Governor Orders Contaminated Pot To Be Destroyed
DENVER (CBS4)- Gov. John Hickenlooper has issued an executive order calling for marijuana contaminated with unapproved pesticides to be held and destroyed.
The Environmental Protection Agency hasn't assessed or authorized the application of pesticides specifically for use on marijuana. In response, Hickenlooper has issued the order deeming off-label pesticides "a risk to public health."
Many people have already consumed or worked around the pesticides. State Health Department Executive Director Larry Wolk told CBS4 Investigator Rick Sallinger there have been only sporadic reports of illnesses, nothing major.
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"We don't necessarily wait until people get sick to evaluate the potential risk and thought that this was not a risk worth taking," said Wolk.
Several marijuana dispensaries and growers have been throwing out product that they learned was treated even by accident with unapproved pesticides. Among them was Sacred Seed which CBS4 visited in September.
At the time Jeremey Kilbourne told us, "What you are looking at is a shelf that has four strains and we normally have 40 strains of cannabis, so we took 90 percent of the product off the shelf."
At Grow Big Supply in Denver, all the unapproved pesticides have been removed from the shelves.
Ross Smith pointed out the different EPA, and therefore state-okayed, pesticides, "This is actually the active ingredient in hot peppers and this is oil based."
He says these products are applied onto the leaves rather than absorbed into the plant are most likely safer.
The Colorado Departments of Revenue, Agriculture and Health have been directed carry out the order.
CBS4's Rick Sallinger is a Peabody award winning reporter who has been with the station more than two decades doing hard news and investigative reporting. Follow him on Twitter @ricksallinger.
