Features Nov 25, 2015 at 4:00 am

Although Legalization Came with Strict Restrictions on Pesticide Use, Washington State Has Yet to Test a Single Nug for Pesticides

One of the main arguments in favor of legalizing marijuana was to improve consumer safety, but whether weed is indeed safer is questionable.

Comments

3
One of the benefits to pot being legalized is that we get to address issues such as this. When it was complete unregulated you really don't know what you are smoking
6
"When recreational weed became legal in Washington State, it came with 'strict restrictions' on pesticide use, which was unique.

Tobias, was this copy approved by the Stranger Department of Redundancy Department? At least you didn't create an incomplete sentence of "which was unique." I applaud your courageous rejection of that cardinal rule of the Stranger's style guide, such as it might be.
7
@6 the stranger has a style guide?

also, an article about harmful things in the drugs you smoke. ha.
8
UUUUUUUU

9
Scary and a shocker! Who would have thought that someone who grows dope would be a shady piece of shit?
10
Excellent reporting.
11
This is all about outdoor pot, a miniscule fraction of the market, and generally the least desirable.

The concentrate numbers defy belief. A concentrate can be over 90% THC. There is simply not enough material that isn't a cannabinoid in some concentrates to contain a 10 times higher amount of pesticides.

This "problem" makes no financial sense and cites numbers inconsistent with commonly known and well established properties of specific materials. Something is awfully smelly about this story.

As #4 expertly points out, this is if anything an example of a few bad apples, and the people interviewed in this story should probably be getting a visit from the WSLCB rather than a tempest being made out of a teapot.
12
@7:
Yes, that is precisely the point: though smoking anything is not in itself a great idea, there are things that you can smoke that may be worth the risk should that risk be minimised, and other things worthless or otherwise undesired with even worse risks.

It is analogous to eating good barbecue vs eating good barbecue slathered with Agent Orange: the first is a small cancer risk many adults will be willing to take due to the enjoyment they get therefrom, the second is likely no improvement of enjoyment at the cost of a much larger cancer risk.
13
@11:
Screwing-up living systems being easier than getting them high with relative safety, I don't think it all unlikely. For example, 0.3 p.p.m. wouldn't take up much more room than 0.3 p.p.m..

And if the pesticides are originally mostly outside the resin glands and especially if they're more soluble in the solvents used for extraction than are the desired psychoäctives, the scenario is completely credible, especially that a large part of extraction is the physical removal of impurities, separating-out anything soluble is much harder (nastier solvents, tricker chemistry).

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