Greenleaf 04-05-18

J40
Experienced and educated cannabis consumers
are concerned about mold in their medicine. They
talk about it at conferences and online, and report
negative experiences to vendors, hoping for corrections.
Patientadvocates I contacted for this story said
that another Massachusetts RMD, Sage Cannabis,
has a record of addressing such a complaint with
transparency. Contacted for this story, Sage CEO
Michael Dundas emailed: We had a patient inform
us that there appeared to be mold on several buds in
an ounce of White Walker Kush. We asked the patient
to return the unused portion of the product and
immediately began an investigation. We pulled all
remaining units from the same batch off the shelf and
inspected them. No contaminants of any kind were
found. According to Dundas, Sage additionally took its
response a step further: “We also reached out to every
patient who had purchased any product from the
same batch and informed them of the situation. They
were given the opportunity to return the product for an
exchange or refund. To my knowledge, none of those
individuals reported finding any contaminants.”
Sage has been applauded in chat forums and
among more learned cannabis consumers for its handling
of said complaint. In the case of NETA, OSHA
closed Hassel’s complaint without consulting other
employees, past or present, or even visiting the workplaces.
While NETA responded to the federal agency
by denying the presence of mold, stating that
it has not used hydrogen peroxide as charged.
As proof of its position, the RMD included lab
results of tested cannabis marked as moldfree.
I have spoken with several former NETA
employees, all of whom confirm the presence
of mold as well as hydrogen peroxide used
to clean affected cannabis. Said one source:
“When I worked in cultivation everyone was
getting red rashes. … No ventilation in the
room and certainly no one forcing us to wear
a mask for safety.” Another ex-employee
confirmed the presence of “H2O2” (hydrogen
peroxide), posting on Facebook: “I was… a
cultivator there at the point when they decided
“dunking” [cannabis in hydrogen peroxide] was
somehow a good idea. … There’s no way in
hell they threw all of that [moldy] crop away. …
They prided themselves on “do the right thing”
everywhere they go but couldn’t manage to
put out a good product because of the lack of
care for the environment the crops were growing
in.”
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In September, one of the NETA founders,
Kevin Fisher, had a scare related to
banned pesticides at a dispensary he co-owns
in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. As was reported by
the Aspen Times, after “tests by the Colorado Department
of Agriculture showed that there was a pesticide
called Avermectin Bla found in some of the [dispensary’s]
marijuana,” “the Colorado Department of
Revenue sent out a public health and safety advisory
for some marijuana grown by Rocky Mountain Remedies.”
In response, Fisher denied the allegations. “I
know that we didn’t spray it,” he told reporters. “If we
sprayed it, we would spray it at all of our grows.” He
added, “that product’s not out there. … It hasn’t been
sold,” and said the pesticide “might have came from
cloned plants that had been properly acquired from
a third-party vendor.” Fisher’s run afoul of the Commonwealth
regulatory process as well. As the Daily
Hampshire Gazette reported in 2014, “The executive
director of the company planning to open medical
marijuana dispensaries in Northampton and Brookline
resigned over the weekend after misrepresenting his
academic credentials in an application to the state.”
Following the incident, NETA announced Fisher’s
resignation from his executive director role. But
Fisher has had a continued presence at their facilities
as a registered agent and consultant, speaking at
subsequent employee meetings in Northampton and
Franklin.
A Cannabis Flower Infected with Botrytis
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