Marijuana tester finds 'Street-bought' pot unsafe

[leftupnorth]

Source: Gaylord Herald Times


Chris Engle, Staff Writer

3:23 p.m. EDT, September 6, 2011

GAYLORD — The owner of a Gaylord laboratory which tests locally grown medical marijuana fears patients who use black-market pot may be subjecting themselves to unsafe levels of mold and pesticides.

Dan Tomaski, a certified caregiver who runs Northern Laboratory Services on North Center Avenue, said last month’s court ruling, which closed marijuana collectives across the state, forces some patients to buy cannabis from street dealers. That pot, Tomaski said, can harbor mold as well as pesticide at levels more than 60 times those allowed for store-bought spinach.

Tomaski, 33, is hired by local caregiver growers to test their marijuana for quality and purity. He dissolves a sample of marijuana into a solution and injects it into a gas chromatograph, which gives readings in parts per million (ppm) of pesticides as well as the plant’s active compounds — THC, CBD and CBN. He also uses a lab microscope to look for mold, which can cause respiratory problems, especially in those with weak immune systems.


Read more: http://www.petoskeynews.com/gaylord/news/ght-n-marijuana-090711,0,3962131.story

[Odin2005]

1. No shit, that's why it needs to be legalized and taken out of the black market.

[patrick t. cakes]

3. simple answer

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABc8ciT5QLs&feature=related>

[Strelnikov_]

46. And . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWhUqo9Aivs

[patrick t. cakes]

49. HA!

That is funny shit!

[FLAprogressive]

9. +1

[UnrepentantLiberal]

18. Like this smart aleck kid said on cops: you can find crack on every corner

but you can't find good weed anywhere.

[zogofzorkon]

2. A far cry from testing based one one hit, two hits, the whole bag won't do it

and the testers were more likely to be certifiable rather than certified caregivers.

[Trillo]

4. medical issues

California Assembly Bill 768 has been passed and will prevent local governments from outlawing male-infant circumcision. Yet, it seemed there was little State effort to prevent localities from using zoning to harrass medical-marijuana collectives into oblivion.

[me b zola]

5. OMG! We need big-pharma to save us!

NOT!

We been doing fine without these sob's "concerned" for our well-being, we'll get along with out them. Fuckers.

[leftupnorth]

6. That's not the message I got.

The message I got from the article is that we need to make sure this medicine is treated as such, with patient health and safety as the #1 priority. If it takes big pharma to do that, so be it. I highly doubt that it will. Us Michiganders are perfectly capable of producing world class cannabis free of contaminants and we've proven it over and over again. We don't need big pharma.

[me b zola]

7. Whatever

You got that message...good for you. I got the message of this thing is happening and TPTB are sticking their pasty hands in it any way they can.

[leftupnorth]

8. So, you're arguing in favor of sick people ingesting pesticides?

I'm not quite following here....

[me b zola]

11. Obviously not. I'm saying we've been smoking and growing forever

...and at great personal risk to so. Now that the movement has the majority's support "they" are all of a sudden concerned for our health. "They" weren't so concerned when they were spraying our crops with carcinogenics.

[leftupnorth]

12. I own this laboratory in the article. I am not 'they'.

I am concerned for the health of thousands of Michigan Medical Marijuana patients that are doing without meds tonight because of our fascist Court of Appeals. I am concerned that sick patients will resort to buying schwag off the street and expose themselves to significant health risks. Our laboratory is informing them of those risks.

[me b zola]

51. I do not know you

But I know forever we have been smoking and growing, and for some of those years the government was spraying carcinogenics on our crops. Intentionally. So I don't know who you are, but really, just leave us alone.

[snooper2]

27. So that's why I had a belly ache on Labor day...I thought it was the Sonic from the previous night

:rofl:

[JNelson6563]

23. Yes, that's the deal.

Lot of growers out here who have no clue. Pesticides? How 'bout ladybugs??

Snyder and his band of thugs are working hard to undo the will of the people.

Julie--also in the north

[leftupnorth]

29. Hi Julie!

:wave:

[JNelson6563]

38. Hi LeftUpNorth!

Tough time for the dipensaries and it will be a hardship for many patients. It will also be a boon to some unscrupulous cargivers and/or growers.

I really dislike Snyder & Co., in the strongest of terms.

Be careful out there! :hi:

Julie

[caseymoz]

10. Well, if you want to throw yourself to big chemical and big black market ag instead.

. . .and inhale many times the safe level of pesticides and allergenic mold instead, okay. Explain to me, though, how one is better than the other? Once capitalism demands efficiency and then economy of scale, then one industry can gouge and stab you as easily as the other. And it's worse when you go blind to the fact that the same capitalist principles governing big pharma and big oil also apply to "natural" pot. And there's nothing "small" about the marijuana industry, and nothing that's natural about it either.

