By Noelle Skodzinski
The sale of millions of dollars' worth of legal marijuana plants have been put on hold due to concerns over potential contamination by unapproved pesticides or fungicides, according to reports in USA Today and KUSA News in Denver. A growing number of cultivators have been forced to halt distribution, affecting at least many tens of thousands of plants.
"… City officials placed a 'hold on 60,000 plants at a single grow facility here after consulting with state agriculture inspectors and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency," reports USA Today. "They previously had placed crops from six other facilities on similar holds, allowing the plants to keep growing, but blocking their sale to consumers.
The problem stems from the fact that no pesticides are currently approved for use on marijuana, which is still considered an illegal (Schedule I) drug by the federal government. "Those pesticides are used routinely on other crops, yet health officials worry those other crops aren't smoked or eaten in the way marijuana is," USA Today reports. "Under Colorado law, people cannot use pesticides in a manner inconsistent with their federal labeling."
Because marijuana remains federally illegal, studies that are typically done on pesticide residue have not been able to be done, explains USA Today.
"Denver city officials' actions came after months of waiting for their state counterparts to launch a long-awaited state monitoring program for contaminants," reports KUSA. "Colorado officials initially said their pesticide and mold testing would begin in the middle of last year, and then early this year, but they still can't say when they will begin that mandatory testing."
Some growers, whose plants have been placed in what has been said to be essentially a quarantine, have reportedly destroyed some of their crops.
KUSA reports that city records show that one of the pesticides in question is a substance known as Eagle 20. The city has targeted E20 because of concern that it might be inhaled while someone is smoking marijuana.
At least one grower–LivWell, which was forced to put 60,000 plants on hold–told KUSA that his grow was unjustly targeted by the city. "We do not use any banned pesticide in our grow," owner John Lord told KUSA. "We take this very, very seriously. We take public health very, very seriously. We do not feel there is a concern."
It is likely that Lord is referring to the Colorado Department of Agriculture's list (noted as a not-inclusive list) of which pesticides can and can't be used in marijuana production.
Many cultivators in the industry have been waiting for pesticides and fungicides to add marijuana to their labels to eliminate the risks and concerns in this area.
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