Looking at some of the recent social media banter that has arisen in response to the Ike’s OK customer-protection program, it is clear that not all consumers in Washington have ready access to the information that the WSLCB makes available to let people know which licensees are alleged (by the WSLCB) to have violated various rules and/or laws. This post includes a list of licensees alleged to have violated rules relating to the use of pesticides, soil amendments, fertilizers, other crop production aids, unauthorized solvents or gases, or of having allegedly adulterated usable marijuana with organic or nonorganic or other compound(s).
The WSLCB periodically posts a listing of all VIOLATIONS (including both alleged offenses that were issued an Administrative Violation Notice (AVN) and alleged offenses that were issued a Warning Letter) up on their Frequently Requested Lists web page. However, they only include the 6-digit license number of the alleged violator, and not information that humans can readily translate into which licensee is alleged to have been in violation of the indicated rule or law.
This post lists the “tradename” of each wholesaler that has had one or more alleged violation of the Pesticide Rules (corresponding to either WAC 314.55.084 or WAC 314.55.087(1)(f), and consisting of allegedly (MJ) Using unauthorized pesticides, soil amendments, fertilizers, other crop production aids. )
In addition, I include asterisks beside the Tradenames of two licensees that are alleged by the LCB to have either :
(MJ) Using unauthorized solvents or gases in processing. (WAC 314.55.104)
Or
(MJ) Adulterate usable marijuana with organic or nonorganic chemical or other compound. (WAC 314.55.105)
These three classes of violations strike me as ones that fall into the category of “alleged actions that could reasonably be viewed as introducing unhealthy additives to regulated cannabis, if those actions were really occurring”. The tradenames in question may or may not correspond to the name of the “brands” as they appear on Retail shelves. Unfortunately, with the now 13-month-long absence of traceability data, I am not easily able to infer which brands or “dbas” are associated with these licensee tradenames.
On a technical note, I used the VIOLATIONS database current through September of 2018 and the Marijuana APPLICANTS file current through Oct 9, 2018 for most of the information contained herein. Those were merged in EXCEL using VLOOKUP and using the 6-digit license number available on both files as the ‘link” key to enable cross-file merges.
A small number of records in the violation file had no corresponding records in the Oct 9 applicants file, which I assume means the businesses either closed or had an event (location or ownership change) that resulted in the change of it’s license number. To get business-identifying information for those records, I scanned through a number of my historical copies of the applicant database to try to figure out which business was, historically, associated with the license for which the violation was alleged (only one such record is on this sheet, and I have placed it last on the list and have included BOTH business names that seem associated with this license number …. take that last record with a bigger grain of salt than the others).
I make no judgement or assertion regarding this list, other than it corresponds very closely to what the LCB recently posted on their website relating to violations (and licensees/applicants). Getting an AVN or a warning letter does not mean any rule has been violated. I am, however, under the impression that getting one (or the other) implies that the LCB is under the impression that a rule may have been violated. I also know that I have almost never seen an LCB-generated data file that was without error.
Enjoy the list, and please keep it away from children (unless they are MMJ Patients — then use your best judgement as the exceptional caregiver that you no doubt are).
The counts in the following list correspond to the number of LCB-alleged “Violations”, and their breakdown as either AVNs or Written Warnings corresponding to one or the other of the following rules: WAC 314.55.084 or WAC 314.55.087(1)(f) -(MJ) Using unauthorized pesticides, soil amendments, fertilizers, other crop production aids.
