XPost: alt.atheism, sac.politics, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: alt.society.liberalism   
   From: dirtbag@gavinnewsom.turds   
      
   Banned pesticides keep showing up in California's legal weed products.   
      
   Legalization was supposed to solve this problem. When California's   
   voters legalized pot in 2016, they voted for an initiative that   
   specifically called on the state to regulate pesticides in cannabis   
   products.   
      
   However, an SFGATE investigation has found numerous problems plaguing   
   the state's pesticide rules, including labs falsifying safety tests and   
   stores selling pot contaminated with banned chemicals. Meanwhile, the   
   state's own pot regulator, the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC), has   
   admitted it is currently unable to test for pesticide contamination in   
   some pot products. And due to a lack of transparency at the agency,   
   consumers might never know they're consuming pesticides or other   
   contaminants.   
      
   When the DCC suspects a product is contaminated, it sends secret product   
   "embargoes" to pot companies, leaving the public in the dark - even when   
   stores violate embargoes by selling the potentially dangerous products.   
   Last year, SFGATE learned about one of these secret warnings and told   
   the public about the three embargoed products. The DCC finally warned   
   the public about one of the products two months later, when the producer   
   issued a voluntary recall; the agency has yet to publicly address safety   
   issues about the other two products.   
      
   Nicole Elliott, the director of California's Department of Cannabis   
   Control, declined months of interview requests for this investigation,   
   and the agency has refused to answer the majority of SFGATE's questions,   
   citing "ongoing investigations," or to make any agency experts available   
   for an interview.   
      
   California's pot regulations are not a total failure; studies have shown   
   that pot purchased at legal stores is less likely to be contaminated   
   than illicit cannabis. However, Josh Swider, the CEO of Infinite   
   Chemical Analysis Labs, a cannabis testing lab in San Diego, said the   
   DCC's lack of enforcement has allowed contaminated pot to leak onto the   
   shelves of legal stores across the state.   
      
   "It's a broken system. You can't say it's not," Swider said.   
      
   Secrecy - at a price   
   Pesticides present a uniquely complicated problem for the cannabis   
   industry. While most American farmers can rely on federally funded   
   research and regulations around the use of toxins to keep bugs at bay,   
   little of that research looks at the safety of actually smoking the   
   residue left behind by pesticides. And even if there were research, the   
   U.S. Agriculture Department and other national regulators are prevented   
   from offering any guidance on safe use to growers and state regulators,   
   because the drug is illegal at the federal level.   
      
   Without any federal guidance, states have been left to decide themselves   
   what pesticides to allow or ban in cannabis. California has some of the   
   strictest rules in the country, banning 21 pesticides and requiring   
   testing of all legal cannabis products, including for pesticides, heavy   
   metals, mold and potency. Companies in California must pay   
   state-licensed private labs to conduct these safety screens.   
      
   It's clear these protections have reduced the amount of pot contaminated   
   with pesticides found in stores, according to Los Angeles-based cannabis   
   scientist Jeffrey Raber, one of the first scientists to publish evidence   
   that pot smokers are exposed to pesticides when they smoke contaminated   
   pot.   
      
   "You can see lab data before regulation and afterwards, and it is way,   
   way, way better," Raber said. However, despite millions of dollars being   
   spent every year on cannabis testing in California, pot containing   
   banned chemicals continues to be sold in legal stores.   
      
   Taking contaminated pot off the shelves is a multi-part process. It   
   starts with an embargo, a temporary ban on sales issued when the state's   
   DCC has evidence that a product on the market contains banned   
   pesticides. Regulators are then supposed to conduct an investigation   
   which can culminate in a recall of the product.   
      
   While recalls are announced publicly, embargoes are only sent out to   
   distributors and stores. The public has no way to access the embargoes,   
   and the DCC has denied multiple record requests from SFGATE to release   
   information about embargoed products, claiming they count as   
   "investigative documents."   
      
   But that secrecy comes at a price: If the embargo system doesn't work,   
   consumers may buy and consume contaminated pot without having any idea.   
      
   'It's very disappointing'   
   That's exactly what happened last November, when SFGATE received a tip   
   about three products that had recently been embargoed by the DCC. The   
   cannabis regulator's secret embargo notice said it was now illegal to   
   sell these specific products because they were "adulterated," without   
   describing any other details.   
      
   But on Nov. 17, eight days after the embargo was supposedly issued, an   
   SFGATE reporter was able to purchase one of the banned products, a vape   
   cartridge produced by Cru Cannabis, at Bloomerang, a cannabis store in   
   San Francisco. SFGATE then sent the cartridge to Anresco Laboratories, a   
   DCC-licensed lab in San Francisco, which found trace amounts of   
   chlorfenapyr, a dangerous pesticide that's banned in California cannabis   
   products. Cru Cannabis did not return multiple SFGATE requests for   
   comment.   
      
   A manager for the Bloomerang cannabis store, who was granted anonymity   
   in accordance with Hearst's ethics policy, told SFGATE in January that   
   the DCC hadn't told the store about the embargo until nearly two months   
   after SFGATE published a story documenting the embargo violation, at   
   which point the DCC contacted the store to say "there was an illegal   
   pesticide in that particular batch that we sold," according to the   
   manager.   
      
   A DCC spokesperson told SFGATE in February that the store was notified   
   of the original embargo and has since been cited for selling the   
   embargoed product. A second Bloomerang manager who also declined to   
   share their name told SFGATE in February that the DCC fined the store   
   $50,000 for selling five of the embargoed vape pens (the store had   
   originally told SFGATE that 12 of the contaminated pens were sold to the   
   public). The DCC has yet to warn the public about the vape pen.   
      
   High doses of chlorfenapyr can be lethal to humans, although the trace   
   amounts found in the Cru Cannabis vape pen are unlikely to cause   
   immediate harm, according to Raber. Still, he said SFGATE's   
   investigation has raised serious concerns regarding California's legal   
   weed market.   
      
   "It's very disappointing," Raber said. "... It makes you wonder how much   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)