DAILY TRIFECTA: A Dangerous New Brand Of "Killer" Weed

Puffing pesticides

TITLE: The dirty secret of California’s legal weed
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-06-14/the-dirty-secret-of-californias-legal-weed

EXCERPT: Twenty-five of 42 legal cannabis products that The Times and WeedWeek purchased from retail stores and had tested at private labs showed concentrations of pesticides either above levels the state allows or at levels that exceed federal standards for tobacco. The contaminants include chemicals tied to cancer, liver failure, thyroid disease and genetic and neurologic harm to users and unborn children.

Most of the pesticides found were in low concentrations that risk long-term harm by repeated use, though the extent of the health threat may not be known for years.

Vapes tested from five well-known brands had pesticide loads that exceeded federal Environmental Protection Agency risk thresholds for harm from a single exposure, The Times and WeedWeek found. Users might experience irritation to the lungs, eyes and throat as well as rash, headache, diarrhea and abdominal pain.

Some individual products contained as many as two dozen pesticides.

The findings dovetail with scores of complaints that two private cannabis testing labs have filed over the last eight months, reporting pesticides in products certified by other labs as safe. The results, the labs said, suggest some level of contamination in more than 250,000 vapes and pre-rolled joints on store shelves, about the number sold legally in California in a two-day period.

There are strong profit incentives driving contamination. Expanding legal markets encourage intensive growing practices to increase yield, inviting the use of pesticides to protect those high-value crops from insect infestations common in greenhouse environments.

At the same time, the soaring popularity of vapes has created heavy demand for bulk oils, which are made from lower-quality cannabis, often grown illegally.

Reviews of confidential lab reports, public records and interviews show California regulators have largely failed to address evidence of widespread contamination in the state’s weed crop.

The state’s requirements for weed testing also have not been updated to include dangerous chemicals currently used in cultivation, including illegal, smuggled pesticides so toxic that law enforcement officers who encounter them are advised to don respirators and take blood poisoning tests.

The health stakes from contaminated weed are high.

An estimated 5 million Californians consume cannabis products in any given month, according to the most recent federal health surveys. The presence of pesticides is particularly fraught for those who turn to weed for relief from medical conditions — conditions that put them at increased risk of harm.

Long-term public health concerns are exacerbated by the growing use of vapes, which contain the greatest contamination levels and are marketed to young adults who are more apt to consider vaping a healthful alternative to tobacco or alcohol.

TITLE: A new threat to cannabis users: Smuggled Chinese pesticides
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-06-14/a-new-threat-to-cannabis-safety-smuggled-pesticides

EXCERPT: A Los Angeles Times investigation based on confidential state records, public files, online sales and social networks found that in the last three years, the use of contraband Chinese pesticides on cannabis farms has spread across California.

Yet officials have not issued warnings to alert those working on cannabis farms about the dangers of these chemicals, or mandated that cannabis products sold to the public be tested for them.

But their presence has prompted multiple warnings to law enforcement personnel, including by the state Department of Pesticide Regulation, the California National Guard and the state Environmental Protection Agency.

Internal state warnings caution that short-term exposure to the contaminants can cause headaches, irritated eyes, nosebleeds and sore throats. Hazardous-materials statements and scientific literature show the greatest harm is likely from long-term exposure to low doses, carrying the risk of cancer, memory loss, psychosis, developmental problems in children and death.

“I think the scariest thing with this stuff is what’s going to happen down the road,” said Sheriff’s Det. Sgt. Cory Persing of Siskiyou County, where in 2022 a county environmental health officer, armed with Google Translate on her cellphone, first deciphered the labels on similar packages.

Environmental citations issued by the California State Water Resources Control Board show the Chinese-labeled fumigants predominantly appear on Asian-owned farms, in keeping with agricultural practices.

Smoke fumigation is not common practice in the United States, but is used frequently in China in place of pressure sprayers to aerosolize chemical treatments.

Some of the products appearing on cannabis farms are registered pesticides in China and sold online by vendors in Asia. Others are unbranded, bearing only links to WeChat accounts with California phone numbers and monikers that translate to “whatever bro,” “Spider 1” and “Spider 2.”

An online marketplace aimed at Chinese immigrants in California also carried the unbranded fumigants for sale, as did a Chinese-language site devoted to cannabis cultivation. Both turned out to be associated with a San Joaquin County businessman, Adam Yang, whose social media account included a video demonstration of burning the pesticides inside a cannabis greenhouse and whose Pinterest site offered photos of customer text messages for door-to-door delivery of the contraband pesticides in Los Angeles and nationwide shipping.

The ads even told buyers they could fumigate on buds to be trimmed and sold for smoking. “Rest assured that it can be used normally during the flowering period,” the ads stated.

Yang acknowledged his sites promoted the pesticides, but said they were part of a “collaboration” with a partner he declined to identify. “My role was limited to platform management, and I was not involved in the direct sales or endorsements,” he said by email.