Trade Name Total Violations AVNs Written Warnings
HARMONY FARMS 3 3 0
BMF WASHINGTON* 2 2 0
SPINNING HEADS 2 2 0
MOLECULAR GENETICS RESEARCH ASSOC. 2 0 2
BBB FARMS 1 1 0
BIG RIDGE FARMS 1 1 0
BLUE SKY GROWERS 1 1 0
BUDCO FARMS 1 1 0
CHIPPER GARDENS * 1* 1 0
CRESCOMAX 1 1 0
DOUBLE DELICIOUS 1 1 0
DOUBLE DUTCH 1 1 0
ECO VENTURES 1 1 0
FREYA FARM 1 1 0
HAZY DAZE 1 1 0
HERBSCAPES LLC 1 1 0
HOMETOWN HERBS 1 1 0
JBM ENTERPRISES LLC 1 1 0
J.R.’s** 1 1 0
KHUSH KUSH 1 1 0
KUSH GARDEN 1 1 0
LADY EARTH BOTANICALS 1 1 0
M AND R DISTRIBUTING 1 1 0
MEDIGROW 1 1 0
MOMMA CHAN 1 1 0
NEW LEAF ENTERPRISES 1 1 0
NORTH COAST GROWERS 1 1 0
NORTHERN GROW LLC 1 1 0
ORIGENS 1 1 0
ROOTWORX 1 1 0
SHELBY ECKROTH 1 1 0
STILL URBAN NURSERY 1 1 0
TREEHAWK FARMS 1 1 0
TRIPLE R FARMS, LLC 1 1 0
TRIPLE T FARMS 1 1 0
UNAFLORA 1 1 0
ZENTA GARDEN 1 1 0
CLOUD 9 GOOD BUDZ 1 0 1
CULTIVAR FARMS 1 0 1
D AND L ENTERPRISES 1 0 1
NW HERBAL GARDENS 1 0 1
ROYAL TREE GARDENS 1 0 1
SPOCANNABIS 1 0 1
Blewett Pass Farms** 1 0 1
*Note: BMF Washington also has one AVN for (MJ) Adulterate usable marijuana with organic or nonorganic chemical or other compound. , and Chipper Gardens has one Warning Letter for (MJ) Using unauthorized solvents or gases in processing. (Warning Letter)
**Note also that, in the last row of the table above, I believe the license number in the VIOLATIONS database referred (at the time of the alleged violation) to “Blewett Pass Farms”. However, the Oct 9 licensing/applicant file associates an entity called “Washington Gold” with that license number. A violation was alleged to have occurred — but it is not crystal clear which of these wholesalers was associated with the alleged violation. (UPDATE 11/29/2018 — the alleged violation in question WAS tied to Blewett Pass Farms and NOT to Washington Gold. My thanks to Cody from Washington Gold for clarifying (and for doing so in a polite manner). My further thanks to Matthew from Cobalt CC for clarifying that the alleged violation listed in the initial post was, actually alleged against J.R.’s and not Cobalt CC.)
Be careful in what you buy. It truly helps to know something beyond marketing hype regarding WHO is growing the cannabis you buy and/or processing it and HOW they operate. If you know the farm and you trust them and you like their product, good for you. If not, I repeat, BE CAREFUL IN WHAT YOU BUY.
Try to avoid any negativity toward the businesses listed above, as their interactions with the LCB enforcement and education division have very likely educated them about the inappropriate nature of prior alleged practices and the general good karma that comes along with producing and processing products in a way that makes them suitable for human consumption.
Most importantly, : look to HI-Blog later this weekend for my long-overdue post relating to the LCB/WSDA complaint-driven boondoggle surrounding LCB-funded and WSDA-executed pesticide testing (using data through Sept of 2018).
In that post, I will gently point out how willfully negligent the LCB has been (and continues to be) in keeping pesticide-laden product out of the hands, mouths, and lungs of regulated cannabis consumers in Washington State. I will also point out how many of our tax dollars they have spent being so willfully negligent in their duties.
Your list is flawed and now you are giving a bad name to a producer who has never produced one flower yet
Matthew is correct, and the two instances where the problem occurred have been corrected. Matthew was very helpful to me in diagnosing how the flaw appears to have cropped up.
In both instances, the licenses in question had recently changed hands and the new owners had not yet commenced commercial operations (which I define as selling product). The LCB generally changes the 6-digit license number when a business changes hands (or location). In these two cases, it would appear that the applicant/licensing file they release every week or two had not yet been updated to reflect the changes in ownership.
