including me .

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This is the end of that former threads discussion give those who rely on pesticides some solid ideas on how to naturally eradicate garden pests if you have the natural golden ticket to everyone's bug issues by all means enlighten and educate the masses including me .

 

I want to tell you that for the record, there is no magic bullet. Not in a can, not in a bottle, not in a spray, not in a predatory bug (well, not alone). No magic bullets available over the long term.

 

IPM is not new, particularly IPM with bio control, though the terminology may be new and (for me anyway) initially frightening.

The following website gives an okay, but verbose version of the overview of biocontrol IPM I outlined in my two prior posts. 

https://greenmethods.com/necessary/

 

For specific pest information, including lifecycle information (very important!) and environmental triggers ipm.ucdavis.edu is an excellent and easy spot to research.

 

For indoor growers, we have every advantage.

 

I am happy to give out specific guidelines for the control of something like mites, for example, if anyone is actually interested in how this works feel free to PM me. I have a feeling that the people that actually care already know by now. Info is readily available, just a google search of "greenhouse IPM" will get you started if nothing else that I'm saying resonates.

 

Can you tell it was a rough harvest night?! Holy smokes 6AM.

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readers please list reasons why a grower might choose to spray an unapproved chemical on their medical marijuana, in any state, even Colorado for instance, even any you have heard here, at the grow store, etc..

 

It's simple really.

Most information on MJ growing is spread underground, and on the internet.

So one person has great luck killing all the mites in his mite infested room with a hotshot, and now suddenly others are going to the shop to pick up the strip. They aren't spraying anything on the plant - that's good right? It doesn't obviously effect the final product - also good. It's effective - at least for a little while, and cheap. A one and done solution, a godsend... Now the grow stores start picking up on it - it's stocked on hydro shelves now. Sales people and other growers are telling you it's effective, and say you can't taste it in the final product and is water soluble.

Sounds amazing, dig a little deeper and you'll find it's EPA approved for grain storage if I recall.

Dig a little deeper, and you see it's not approved for greenhouses. Not ever.

 

Jorge Cervantes, Ed Rosenthal, cannabis guru's everywhere speak very highly of Neem Oil. It's organic. Funny? Why is it loved so much in the MJ community? Well it is an effective broad spectrum insecticide (and deterrant). Not only that it's listed as a 0 day PHI. And no one else could afford cold pressed name brand neem oil but MJ growers or maybe intense hobbiest gardeners. Everyone knows it will make your product taste bad if used too late - but that aside this is also another godsend right? Wrong IMO. I'll accept NEEM up to one week into flower as part of a late stage IPM solution. But 90+ times out of 100 if NEEM is placed where I want it to be in a proper IPM it will just sit on the shelf forever, certainly indoors. 

 

I think everyone is attracted to the idea of a solution in a bottle. A big part of the problem with all broad based insecticides is that you destroy your ecosystem. When problems reoccur, they hit you progressively harder each time until all that exists in your garden is plants (most likely sickly from pesticides / general poor practices) and pests that are resistant to your pesticides. So now a person wishing to raise their existing crop has two options - abandon the pesticides altogether and go the IPM route, and build an ecosystem, or just simply take a trip to the store and get another different magic bottle to solve your dilemma AKA pesticide rotation.

 

Also people bad mouth people like me who suggest IPM bio/environmental solutions, and people that don't understand IPM but have tried segments of it report on their failures. "I released 1500 lady bugs to deal with mites but they all died flying into the light of my tent" Silly wabbit! Wrong predator and way too much!

 

Bio control is also curiously absent from grow stores. I suspect with good reason, because people probably wouldn't use them correctly anyway and fail. Add to that the logistics of keeping live bugs in stock and the idea goes out the window. And don't forget, cheap, effective long term bio/environmental controls DON'T cost a lot of money - and that's what the hydro store is all about.

 

My rooms will always have some tiny population of mites, just like in nature, scurrying in the corners. Little gentlemen. I don't see any. But they are there. They rue the day their miserable lives started right up until the stronger population of voracious predators eat them at a rate faster than they can reproduce due to environmental conditions. A confluence of math and biology that gives me great pleasure.  

 

forgive my ignorance...

whats IPM stand for?

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agreed. I do think that first the damages of misinformation needs to be explored. A mention of "here's how to control mites once and for all" will only invite naysayers and the like. If they knew the dangers they pose first, they maybe more receptive to proper controls. It may be expensive for someone to actually air condition and heat their rooms al night for instance, as opposed to sparking a chem bomb every cycle? 

My pest solutions began while building my rooms, as a preventative measure. no quick inexpensive fixes, except poison, makes this a difficult notion to those already finding a fix this way.  everyone has google. everyone should have by now googled pesticides on marijuana, and should have known of these things years ago I hoped.

I love that you are doing this. Some still use these items both ineffectively, leading to excessive usage, and at inappropriate times. Both of these practices can contribute to residual levels in the product to be consumed, and should be avoided at all costs.

 

Let's teach people how to be bug- and fungus-free without using questionable practices.

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