I'm glad you've been doing fine. Some health effects, though, take years to accumulate and most are not traceable back to a single source. It's an effect that many industries use to understate or discount health effects or criticism, and their stooges attached to the product take up the chorus.

[me b zola]

52. I grow my own

Ty for your concern. Where was all this concern when the anti-drug warriors were intentionally spaying crops with carcinogens?

[NickB79]

41. If this were the 1930's and people were going blind from bathtub gin

Would you be bitching about how we don't need Big Booze and we're doing fine without them?

[slay]

13. I worry about that too - but our government does not care what we want

they have made that very clear even though most people support legalization with an even larger majority supporting medical marijuana. our government uses and abuses us every day - pot smokers have long been a punching bag for both sides of the isle - save President Carter.

Former President Carter Urges Marijuana Legalization -- http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2011/06/former_president_carter_urges_marijuana_legalizati.php

[CrispyQ]

36. One clever DUer reframed the debate & called it marijuana re-legalization,

as a reminder that it was once legal. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[slay]

43. I like it!

Re-legalize indeed!

[CrispyQ]

55. Love your art!

:smoke:

[JohnnyRingo]

14. I've been conducting independent research for almost 40 years.

and I find the results of this study spurious at best. Along with the two packs of cigarettes a day I've yet to detect any chronic symptoms other than a nagging cough.

I imagine similar qualities can be found in a can of tomato soup if one looks hard enough. I recall the paraquat scare of the late '70s when users were warned that even casual use would end in certain death. No one in my "research group" stopped and the warning was eventually found to be much overwrought.

I suspect a hidden agenda to this study.

[leftupnorth]

15. What leads you to conclude that there is a hidden agenda here?

I do not have one, nor do I wish to convey that feeling. I own this laboratory in the article. I am a caregiver, and my wife is a patient. We opened this business to protect patients and expose this kind of thing about cartel produced street pot.

Please, elaborate on your feelings and feel free to ask me anything about the subject. I have nothing to hide.

[RainDog]

16. some people don't trust anyone or anything

I appreciate that THE ISSUE is MEDICAL use of cannabis - people who have compromised immune systems or chronic inflammation don't need to get cannabis that contains levels of contaminates that are beyond that allowed for other substances Americans ingest.

a lot of people are afraid that regulation of any sort means turning over cannabis cultivation to monsanto. but taking something out of a black market means some sort of standards.

personally, I think the cartels would go out of business if people had a legal choice between organically grown cannabis or hydroponic, even. not to mention cannabis grown with lots of pesticides.

thanks for making this information available. I hope it helps to provide MI lawmakers with incentive to allow rational cultivation of medical cannabis.

[JohnnyRingo]

57. I don't mean to overplay the "hidden agenda" angle, but ...

from reading the article it seems there was a goal set, and testing was performed to prove the point that only govt regulated weed is truly "safe" for consumers. I wrote my reply with my tongue set firmly in my cheek, but my words were chosen carefully. To wit:

Anyone who lives far enough from a freeway exit knows someone who makes and sells their own whiskey. This untaxed 'shine is sold locally and illegally to repeat customers who have come to appreciate the quality of the product from distillers who have learned the ins and outs through generations of family moonshiners. Free market rules filter out the rotgut suppliers and those that survive find great pride in a quality product, but when there's a local raid on a still the govt testers invariably find "hazards" in purchasing the bootlegged whiskey. They claim at least trace quantities of benzine, lighter fluid, or even unleaded gasoline, and warn the locals that only alcohol purchased down the street at the state liqueur store is suitable for consumption.

We hear often the dangers of street heroin, about how impurities or varying strengths cause illness or sudden death, and a call is made to eradicate the world of renegade opium poppies. What isn't mentioned is that much of that opium market goes to legal production of pain medication. Every Vicodin, Roxycontin, and morphine patch sold globally is born in opium harvest. The amount required to meet the demand is staggering. Although heroin addicts (I don't recommend it) know their supplier and trusts the consistency of his product, when the government raids a dealer's house, they perform tests that usually find reason to declare the legal (and taxed) opiates safe, and the unregulated product a serious threat to human welfare.

Long gone are the days that marijuana was an imported drug. With odorless powders worth nearly the price of gold, it makes little sense to waste smuggled cargo space to import bricks of relatively unprofitable weed. As a result, local horticulturists have stepped up to the plate to meet the demand. Many would be surprised to discover that the herb they bought was grown within a 10 mile radius of their home. It's fair to say, all weed is now "home grown".