My thanks to Matthew and (once again) to Cody for their help on this.
Posting “alleged” crimes that aren’t settled doesn’t seem right. Not nearly the clear smoking gun Uncle Ike’s posted when they caught IONIC with Eagle 20 in product on the shelf. I feel bad for the companies you guys are throwing under the bus with your false equivocation.
Brian – What is the “false equivocation” which you believe I have employed?
This post is, simply, a re-posting of records available on the LCB website in a file called VIOLATIONS to which I added the “Tradename” associated with the 6-digit license number that the LCB has chosen to label licensees with in the VIOLATIONS file. This post just puts a name on that number.
Over the past few days, I have seen some stuff up on Facebook that suggested that folks were aware of the 50+ alleged violations and there seemed to be general ignorance as to which businesses were associated with those (“alleged” is my term …. the LCB considers them violations, as they are in the VIOLATIONS dataset).
I am also curious how it is that you view what I (not we — I) have done here as “throwing companies under the bus”.
On the off chance that you choose to respond to my questions, I would also like to know whether you see any value to CONSUMERS in knowing which businesses have had 0, 1, 2, 3 (or more) violations related to the inappropriate use of pesticides and/or the use of inappropriate pesticides?
There’s problem with implying that all these are for actual pesticide use I know of one on here that just got blasted all over Facebook drug through the mud badly. Their so called violation was actually a written warning solely for not having a pesticide log on the initial visit.
The producer didn’t even own pesticides at the time let alone use them. The farm had all the correct logs but one of the owners took them home with him to work on and they went there the day of the visit. Its absolutely something that should have been a written warning but to imply that they are putting stuff on the shelves that is poison is not right.
This has started a huge shit show over absolutely nothing.
Listing the alleged violations is implying nothing — other than some licensees have had such allegations from the LCB and some have not. As an added “bonus”, the list allows the quick determination of which licenses have had repeated such allegations from the LCB.
It seems reasonable to assume that “Warning Letters” imply a lesser alleged violation than do “Administrative Violation Notices” — and that is why I broke out the alleged violations in that way (you may also note that I sorted the list alphabetically within the number of total alleged violations, with a subsort that put those with AVNs higher on the list than those with Warning Letters).
To say that this is “over absolutely nothing” is, frankly, bullshit — unless you are of the belief that using unapproved pesticides and – more importantly – selling cannabis or derived products containing levels of pesticides that have been defined by our regulators as unacceptable is somehow acceptable.
I, for one, do not believe that to be acceptable.
For one thing those logs are never to leave the location of the grow or processing facility which is a major violation and should have been handled in a more severe manner. In my opinion these facilities are playing fast and loose with the laws and guidelines and should be punished more severe then they are. We just had a guy local to me get busted with 10 pounds of cannabis flower and a bunch of wax with no tracking info in his personal vehicle at the house of a private citizen who he was selling it to and all he got was a fine and a slap on the wrist and a suspension of his license for one year. However he owns two licenses so he is still up and running so as far as I’m concerned they should throw the book at these ass fucks. The person who wrote this article is a God dang hero for putting it out there so lay off of him and go back to smoking your pesticide laced flower that you seem to be backing here.
Justified — I appreciate your kind words.
On the issue of lack of consequences, I did a public records request some time ago for the status of all violations that had occurred in the industry. Were fines leveled? Were suspensions instituted? Did the “accused” lawyer up, challenge the violation and get a reduced (or no) penalty, etc?
One thing I noticed that rather blew my mind was one in which a producer had received a number of different violations including a recent one related to pesticides. In this specific example, it looks like the business was closed down and it’s license was terminated.
