Pesticides? Lead? Mold? Cannabis’s Dirty Secret

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]T[/dropcap]he cannabis industry has a dirty little secret that’s not so secret anymore—contamination. It might be a big problem, or not. That’s the secret—we don’t know.

We do know that evidence is mounting, and regulators are getting serious about policing the nation’s cannabis supply. What they’re finding will eventually roil the entire industry, from farm to dispensary and potentially all agribusiness as well.

•  In January we learned from cannabis website Leafly.com that an unknown percentage of Chinese-made cannabis vape cartridges are made with lead, a toxic metal, that is leaching into the product.
•  Also in January, Oregon authorities reported huge gaps in the state’s ability to monitor the industry due to limited staffing (four full-time inspectors for 14,000 grow sites) and lack of authority.
•  California officials reported this winter that licensed lab tests of 31,000 cannabis batches found one in eight failed to meet state guidelines. Of the failures, 40 percent were due to pesticide contamination, microbial impurities such as mold or residual solvents.
•  In December, California authorities shut down Sequoia Analytical Labs of Sacramento after it was discovered that an equipment breakdown so overwhelmed Sequoia’s lab chief that he invented passing test results for hundreds of batches that ended up on retail shelves.

The relative rigor brought to consumer safety by the California Bureau of Cannabis Control is something to cheer about, but it also highlights the enormity of the problem. Until cannabis is fully legal and federally regulated, the job of consumer protection falls on the states, most of which are just beginning to get up to speed. That potentially means 50 different permutations of regulation and oversight.

The prospect of a toxic heavy metal like lead being inhaled by trusting consumers is disturbing. Even more disturbing is the prospect of millions of untested Chinese-made vape pens that have flooded the black market, and the tons of black market flower that may be contaminated with pesticides.

Furthermore, official reporting on contaminants may be missing a much broader problem. K Street Consulting recently told Marijuana Business Daily that one of the firm’s clients had its inventory of cartridges tested by an agriculture lab, instead of a cannabis lab and found “actionable levels of lead” in 90 percent.” The study’s authors warn that high lead levels in legal cartridges could create a shortage that pushes even more consumers to the black market.

This is an under-reported problem that is destined to bloom into a national public health issue. The legal market is still small compared with the black market. Even in California, where legal products are easily obtained, a survey conducted for Eaze, a cannabis delivery service, estimated that one in five residents continues to buy on the black market. In major markets like New York, which consumes the lion’s share of black market marijuana, that percentage is probably close to 100.

Consumers will become more aware of the issue and as they become less intimidated by pot stigma, we’d expect to see a groundswell of demand for clean cannabis. Since launching Med-X, Inc., we have been inspired by such groundswells, especially in the field of professional pest control. We have participated in the transition of the pesticide industry over the past five years from its total reliance on poison to the emergence of green alternatives, which is becoming the fastest growing product segment. The green movement has become so influential that as soon as there is a public health question connected with toxic chemicals even the multi-billion-dollar industry leaders are being forced to change.

We started seeing these trends long before we became a supplier to cannabis cultivators. Our Nature-Cide brand was developed for a service business that specialized in the control of rattlesnakes on horse farms and wanted to find a way to do it without poisoning the rats that snakes, owls, foxes and other predators hunt.

Nature-Cide grew into a brand with a line of natural pesticide products made from powerful essential oils that work for pest control, landscaping companies and farms whose customers are demanding that only safe, non-toxic products be sprayed in their homes and on their properties.

In 2014, when Colorado first legalized recreational cannabis, it banned the use of certain traditional pesticides. In doing so, the state listed Nature-Cide as one of the pesticide products permitted to be used in the cultivation of cannabis. All in a day, we found ourselves on the frontline of the cannabis revolution. Cultivators came to us looking for help. We educated ourselves about cannabis and ran real-time experiments. We then produced an in-depth report documenting how world-class cannabis can be grown organically using Nature-Cide in a growers Integrated Pest Management protocol.

Because the Nature-Cide line was developed in concert with licensed, integrated pest management professionals, we have been able to fine-tune the formula in the field and figure out the best way to apply the products. This collaborative spirit is the core of our company’s DNA, it is driving our growth and is guiding how we raise capital—from individuals rather than venture funds. The 2012 JOBS Act and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s adoption of Regulation A+ have allowed us to raise private equity from the general public.

So far, Med-X has over 2,000 individual investors, many of whom had never bought shares before plunking down the minimum $420. To date we’ve raised nearly $5 million and now have a fan club of shareholders rooting for us, and with us.

We’re using the new capital to fund new ideas for ways to replace poisons with healthy solutions. One of the most attractive markets right now is the turf industry—golf courses, public parks and turfgrass producers for landscaping. Voters and public officials are demanding that our playgrounds, parks, schools and recreation fields be chemical free.

Bigger still is the potential for green products in agribusiness, which got a black eye last year when traces of cancer-causing herbicides were discovered in Cheerios and other foods. Here in California wine country, we’re still reeling from the news last year that virtually all California wines contain unsafe detectable trace levels of herbicides.

All the attention being paid to making sure cannabis is clean may, in an ironic twist, prove to be the catalyst that leads to more and better testing of the agricultural products we eat, and healthier ways for farmers to combat enemies like bugs and mold. Our mission is to continue to push for change and lead the way in this growing field.

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[Matthew A. Mills is president and chief operating officer of Los Angeles-based Med-X Inc., a green technology firm.]