Much like the moonshiners in rural backwoods, these growers purposely strive for a reputation that garners a repeat customer base as a matter of survival, since a few loyal customers equals a lower chance of arrest. I've seen some amazing operations over the decades, from college dorm hydroponics labs to one who harvested pounds of some of the best smoke I've ever known in a rural mobile home closet. Opening that closet door revealed an Alice In Wonderland window into a wall of buds using a professional operation that employed the latest technology and the utmost of TLC. He wanted a to be known for his high quality to obtain his chosen base of trusted customers, and it's worked for 25 years.

Now I read a report that advises against buying unregulated marijuana because the untaxed variety causes severe health problems. The tests concluded that only legal and state approved weed is safe for human consumption.

Considering that marijuana is grown in every county of every state of the union, I wonder the standards of choosing the samples to be tested. Were any of the samples purchased in the wealthier suburbs where the plants were carefully grown by conscientious amateur horticulturists looking for repeat business, or was an effort made to seek only shady deals in back street alleys from shifty and unscrupulous dealers that may have harvested the buds in the bathtubs of walk up urban tenements occupied by 25 people? Such operations are fly-by-night, short lived, and don't represent the vast counter culture that strives nationally to deliver the consistent quality product that most users seek and enjoy.

I don't have any reason to attack you personally, and I'm sure the tests were accurate and professional, I just question whether the sample process represents what most consumers experience nationally. When a report announces to the country that the weed they buy from their local grower is always hazardous, the underlying implication is that smoke grown in Southern Ohio, Northern California, or Lansing MI is just as dangerous as that found on the mean streets of Detroit from anonymous suppliers, and that is an insult to the hundreds of thousands who take great pride in their aromatic product.

At any rate, the tests are unique to our post medical marijuana era, but the results are predictably timeless in scope.

"Government approved" products are not always what we expect anyway:

http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/06/29/how_many_insect_parts_and_rodent_hairs_are_allowed_in_your_food.htm

http://www.fda.gov/food/guidancecomplianceregulatoryinformation/guidancedocuments/sanitation/ucm056174.htm

[Hubert Flottz]

20. Seems like to me them bug whacking chemicals would keep the

germs(which are just tiny bugs anyways)from attacking your gizzard and other critical innards, not to mention the probable enhancement of the overall quality of the feeling of euphoria one would normally demand from a good product. Around these parts more people have died from snake bite down at the church, than from smoking batches of bad weasel weed.

[notadmblnd]

42. I agree with you.

Anyone that has been smoking for any length of time, knows when the weed is shit. Whether it is mold, pesticides or just the brown weak shit from South of the border.

I'm nearing the 40 years of research mark myself. I guess I should be surprised that I'm not dead already?

One other thing I'll say, my son has been buying the designer weed at a minimum of 300.00 an ounce (from one of the distributors that got shutdown). I'm still buying the regs at about 120.00 an ounce. The last of his I tried called "Sour Diesel" got me no more buzzed then my lower cost regs.

[McCamy Taylor]

17. But it makes the distributors so much profit. Just think of the suffering of

Mexican drug lords who would no longer be able to pay top dollar for the rifles they use to kill their fellow countrymen if Americans were allowed to grow their own.

[madrchsod]

19. legalize homegrown.....

[jberryhill]

21. Where is Gaylord?

[AverageJoe90]

28. Michigan, I think.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

22. Sheesh! Pesticides? This stuff needs to be sold regulated, the way alcohol is.

What's the reason it isn't? Liquor is unsafe for driving and causes lots of problems, pot doesn't. I don't get it.

[myrna minx]

24. K&R n/t

[windowpilot]

25. Can't get off, if you don't cough?

N/T

[WhiteTara]

26. What a great service. How long does it take

to test? I don't advocate pharma from taking over. I believe that all food and medicine should be local. Actually, I believe that food is medicine and the less travel the better. Exotic spices and herbs are wonderful, but everyday life should be local. I'm sure that makes me a luddite or some throwback or something, but oh well.

[leftupnorth]

30. To perform a pesticide test takes about a half hour.

Cannabinoid content, about an hour.

[Demonaut]

31. so smoking spinach is ok?

[zogofzorkon]

33. Smoking Spinach is just fine

<http://youtu.be/q4FBYSI_Q1o>

[leftupnorth]

39. I don't recommend smoking anything.

If one requires the immediate relief that smoking provides, I strongly suggest a vaporizer be used, even a tincture applied under the tongue and absorbed through the saliva glands can provide almost immediate relief without exposing yourself to smoke.

[zogofzorkon]

40. I like smoking chicken and ribs.

[Uncle Joe]

32. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, leftupnorth.

