Denver health officials on Tuesday quarantined “several hundred” lozenges at a marijuana-edibles maker and raw marijuana at a separate dispensary whose product labels list pesticides barred for use on cannabis.
The move — at on South Lipan Street and on Arapahoe Street — is the first of what city officials said could be several holds on products offered at retail and medical marijuana businesses. They are targeting products that may contain pesticides the Colorado Department of Agriculture says cannot be used on cannabis.
The holds come after Denver’s Department of Environmental Health late Monday warned businesses that product labels that reflect the use of banned pesticides should be removed from shelves and either destroyed or returned to the manufacturer.
Several hundred lozenges at Mountain High were quarantined after inspectors found their labels listed the pesticide spinosad among items used to produce them, according to Dan Rowland, spokesman for Denver’s office of marijuana policy.
An undisclosed amount of raw marijuana — flower and shake — at MMJ America also was put on hold over labels that disclosed spinosad, Rowland said.
Representatives of Mountain High and MMJ could not be immediately reached for comment. Mountain High’s website says it manufactures marijuana-infused edibles such as the lozenges and suckers. MMJ grows and sells its own marijuana.
An industry trade group said its members are “committed to complying with Denver’s new guidance.”
“Safety of our customers and employees is a top concern for our members,” said Mike Elliott, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group. “This process demonstrates yet again that the regulated industry is always safer than the black market.”
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Spinosad is an insecticide that is slightly toxic to humans — though at what level is unclear since there are no tolerances listed for marijuana consumption.
State law says “it is unlawful for someone to use pesticides in a manner inconsistent with labeling directions or requirements,” said Mitch Yergert, director of the CDA’s division of plant industry.
Pesticides the state does allow for use on marijuana have labeling that is so broad it would not be a violation for growing cannabis.
Denver health inspectors will continue to make spot checks of marijuana businesses and respond to referrals, officials said. Inspectors who find impacted products will file a complaint to have them tested by CDA, which regulates pesticide usage, Rowland said.
“They’ll be removed from shelves contingent on the test results,” Rowland said, “and a product recall could be issued.”
Inspectors will investigate the source of plants that had the illegal pesticide to determine whether a supplier sold to other manufacturers, Rowland said. They also will determine if a manufacturer, such as Mountain High, sold its products to other retailers.
State law requires all marijuana product labels list the pesticides, contaminants, fungicides and herbicides that were used at any point of the production process, from germination to packaging.
Though product labels might reflect pesticides banned for use on marijuana, itap unclear how much pesticide residue actually remains on the product. And a different state law requiring businesses to test for them has not yet been enforced.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates pesticides and sets the tolerance levels that can be found in the products on which they are used.
EPA-approved pesticides undergo stringent testing of tolerance levels, but since marijuana is illegal under federal law, no pesticide can be approved for use on it. As a result, pesticide tolerance levels on marijuana don’t exist.
Pesticide labeling is very specific about how a product can be used and under what circumstances. Any use outside of the instructions is a violation of federal law.
CDA enforces pesticide usage in the state and requires all pesticides to be registered — even those with tolerance levels so high that they are not required to be registered with the EPA.
Complicating matters is that some of the banned products are allowed to be used on other food products such as fruits and vegetables, while some can only be used in specific circumstances such as outdoor residential gardens and not commercial warehouses used to grow cannabis.
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The city’s bulletin is its latest effort to combat what it has called the public health risk of pesticides on marijuana. The first occurred in March and April when the city quarantined more than 100,000 plants at 11 grow facilities over concerns barred pesticides were used on them.
“While everyone wants safe marijuana, Denver has no science to show the presence of residual amounts of pesticides are a danger to public health,” said attorney Sean McAllister, who sued the city over the holds last spring.
Nearly every test CDA did on the quarantined plants found some level of a banned pesticide, some several times the limit allowed on other crops. In some cases more than one barred pesticide was found on the same batches.
Two marijuana-grow businesses chose to have their quarantined plants destroyed rather than tested, while nine others chose to wait for residue levels to drop to trace amounts, enough to have them released for sale.
Four of the nine businesses unsuccessfully sued in Denver District Court to stop the city from quarantining their pot plants.
“Experts testified that residual amounts of pesticides not on the CDA list did not pose a public health threat,” McAllister said. “Denver’s actions are adding unneeded costs to the marijuana industry with no benefit to public health.”
The city eventually settled with the businesses, establishing a level of pesticide residue the plants could not exceed. The businesses were entitled to sell products that listed the pesticides among their ingredients, officials said.
Two of the pesticides most broadly found, according to test results obtained by The Denver Post, were myclobutanil and imidacloprid.
Myclobutanil is a powerful fungicide whose label warns it may be harmful if inhaled and could impact the central nervous system.
Imidacloprid is an insecticide that, according to its label, is harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin — three ways that marijuana is consumed.
Yet both products are allowed for use on certain fruits and vegetables.
The Post in August found that marijuana products at two stores listed barred pesticides, often buried within a list of ingredients that included water, seaweed extract and guano from bats and seabirds.
One shop, LivWell in Denver, had products with labels that reflected the barred pesticides, but said they were being phased out.
“Any compliant company that uses any non-organic pesticides, fungicides or herbicides is obligated to list the fact that they were used,” LivWell executive director and chief legal strategist Dean Heizer said Tuesday. “Until March of 2015, our facility was using some of those products. We do not use any non-organic, listable pesticides anymore.”
David Migoya: 303-954-1506, dmigoya@denverpost.com or twitter.com/davidmigoya
