September 4 2016
Marijuana dispensaries offer consumption products and seeds or clones from their own garden. The potency of those products can be highly variable. The increased tolerance, though, of larger and more mature plants to pesticide treatment suggests that some pesticide use is necessary.
"From what we've seen in our surveying of dispensaries around the country, many are not taking the full potency as they would to sell it to dispensaries and to patients," says Phyllis Burke, vice president of scientific communications for the American Botanical Council, an organization devoted to the cultivation and promotion of marijuana.
Toxicity Levels Not Always Included in Plant-Based Products
In response to questions from Medscape Medical News about pesticide use, the American Plant Health Association (APHA) -- the trade association representing organic growers of marijuana -- says that "weed sold in retail stores is produced on a large scale, and it is essentially grown in a single field. Such product toxicity can be difficult to identify for consumers due to the lack of reliable crop-testing data and the lack of standardized testing criteria."
Still, most marijuana-based products, including extracts of marijuana, are standardized by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to contain about 25% THC. "But if you look at the product labels, you can find very different levels of marijuana potency among the products. So if you don't know what the original levels are, you might think the product is more potent than it actually is. These are some of reasons why it is important for dispensaries to be properly regulated so that all the standards are met.
Under the law, all marijuana is listed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) as a Schedule I drug -- a category reserved for drugs with no medical value and a high potential for abuse. Most manufacturers, including NIDA, use a defined system to identify THC levels in marijuana-based products. Their marijuana products are tested by commercial vendors to ensure that the THC level matches the label. In addition, manufacturers are required to include a study regarding the safety and efficacy of their product for treatment of various indications, all of them also
need dispensary insurance coverage.
Partially Licensed Dispensaries Also Available
Some states, such as Florida, have passed legislation allowing licensed marijuana dispensaries to sell marijuana to medical marijuana patients. In Florida, the law allows qualified medical marijuana patients to cultivate, distribute, or dispense marijuana to other medical marijuana patients for treatment of debilitating medical conditions. However, they are required to meet a certain set of standards, one of them is having proper insurance, like the
cannabis insurance at Feingold Companies.Some of those qualified patients may also purchase cannabis from the unregulated dispensaries, which may sell such products at levels higher than those listed on the label. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the safety and effectiveness of drugs in the U.S. However, while the FDA has no authority over marijuana, they are the agency responsible for regulating tobacco and nicotine products.
"As an FDA approved product, it is our opinion that the quality and integrity of marijuana products are covered by our regulatory scheme," said FDA spokeswoman Ami Klinn.
Current research suggests that most such products, including edibles and extracts, are not necessarily safe. "Toxicity levels measured in lab studies have not always been included in products," Burke says. "Therefore, for use in both medical and recreational settings, it is important that the consumer be well informed of pesticide exposure and the potential side effects."
Burke and her colleagues from the American Society of Addiction Medicine hope that the increased popularity of non-organic marijuana in the last few years, particularly among medical patients, will lead to increased research of the effectiveness and safety of medical marijuana products, find out more at
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September 4th, 2016 at 11:54 AM. Posted in Uncategorized.
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