[DreamSmoker]

34. This is not news.. Its propaganda

Most of the Public has no clue how Cannabis is grown for medical use let alone how it is grown in Mexico or even in the Mountains of the U.S...
It is no different than growing any other Vegetable..
How ever.. How many of you have tried and failed to grow anything in your garden or yard???
Most people have no clue how to do it right...
Its a science and becomes a art as experiences accumulate..
Done correctly.. Medical Grade Cannabis is not cheep at all to grow either....

Most of us who do know how know this post has some truth, BUT????
Fact here is all the Dispensaries are testing the Cannabis brought in by other members of their Collective..
Especially the Outdoor grown Cannabis as it can have some insects..

Most Patients who grow do not spay poisonous insecticides on those beautiful Buds to protect them from Insect damage..
How ever.. There are natural insecticide products used regularly..
They are natural bacteria based that are not harmful except to the insects targeted.... FACT...

Mold is another issue..
Mold usually occurs during a slow drying period after harvest when air is not circulated properly around the Buds..
If Buds are left wet to long.. They will grow mold in just a few days if the grower is not aware...

Fact is most Patients are not using Poison and mold laced Medical Cannabis..

Now Mexican street shwag is a another Animal all together..

[leftupnorth]

37. You clearly did not read the entire article.

“We published this report to show what some people would be forced back into using if these collectives close,” he said, referring to last month’s ruling. “It’s making it more dangerous for patients. I don’t understand why courts are forcing patients back into that.”

Last month, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled facilities where marijuana is bought and sold are illegal and said they can be shut down as a public nuisance.

Tomaski said locally produced medical marijuana contains, on average, 14 percent THC — the most psychoactive compound in the plant and less than one percent each of CBD and CBN. CBD counteracts the psychoactive effects of THC. CBN has a sedative effect, he said. Some local marijuana contains upwards of 25 percent THC, meaning patients have to consume far less of the drug to achieve desired effect.



“Some of these (local) growers are turning out world-class cannabis,” Tomaski said, noting his operation, as well as making marijuana available in a retail environment, helps “raise the bar” on quality among growers.

“Collectives have the goal of patient access to medicine, and we want to make sure they have access to good medicine,” he said.

Tomaski will attend a rally today (Wednesday) in Lansing to press legislators for improved patient access to marijuana (see related story).

[DreamSmoker]

54. This is a tactic used in California too...

I read the article..
This has been going on here in California too...
Now that a machine can be bought to test Cannabis..
It is a selling point used by Dispensaries to entice Patients business...

Local Officials know this, but continue to find any avenue to oppose access and the use of Cannabis anyway..
Now those Poisons listed in the article are not used at all by anyone who has grown good Medical grade Cannabis..
The use of these Poisons listed is propaganda... All dispensaries who have their Cannabis tested now are riding this wave of Bull as far as it will take them to build their Patient membership..

Does anyone here know any Patient who received Cannabis that had that pungent smell of RAID from any Dispensary?????

I believe from my experiences here in California that those who oppose any access or legalization are creatively inventing excuses to back themselves...
These Folks continue to spend huge amounts of our local tax dollars to fight instead of working on a solution....

[Le Taz Hot]

45. Our local dispensaries only take in

indoor-grown plants and I can understand why -- no need for pesticides (not that any self-respecting grower would use them anyway) and virtually no chance of pollination to ensure purity of the strain.

The shit with the pesticides is the shit that's coming up from Mexico and, frankly, I don't know ANYBODY that can stand the stuff.

[alfredo]

35. People should be allowed to grow their own. Carter legalized

home brewing, now America has some of the finest small breweries in the world.

[Canuckistanian]

44. Right. First show me all the dead potheads.

THEN I'll believe this. I've smoked everything from ditchweed to microcultured BC bud.

Never heard of anyone even getting sick from smoking - other than the Paraquat disaster...

[leftupnorth]

48. It's hard to pinpoint any one source of a health issue.

Long term repeated exposure to these chemicals could cause all sorts of unknown health problems.

But now that you know what's in it, why would you voluntarily ingest it?

[Mz Pip]

47. Doesn't surprise me.

I know this isn't the 60s anymore and maybe people are more honest but there was a time when weed was cut with all kinds of nasty shit. It wasn't fun and it probably was dangerous.

At least if we made it legal it might eliminate that problem.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

50. That's why you should always buy it from a friend, at their house.

Really kids, don't buy dirt off the streets. Buy clean hydro from someone you trust. ;)

[Bacchus39]

53. any more openings for this job? n/t

s

[Modern_Matthew]

56. It should be legal and I should be able to grow my own on my nightstand. nt