The mind-blowing part of it was that before being shut down (remember they had recently received a pesticide vioation), they were allowed to sell a whole bunch of inventory to another processor who, presumably, either packaged and sold it or concentrated it and sold it. If memory serves correct, it was about $180,000 (wholesale) of product that was sold. I posted about this in a summary of how the LCB penalizes cannabis licensees for violations at the following link.
At that point, I just could not bring myself to trace the product downstream to see if it was sold to consumers and, if so, where.
Questionable job on the part of the LCB of keeping consumers safe. It would seem they do not believe that to be part of their job descriptions any more.
Those logs??? it was a single blank piece of paper there was never an application of pesticides so there was never a completed log. there weren’t even plants to apply a pesticide application to wtf are you even talking about??? major violation, more severe manner you are absolutely clueless to the industry please don’t quit your day job.
I almost blocked this comment from “That One Guy”, as it falls into the general category that I call rude.
However, I also thought it rather funny that he thinks that I am “absolutely clueless” about the industry and, besides, his rudeness was offset somewhat by the career planning advice he offered to me for free.
For that, I am truly thankful.
But this has absolutely nothing to do with products that were good bad or anything else the farm got the violation for not having a blank form. The farm had not even had a harvest lmfao so how are they putting out bad product? The farm never used any pesticides or had any plans on doing so thus there was no crime committed for taking a blank form out of the building.
The idiot that took the blank forms from the building is a 50% owner and the same one that turned the farm in for not having them and that’s all written out in the warning. and i quote the inspector “everytime someone leaves a farm they call me up trying to sabotage the farm claiming all kinds of illegal stuff is going on I’ve yet to have one instance be true”
There are so many violations for absolutely petty stuff. The same farm that had just got their liscence and didn’t even have plants in flower got a warning for not having a recall plan. Being there was no product to be sold there wasn’t exactly a need for a recall plan but its a violation non the less.
You are acting like every farm is poisoning everyone there are lots of idiots out there yes obviously but if you haven’t had to deal with these inspectors on a daily basis you have no clue how bad it is. There is way to much grey area in WAC 315 for both farms and inspectors there is no fair hearing in the process there is no innocent till proven guilty if the inspector says it happened you get fined the only leeway you get is they offer you a payment plan
if you post something like this post the copies of the violations to go with it so everyone knows exactly what happened.
While I do not completely agree with “That One Guy”‘s position on a few of the issues he raises, there is some useful information in his comment that folks should likely be aware of — and think about. Hence, I am going to let his comment(s) through. (reminder to folks new to HI-Blog — I hate censorship and only very rarely block comments. Those that I block are ones that seem irrational, overly negative – without apparent justification, or downright rude and/or otherwise inappropriate.)
Alleged violations are alleged violations, whether they take the form of AVNs or Warning Letters (they are actually violations, per the LCB, I was just trying to be nice by calling them “alleged”).
I have little intention of getting into any sort of “mud-slinging” interchange with That One Guy (or anyone else, for that matter) on HI-Blog. I believe FB is a more appropriate forum for such dialogue.
@that one guy has the real scoop . Theres a certain irony in beating the drum about the LCBs incompetence yet citing their findings as evidence without any contextual analysis. The LCBs pesticide guidelines dont conform to agricultural best practices in many ways, and have far more to do with risk management and liability than crop/human efficacy. I’m happy to answer your question by saying that consumers deserve to know what producers are actually putting consumers at risk, but this list and expose does not do that.
I know of at least two violations on this list personally that are for completely benign essential oils, soil amendments, and pesticides that pose little/no risk to humans which any serious regulator would laugh at. Many of these are politically motivated by the LCB, and cherry picking those who have been cited does nothing to speak to the iceberg of producers who havent been cited yet whose store tested product has the same issues, the data on this is plain to see. The honest things to do here would be to actually analyze the findings of the AVNs, do market testing on those companies products to confirm/deny the AVNs findings, or taking the road of consumer education like Ikes is.
Frankly, doing anything that takes aim at the regulators who could actually bring about larger scale change and improve the quality of cannabis for all patients is better than posting unsubstantiated allegations that pass the buck and burden of proof to growers.
