LA TIMES Pesticide Discovery has the Cannabis Regulators Association on Edge

“The people who are doing it right get crushed. The bad actors are encouraged and rewarded. And the consumers are poisoned while being told they are safe,” says Mary Gaterud of Humboldt County Farm. [1]

Small farms and cultivators are not the only people suffering from the news that toxic chemicals have been found in numerous major LEGAL Vape Brands coming out of California.

One piece of the problem: Major gaps in regulation “leave policing of the industry largely in the hands of labs financially beholden to the companies whose products they test,” Paige St. John and Alex Halperin wrote. “Legislation to require independent fraud and accuracy checks has remained stalled in Sacramento for two years amid backroom negotiations between industry players and regulators.”

Paige St. John and Alex Halperin report for the Los Angeles Times and WeedWeek. They're amazing investigating skills exposed a major problem in our industry.

In short: Tests on 42 cannabis products found 25 contained pesticide levels exceeding state or federal limits. Contaminants included chemicals linked to cancer, liver failure, and neurological harm, posing long-term health risks. [2]

The situation described in the Times report sounds not unlike what’s been happening in Colorado’s legal weed market lately. In both cases, laws that were comprehensive when they were first enacted are no longer adequate to regulating the products made available to consumers. St. John and Halperin point out that smokable products are at particular risk here in part because of how they’re consumed, which could put people more at risk from pesticides. [3]

Once again our friends at Infinite Labs have come to the rescue. While doing an investigation on 150 products within the Cannabis industry, Infinite Labs was able to discover multiple products were mislabeled and marked as a higher THC content then they actually were to price them at a higher price point. During this investigation, their labs found multiple cases of unreported category 1 pesticides in some of the analyzed samples at multiple times the legal limit – a significant public health concern. The gamesmanship was not limited to small cultivators trying to get by, but also by some of the biggest brands in the industry. [4]

The major reason why potency inflation has become so prevalent is because there have been no negative repercussions for those that are cheating or not being held accountable at all. Companies created to prevent contaminants are being smoked out by the billionaire manufacturers of the products that they test. Government officials have their hand in the medical marijuana industry so far that it's almost a monopolistic practice at this point. The governor of Agriculture of Florida, Nikki Fried, completely cloned and attempted to steal our company without having the ability to run it, even attempting to block our lab Network for the Bell family. They think about money, not safety.

For the amount of money that the Cannabis industry brings in and the amount of taxes that they pay, testing should not be such a problem and should not be entirely reliant on Labs like Infinite or on investigations from the TIMES willing to flip the bill for the entire state and hero up every time.

These Vapes now leak into our industry through different states that are now accepting cannabis from California. Be careful when you're buying Vapes; they might not be the safest option for you as a medical patient.

As stated by Analytical Cannabis, our problem is, no one is being punished for the thousands of patients that are being poisoned by their own medical facilities. No one is fining, shutting down, recalling or bringing any type of repercussions or punishment to these cultivators that are paying labs to lie on their behalf. There’s no fine or punishment on the behalf of the labs that are willing to do it.

Imagine not being able to trust the safety of your medicine.

Below are the major Vape brands that were found to be contaminated, according to LA Times:

• Stiiizy: Found with high levels of pesticides.
• West Coast Cure: Vapes tested with numerous pesticides.
• Flavorade
• Phat Panda
• Phire
• Dime
• Grizzly Peak Farms: Involved in pesticide recall.
• Cru Mai Tai: Vapes found with chlorfenapyr.
• Fog City Farms: Pre-rolls with excessive pesticides.
• Backpack Boyz: Vapes with numerous pesticide contaminants.

None of California’s labs licensed to test cannabis products has been accredited to test for pesticides. The state also has no system in place for the routine testing of products on store shelves, despite a recommendation from the Cannabis Regulators Association for such testing.

“California is dropping the ball on enforcement where public health is concerned,” said cannabis researcher Cindy Orser, a former director of a private California cannabis testing lab.

“In the coming weeks, the DCC is slated to bring additional testing capacity online to further bolster existing compliance actions and expand efforts to address pesticide contamination,” the DCC replied in an email. “These actions may include additional product embargos, voluntary and mandatory recalls, and disciplinary actions against licensees.”

Until the system is in place, however, there will still be no system for the routine safety testing of cannabis products once they make it to dispensary shelves. [5]

This is why companies like Infinite and Natural Healthy and their rogue investigations are important, as when there is no checks and balances, your industry becomes nothing but a glorified gray market that the government, regulators, and businesses refuse to properly regulate.

There should be laws in place that cultivators cannot use pesticides that react negatively with the human body. It doesn't seem that difficult to understand.

This is medicine.

We understand that it's also a cash grab for many government officials who are more worried about disrupting the market and hiding their internal trading than they are of harming people that this plant was legalized to heal.

Please be on guard when purchasing marijuana and be very educated when doing so as you simply cannot trust what's on the packaging due to there being no repercussions for lying about it.

Even youtuber Phillip Defranco touched on the subject.

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Our medical industry is going backwards and we do blame the California regulators for not being able to regulate. Ironically, California is where you'll also find clones and stolen property of products that actually do follow the law and properly lab test. Being prevented from government officials who want to take our property from not only verifying said lab tests but third-party lab testing isn't just bad for us as a company, it's bad for you as a consumer. It makes us wonder what they're trying to steal from the citizens and why they're trying to hide it in the home of their PR Reps and the Bell family.

It just further goes to show, this industry is being abused and manipulated by the very people that we elected to be in charge to keep us safe. They are not keeping us safe anymore, which is the sole job of a government.

So we absolutely agree with Mary Gaterud.

“The bad actors are encouraged and rewarded. And the consumers are poisoned while being told they are safe.”

Natural Healthy is working around the clock to keep partners updated and informed.

Sources:

[1] LA Times - The Dirty Dangerous Secret of California's Legal Weed - https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-06-14/the-dirty-secret-of-californias-legal-weed

[2] Environmental Health News Network - https://www.ehn.org/legal-cannabis-in-california-found-contaminated-with-pesticides-2668553310.html#:~:text=Paige%20St.%20John%20and%20Alex,posing%20long%2Dterm%20health%20risks

[3] Inside Hook - California Investigation Exposes Pesticides in Legal Marijuana - https://www.insidehook.com/leisure/investigation-pesticide-legal-weed-california

[4] Analytical Cannabis- Cannabis Consumers in California Are Being Defrauded and It’s the Regulator's Fault, Says Infinite Chemical Analysis Labs - https://www.analyticalcannabis.com/product-news/cannabis-consumers-in-california-are-being-defrauded-and-its-the-regulators-fault-says-infinite-314059

[5] HighTimes - Investigation Finds Pesticides in California Vapes - https://hightimes.com/news/investigation-finds-pesticides-in-california-licensed-vapes/

[6] Philip Defranco - Full Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqvJlCMdoRM