Sam Amico
Fungi and other similar organisms are being blamed for contaminated marijuana which is causing some users to become sick or even die, according to a report by the New York Post. That includes people who are buying marijuana legally or using it for medicinal purposes.
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“Last year, an Arizona dispensary recalled a strain of cannabis called ‘Grim Reefer’ after it was possibly tainted by a potentially life-threatening fungus called Aspergillus,” the Post reported. “The same fungus was the cause for a mandatory recall of Gelato’s Orangeade hybrid flower sold in California and manufactured by Urban Therapies Distribution last month.
“From 2017 to 2019, poison control centers saw an increase in cannabis-related calls, according to one study.”
Marijuana plants can be contaminated because they are bioaccumulators and absorb things like heavy metal pesticides and fungi in the soil.
“It’s a horror story in some ways,” Virginia Commonwealth University professor and forensic toxicologist Michelle Peace told the Wall Street Journal. “The general belief is that if it’s on the store shelf it must be safe, but it’s hard for the consumer to know.”
The Post added:
While growers told the Journal they sell safe products and would be open to more standardized testing of cannabis products at the federal level, others find issues with the prospect, saying it could drive up the cost and consumers would flock to the unregulated black market instead.
“There are a lot of state-by-state discrepancies,” Arizona State University assistant professor Maxwell Leung, who is also on the state’s medical marijuana testing advisory council, told the outlet.
“No one should be exposed to harmful levels of pesticide and contaminants in cannabis.”
