whoar.co.nz

“..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.

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..”

(cont..)

(ed:..this is a very real concern..that must be attended to at the time of legalisation/regulation/taxation..

..and ensuring clear/clean/safe/free-from chemical-nasties cannabis must be a key component of any new schema..

..and it will not be a difficult guarantee to ensure..

..we just need to look to colorado..where..to keep tight-regulation on the now legal pot-growing industry/dispensaries..and to keep organised-crime out of the picture..they are able to track plants from seed to end-product..

..instigating both a list of prohibited-chemicals to use on plants..and a random-testing regime to back that up..with prohibitive-penalties for any growers using banned chemicals..

..will take care of that problem..

..and will be a major improvement on now..

..where the blackmarket ensures contaminated-cannabis reaching the market..

..so..this clear and present health-problem/issue is really just another reason to legalise/regulate/tax cannabis..

..the halfway house of decriminalisation will not work..for a raft of reasons..

..with this problem of new zealanders forced to consume contaminated-cannabis to be added to that ‘raft’..)

go to source/story>>

Marijuana Pesticide Contamination Becomes Health Concern As Legalization Spreads.