The push for the legalization of marijuana has been a long time coming and finally more victories than defeats are happening. Today, many people are able to enjoy it for harmless recreation as well as for pain relief. People with chronic pain and other medical conditions are able to obtain relief from the herb. And there’s strong evidence that marijuana products can treat a number of other serious medical conditions, including cancer.
But there’s one problem of legalization and semi-legalization that the movement didn’t seem to think of. The industrialization of the growing process is encouraging the use of pesticides that reduce the quality of the product. It also defeats the purpose that many people have for seeking medical marijuana- avoiding the chemicals used in pharmaceutical products.
Because marijuana is still prohibited on the federal level, many growers who rely on the permissiveness of their state to grow are not subjected to federal regulation. Not that federal regulation is any kind of guarantee of safety- but these unregulated growers are able to use just about anything they like to curtail pest invasions. That means users could be consuming all manner of unpleasantness- and they might never even know what they’re getting.
In August of this year, reports surfaced that approximately 90% of illegal pot farms use pesticides that could be deadly to humans. That represents an increase in chemical usage more than six times what they were in 2012. Some of the pesticides used are so potent that just one teaspoon could kill two adults. Not only are the pesticides found that are extraordinarily dangerous to people and animals, but they are seeping into the ground and groundwater.
Researchers at Berkeley, CA found that as much as 85% of medical marijuana is contaminated with high levels of unregulated pesticides. More than 65% of the samples contained a poison known as Eagle 20 or myclobutanil. Eagle 20 is used to control pests and mildew. When used, it changes into a substance known as hydrogen cyanide and is extraordinarily toxic. It attacks the lungs, brain, and circulatory system when inhaled and can cause death in small quantities.
California isn’t the only state with a marijuana pesticide problem. According to the Journal of Toxicology, a 2013 study showed that nearly 70% of the pesticide residues remain present in marijuana plants and products up until the time they are smoked. That means people are inhaling these chemicals after they are heated. As we mentioned, these chemicals are most dangerous when they are inhaled. While little information is available on how dangerous they are after being burned- it’s not a gamble we would want to take with our own health.
What is certain is that all manner of toxins are going to make their ways into the bloodstream when these pesticides are smoked. They will work their evil on the liver, kidneys, heart, spleen, and cardiovascular system.
By you might be thinking that concentrated forms of marijuana would be a safer alternative. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Just as the herb is concentrated- so are any pesticides that might be used on them. The Cannabis Safety Institute found that pesticides are indeed more concentrated in concentrates. They report that there are ten times the amounts of pesticides in concentrated marijuana products as there are in less processed forms.
The conclusion we arrive at, per usual, is that relying on others to grow, create, deliver your medicine, food, or any consumable products always means that you are giving away some of your personal responsibility. The more we give away responsibility for the things we consume, the greater the chance that they will be produced in unhealthy ways.
Fortunately, in most areas where medical marijuana is legal, you have a healthier alternative. Most people with a medical marijuana license are also permitted to grow a certain amount for personal use. This gives you a way to develop your own personal crop which can be as pure as you wish it to be. Not only will you be cutting out the middleman, but you will also remove all doubt about the manufacturing process.
As an aside, we also recommend finding alternatives to smoking these plants. It is possible to use smokable marijuana in a vaporizing device that eliminates all of the soot and ash that comes with smoking. By eliminating the burden of ash and soot on our lungs, we will cease to hinder a key element of the healing process- the ability of the lungs to cleanse the body of impurities and deliver freshly oxygenated blood cells.
