Whereas fruit growers must obtain permits for pesticide application, pot growers have no such requirements and may pose contamination risks for nearby trees and crops, as well as soil and water.
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Omar Juarbe inspects the hundreds of marijuana plants at LivWell in August.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver said in several of the cases, the marijuana was destined for users outside of Colorado.
“I think we’re going to be seeing a lot of similar lawsuits in other states”, Malsbury said, pointing out that the nation’s largest marijuana producer, California, has no pot regulations at all.
It seems that the talk of the cannabis industry right now is pesticides being used by growing operation in Colorado. According to a recent development reported by the Denver Post, the Colorado Department of Agriculture stopped its preparation of a list of allowable substances that would have restricted pesticides on marijuana to the least toxic of chemicals past year, because of “pressure from the industry”. Two men who were allegedly looking after the crop were arrested.
Colorado was the first state in the national to legalize recreational sales.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations and state and local law enforcement all worked together to find and dismantle the illegal grows.
Still, the plaintiffs insist that LivWell should be punished for using a chemical not listed by the state as acceptable for use on pot.
LivWell offered no comment because it said it had not yet been served with the complaint.
“States need to develop comprehensive lab-testing requirements and guidelines about what pesticides are OK to use on this product”, Malsbury said.
Alison Malsbury, a Seattle attorney who has reviewed product liability potential in the marijuana industry and isn’t involved in the Denver lawsuit, called the legal action a harbinger of things to come. Earlier this year, Denver authorities quarantined over 100,000 marijuana plants from 11 growing facilities over pesticide concerns.
Sign up for updates and a curated roundup of news delivered to your inbox every morning. This summer, Beyond Pesticides sent a letter to CDA urging officials to reconsider their position on pesticide use in cannabis cultivation and warn them of violations of the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) should they continue to allow in marijuana production the use of pesticides not registered for that use. City health officials, however, allowed the plants to be released if tests showed only the lowest allowable levels of the chemicals. “On a grape it doesn’t break down into cyanide”.
According to court documents, LivWell maintains its plants are safe. They want marijuana grown using unapproved pesticides off the market and either destroyed or returned to the grower.
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“Simply because the plants did not have “pesticide residue” does not necessarily mean that the plants were safe for inhalation”, the lawsuit alleges.