The Chinese-labeled pesticides have shown up now in at least six California counties, at both illegal and licensed growing operations. The poisons were present on half of 25 illegal farms in Siskiyou County raided by a state task force during a July 2023 sting operation that saw three officers require medical treatment after suffering exposure.

They were also present on five farms raided by Siskiyou County sheriff’s deputies in late April, accompanied by a county health officer who wore protective gear and a respirator to safely bag the pesticides. On one farm, deputies retrieved a large box holding dozens of the Chinese-labeled pesticides from the food pantry, where it had been stashed next to a large sack of rice. More of the fumigants were in a hutch, and inside two greenhouses half-cut beer cans sat by the walls, their interiors filled with the black char of burned pesticide.

One of the farm’s cultivators — who gave only her first name, Feng — said she did not believe the fumigants were dangerous. She pointed to a surgical mask on her face, indicating that she wore protection when burning them.

Reports from a California National Guard lab and a Humboldt County ecology company show most of the packages found initially in Siskiyou County contained blends of insecticides and fungicides. Those tests identified 21 hazardous chemicals. California screens legal weed products for only six of those substances, meaning the bulk of the hazardous pesticides would be undetected in the legal market.

“These sites are highly contaminated with a diversity of chemicals and concentrations,” the report from the Integral Ecology Research Center cautioned, noting each bag contained at least one chemical fatal if inhaled and telling law enforcement personnel to use “extreme caution during all operations.”

The chemicals included five pesticides never permitted for use in the United States, among them chlorthiophos and the nerve agents fenobucarb and isoprocarb.

Also common was profenofos, with early symptoms of exposure that include headache, nausea and dizziness, tremors, vomiting, confusion and unconsciousness. It is fatal if inhaled.

TITLE: Lawmakers criticized as Maine sets new record for young kids accidentally eating cannabis
https://fox23maine.com/newsletter-daily/lawmakers-criticized-as-maine-sets-new-record-for-young-kids-accidentally-eating-cannabis-marijuana-weed-pot-thc-edibles

EXCERPT: "I had a case just the other day where we figured out a child got 500 times what would be a normal dose just eating some gummies," Dr. Karen Simone told the I-Team in February of 2023.

The case was one of the record 41 cannabis poisoning calls placed in 2023 to the Northern New England Poison Center.

[Dr. Mark Neavyn, an Emergency Department Toxicologist at Maine Medical Center & the Medical Director of Northern New England Poison Center] says, to make matters worse, many of these cases are scary to see and treat.

"Occasionally, we have kids who need high amounts of oxygen or even pressurized oxygen through something called a BiPAP machine," said Neavyn.

Young children often end up in the ICU for days, left to wait out the high.

Stephanie Grindley, I-Team reporter: "Are there possibilities where a child could die if not seen by a medical professional in time for certain exposure to cannabis?"

Neavyn: "So, we have not seen a death from cannabis, and I think that's great. But I think that also can sometimes be a talking point. That doesn't mean somebody can't. In a little kid who's not breathing appropriately, they could aspirate and develop a pneumonia."

According to the state's poison center, of the serious poisonings, cannabis is sending twice the number of small children to the ER compared to opioids.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the problem gets worse," Maine Office of Cannabis Policy Director John Hudak said when revisiting the numbers of accidental ingestions with the I-Team.

Hudak believes state lawmakers are not heeding the warning signs from the poison center.

"A few vocal operators' bottom lines being put over public health," Hudak said when speaking about the most recent legislative session.

That's because the legislature passed a bill that allows edible makers to remove the universal THC warning stamp on individual edible.

The repeal makes it that once gummies are taken out of their bags, there's no visual cue that they contain cannabis.

"It creates risks for parents who might think a product is not infused and give it to a younger person," said Hudak.'

But many in the cannabis industry do not share the same concern.

"They're trying to shift the blame away from the parent and on to the industry," said Maine Cannabis Union member and owner of 1 Mill dispensary, Paul McCarrier. "What we're seeing here with these numbers is that after it became legal in 2016, we see the numbers increasing. So, you're seeing people coming forward and being honest with poison control about the fact that people have had cannabis ingestion."

When it comes to the label, McCarrier says at times it is impractical to emboss and some gummies tend to lose their shape, creating risks of fines for some in the cannabis industry.

Still, doctors say, if nothing changes, more toddlers will head to the ER this year.

"I think safety is a real concern, and I think the cannabis industry should really own that," said Neavyn.

SEE ALSO:

Poison center calls spiked after magic mushrooms decriminalized
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/marijuana/magic-mushroom-us-poison-center-calls-spiked-after-decriminalization-19225085

Why the FDA will have a hard time properly regulating cannabis
https://www.statnews.com/2024/06/18/fda-challenge-regulating-cannabis-marijuana-rescheduling/