Pot growers brace for plan curbing chemicals in crop sprays
The laid-back days when marijuana growers could spray crops with chemicals without fear of consequences are just about over as California prepares to deploy a strict new testing regimen, but the proposed regulations have sparked debate over claims they’ll force many pot merchants out of business.
The California Bureau of Marijuana Control issued a draft plan this spring that set some of the stiffest limits in the country for solvents, pesticides and microbial contaminants such as fungus and bacteria in the sticky bud, pills and edibles sold at medical cannabis dispensaries.
The rules are certain to apply to newly legalized recreational pot as well when California regulators consolidate the systems in the coming months, paving the way for the opening of retail shops as soon as January.
The regulations, which generally follow state and federal laws governing crops such as tomatoes and almonds, come at a pivotal moment for a trade that has coasted for decades without much regulatory oversight. The promulgators of the leafy herb are mostly happy at the dawn of legalization, but they are also bracing for a shock as the government pulls a business founded on hippie
values out of the shadows.
California’s proposed regulations are highly technical and subject to change, but many in the business agree they are tantamount to a ban on pesticides.
“It’s a very high bar and it’s going to send ripples through the industry, and I think that’s a good thing,” said Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Growers Association, which advocates for more than 600 marijuana farmers and business owners.
“Our members are thrilled to pick winners and losers based on who’s using poison and who’s not,” he said. “Pesticides are poison. They kill things, and it’s appalling that they have become so normalized in agriculture.”
The proposal sets parts-permillion limits for 88 different solvents, chemicals and pesticides, including myclobutanil, a widely used fungicide, and the insecticides carbaryl and malathion, which are commonly used to control bugs that attack fruits, vegetables and marijuana plants.
The rules are important, toxicology experts say, because studies have shown people who smoke or vape cannabis absorb about 10 times more of what is in the pot than those who who eat it. Although there are no long-term studies on the effects of smoking pesticides, a 2013 study published in the Journal of Toxicology found that people who smoked pot from a bong took in about half of the pesticides that were in the weed.
The danger was especially serious for people with diseases or compromised immune systems, according to the study.
The lack of regulations was seized upon recently by a California activist who accused 675 dispensaries in California of failing to warn consumers about the pesticides in their edible products.
The state attorney general is investigating the allegations by Michael Murphy and his Clean Cannabis Initiative that products sold in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento, Los Angeles and the Central Valley contained unsafe levels of myclobutanil, carbaryl and malathion.
Depending on the results of the investigation, either the state or Murphy could file suit under Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, which is intended to help Californians protect themselves against chemicals known to cause cancer.
Ann Grimaldi, a San Francisco lawyer representing several of the dispensaries, said actions like this are premature given that the state is now drafting regulations governing pesticide residue in pot. She said Murphy’s action “certainly feels like a shakedown to my clients,” who did the best they could in an industry with few established standards.
“You’ve got an industry that has been operating in a gray area for many years, and now it’s, ‘Welcome to the real world of chemical regulations,’ ” Grimaldi said. “The problem is, it’s not always easy to figure out what compliance means. My clients say, ‘Give me a target and I’ll meet it, but tell me what the target is.’ ”
The state’s proposed targets are contained in the 114-page draft plan released in April covering the growing, processing, distribution and sales of medical marijuana. The regulations, submitted by three state agencies, seek to control a statewide industry worth more than $2 billion a year, including about 1,000 dispensaries stocked by tens of thousands of growers. The Bureau of Marijuana Control is now evaluating public commentary on the plan.
The rules would require all weed to be lab-tested and tracked from seed to sale. Maximum allowable pesticide levels were based on existing state Department of Pesticide Regulation standards for fruits and vegetables.
In addition, edibles would be analyzed to make sure they have no more than 10 milligrams per serving of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical compound in cannabis that makes people high.
No doubt, the regulations will cost people in the reefer racket. According to studies, testing requirements make up 80 percent of the regulatory costs for cultivators and manufacturers in states that have legalized marijuana. California regulators estimate the cost of producing pot will increase $524 a pound, or as much as $310,000 per year for the average grower or manufacturer once the rules are implemented.
Noel Manners, the owner of CampCool Collective in Mendocino County and the cofounder of Gooey Cannabis, an oils and edibles startup, said most laboratories in California are not capable of testing to the precision that will be necessary.
“The standards that they are putting up for cannabis are far higher than anything else out there,” he said.
Manners said he was baffled recently when 8 of 10 samples he submitted for testing came back positive for pesticides — even though he has never sprayed any on his plants. He believes the lab detected pyrethrins, a naturally occurring insecticide derived from chrysanthemums.
“Of course, if you test far enough, you are going to find some trace amount of soil or dust or something,” Manners said. “That’s why, in the food industry, there is a threshold of one rat hair or dropping per whatever measurement they use. Plants are not sterile, so we have to establish realistic thresholds.”
Reggie Gaudino, the vice president of science and genetics at Steep Hill Labs in Berkeley, caused a furor last year when 75 percent of marijuana samples he tested from Bay Area dispensaries came back positive for pesticides. A similar experiment in the Los Angeles area found a 93 percent contamination rate.
Gaudino said that between 25 and 33 percent of the pot he has tested in the Bay Area would have failed Oregon’s pesticide and chemical standards if they were applied. And the rules there are not as strict as the ones proposed in California.
“If I went back and tested using the current proposed standards in California, the number of failures would skyrocket,” Gaudino said. “Our opinion is, it will be extremely difficult to meet these levels, and it will result in a large number of failures in the industry.”
Pesticide testing has also been an issue in Washington, Colorado and Oregon, where recreational marijuana use is legal. That’s due, in part, to a lack of federal guidance. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not help states on pesticide-safety issues because cannabis cultivation is illegal on the federal level.
Complicating matters, farmers who never spray can end up with contaminated crops. Pesticide experts say soil taken from landfills or cropland previously used to grow something else could contain residue. Insecticides could also flow into the aquifer from neighboring apple or citrus farms or drift over after being sprayed from an airplane.
All of which will make it tough for pot farmers, manufacturers and merchants — especially fringe operators — to make their bottom lines.
“I think this will force the industry to focus on best practices and not simple productivity,” said Allen of the Growers Association, who predicts that as many as half of the pot farmers operating in California will go out of business. “Cannabis is currently the most valuable cash crop in California, and we’re committed to ensuring that it’s also the most sustainable and environmentally healthy.”