Does State Enforcement “Poorrails in Place” Protect the Most from the Phenomenology of Marijuana Products? Comment on Justin Singer

Mitchell said that if you buy some cheap suspect weed, you shouldn’t be jittery about it. If you are smoking cleaner weed then you might develop a lung problem that won’t happen in 10 years.

He can go to the dispensary, but then he has to drive to the place that has the marijuana that he trusts the most. That’s a luxury available to someone who has deep knowledge of the industry.

Mitchell said that “People assume it’s safe because state enforcement puts guardrails in place.” It is up for debate, when you look at the end result.

Justin Singer makes edible cannabis products in Colorado under the names Ripple and Ript, and over the years, he has become increasingly concerned about the state’s lack of enforcement of the industry and what that means for the safety of the marijuana supply.

Marijuana product safety is very important to experts outside the regulated market. State regulators don’t blame them for there being little research on health impacts of different contaminants in cannabis. It’s not definitely known if any state’s testing system is looking for the right things at the right levels.

When Singer brought in a cheaper product and increased sales by 500% he expected it would cause an inspection from the state Marijuana Enforcement Division.

What do we really have to say about cannabis and how to help protect consumers? A comment on Thomas Mitchell, CO’s Marijuana Enforcement Division, and an update of the health and safety notice page

The kind of guy who wants an honest game, according to Singer. If there were no referees or one team being allowed to cheat, professional sports wouldn’t be fun. It wouldn’t be fun to watch.

Thomas Mitchell reviewed cannabis products for Westword, and is now an editor for the Colorado weekly. He has written about health and safety advisories and recalls. He said that the market is not good for buyers.

Colorado weed is comparable to New York street weed in 2008. Singer thinks the cartels care about their consumers more than people in the area. “I’ve got the data to back it.”

The head of enforcement for the California Department of Cannabis Control said that there’s going to be mold in the illegal product, which is a grave concern. “I’m not sure all consumers are aware of that.”

Despite an estimated $30 billion of sales last year, there has been no widespread reports of people getting sick or dying from using cannabis. But some in the industry and health and safety experts say the long term ramifications of smoking contaminated weed are not known, and they are urging the state to do more to protect consumers.

As the industry became well established, Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division increased its staff and started to require testing of marijuana for things like heavy metals and yeasts and molds, and set limits for the contaminants. The MED issues health and safety advisories.

If we require that dog food follow this, but we don’t require that for cannabis … to follow these kind of basic food safety guidelines, then I don’t know what the industry is doing.

The director of Marijuana Enforcement Division, however, wouldn’t comment directly on whether the supply of marijuana is safe or if it is free of contaminants.

“We do see ongoing need to continue to work on that,” said Mendiola. Ensure that we are reaching consumers effectively, and that we are providing information that they ultimately need to determine if they have products that we have identified as a potential threat to health and safety, because if they have certain products they need to determine if they are safe?

She said in recent months they updated the health and safety notice page online, and will soon distribute flyers to help educate consumers on safety issues.

The Cannabis Industry is Soaring: Limitations on Drug Use, Licensing, and the Health Impacts of the U.S.

Mendiola acknowledged that the marijuana industry is suffering, prices for cannabis have crashed after a huge infusion of investment during the pandemic lockdowns when sales were rising quickly. Licensing revenue that funds MED enforcement is limited because businesses are closing. She noted that they are downsizing their offices in Lakewood to reduce costs.

“For many years now, we’ve been looking at opportunities to save costs, cut expenses, in a way that still allows us and makes sure that we can continue to fulfill our regulatory obligations,” she said.

“I believe at this point in Colorado you can have the safest weed in the U.S.,” said Shaw of The Flower Collective. “At the end of the day there’s a lot of things Colorado’s learned that other states haven’t learned yet, and one of those, the big one’s, heavy metals.”

Cannabis, Shaw said, is “an extreme bio-accumulator, so it takes up everything that’s in the soil and it stores it in the plant.” Smoking products with heavy metal levels are considered to be a long-term health concern.

Shaw noted that the rate of recalls has decreased after a major increase. He said that the financial struggles of the industry in Colorado means fewer producers.

“It’s hard to make judgements on if it’s right or wrong when there’s like zero data to really go into the health impacts,” said Tess Eidem, a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder’s lab for aerobiology and disinfection.

The FDA says irradiation is safe for food but requires labeling when it is used. That’s not the case with Colorado cannabis, where the industry successfully fought a labeling law last year.

Currently, what’s required is that products pass a final test. The process can be difficult for growers, who are already struggling with a downturn in sales prices. Stores and grows are closing.

An expert in lab testing for cannabinoids, Opie works for E4 Bioscience in Michigan. He said there’s tremendous pressure to get it to market because the money was sunk into a harvest.

Opie said it would be a good idea for states to implement a shelf surveillance testing program, to monitor the product that actually makes it to consumers.

The Undercovers at the Drug Expo in Fairfield, California: An Undercover Search in the Years After Prohibition of Alcohol Property

The city ofFairfield is in California. Sgt was on a nice winter morning last month. Erin McAtee watched as members of his team with the California Department of Cannabis Control executed a search warrant at a home in Fairfield, halfway between Sacramento and San Francisco.

The door of the upscale suburban house looked like it had been broken open. Marijuana plants, grow lights, chemicals and pesticides were found inside a home that had been gutted.

“You can see the mold down on the tarp down there,” McAtee said. “Yep, that is mold.” His team also identified chemicals and pesticides not approved in the U.S. for use with consumer products like legal cannabis.

“Our undercovers will buy cannabis from people who are outwardly pretending to be legit,” he told NPR. “They’ll tell you they have a license and that everything they’re doing is legit.”

If it’s hard for experienced cops to distinguish regulated weed from black market products, it can be nearly impossible for average consumers. Marijuana legalization advocates say that unregulated weed plays a big role.

“We’re talking about a market that lacks transparency and accountability,” said Paul Armentano, head of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He said any time a consumer product is being sold without proper regulation, it’s risky.

“Whether I was getting cannabis or alcohol or my broccoli from an entirely unregulated market, I’d be concerned about any number of issues,” Armentano said.

Felbab-Brown claims that Chinese criminal groups are attracted to the marijuana business because it’s a relatively low risk to gain a foothold in a community. There’s relatively little law enforcement pressure, unlike with harder drugs such as fentanyl and methamphetamines.

“These illegal cannabis cultivation plantations are used by the Chinese criminal groups for laundering money, but there is also increasingly an intertwining with human smuggling of Chinese people into the U.S. that go through some of those networks. She said they ended up being enslaved at the plantations.

The repeal of alcohol prohibition in December 1933 left the same kind of patchwork that we now see with marijuana laws. Liquor bootleggers and smugglers continued to operate for years.

According to Kilmer, many states have mismanaged this transition, focusing too much on regulating legal weed companies without helping them compete with criminal organizations.

“After [states] pass legalization, they’ll spend a couple of years coming up with the licensing regime and figuring out what the regulations are going to be and issuing licenses, but there hasn’t been a lot of focus on what to do about the illegal market. Enforcement has not been a priority in a lot of places.

Sgt. is located in the town of Fairfield. McAtee watched as a truck backed up to another illegal grow house, preparing to haul away a big crop of seized cannabis. This crop could have wound up on shelves in the US, he said.

“A lot of the places we hit, they’re shipping their cannabis out of state, where they can make ten-fold [the profit] you’d make in California,” he said.