Thank-you for supporting the market by being a regulated grower (which I take to be the case, given the pen-name you used on this comment).
I also appreciate the irony you point out. If you (or anyone, for that matter) take issue with what the LCB considers worthy of an AVN or a warning letter, I would encourage you to take that up with them.
Please know that I “cherry picked” nothing. I simply put the information the LCB posts regularly on their Frequently Requested Lists page in a more accessible format. We appear to be in agreement that transparency on these issues is an important thing for consumers. I would extend that to say that, IMO, it is an important thing for retailers, processors and insurers, as well.
I appreciate your comment, I-502 Grower. Thank-you
This should be helpful, since the WSLCB does a pretty poor job of providing clear information to consumers regarding violations that they have found. It would be helpful to know more specifics about the violation, but that should really be done by the WSLCB.
For myself, I’m not too concerned about a farm with one violation. Farms with multiple violations may deserve a bit more scrutiny from consumers (especially patients).
Keep up the good work!
Thank-you, Erik. As always, I appreciate your perspective.
For anyone that may not know, Erik is the person in the WSDA (Washington State Department of Agriculture) who was tasked with providing input to the LCB regarding pesticides and cannabis. Given the federal illegality of the plant and it’s derived products, this was no easy task.
Erik is both an expert on pesticides and is, in my opinion, one of the unsung heroes that emerged early as the State tried to figure out how to regulate cannabis.
Thanks Dr. Jim. Keep up the good work! Second on Erik!
I own Washington gold and it a processing only license that was split from blewett pass farms why would you call me out??? for a violation on the farm in 2016 not cool do your real research before you go around smearing other peoples names.
Cody — thank-you for taking the time to clarify the ambiguity regarding the “Washington Gold” / Blewett Farms record on the original post.
I have edited the post to reflect that the alleged violation in question WAS, indeed, tied to Blewett Farms and that the only relation it has to Washington Gold is that the WSLCB does not appear to have followed their normal procedure of assigning a new 6-digit license number to a license when it has a change in ownership.
The problem with the license number likely has something to do with the recency of the transition and where Washington Gold is in terms of initiating commerce under the license.
Thank-you, Cody.
My thanks, as well, to Matthew from Cobalt CC who reached out privately to me when this list went out and took the time to describe how the alleged violation was likely tied to the business that he had recently acquired his license from — J.R.’s —
Both Cody and Matthew were cooperative with me in helping to diagnose the specific issue in the LCB’s data, and I appreciate the time they spent with me. Thanks, guys.
I, for one, will look for their products when they hit the shelves — which I suspect will be during a time in the near future when pesticide testing is required for all products in Washington’s regulated cannabis market.
Are you still involved in reporting this information? I hope you keep your reporting active because the public needs more people like you. Please update your data and keep doing this.
Thank you!
Thank-you, Laurie. I am glad that you appreciate this part of what I do.
I am not actively updating such lists at the moment. After speaking with a number of knowledgeable folks, including some who have received violations and significant fines related to alleged pesticide usage, I’ve come to the conclusion that not all of the violations listed are things that indicate wrong-doing on the part of the grower —- or, frankly, that even mean there actually WERE excessive levels of pesticides in the products tested. I am working on something related to exposing this fact, but it is taking time. One hint — I do not believe that the WSDA lab being used to test for pesticides by the WSLCB has been certified to test for pesticides in cannabis.
However, for anyone so inclined, the list of violations relating to cannabis in Washington state is readily available on the WSLCB “Frequently Requested Lists” page. I’ve included a direct link to the current file (which has all cannabis violations — and warning letters — issued between 2014 and the end of March, 2021). It is updated every month or so. If you filter the results (I usually import into Excel to do this) on the 4 pesticide-related violation types, you get a list.
https://data.lcb.wa.gov/dataset/Violations-Dataset/dx3i-tzh2/data
THAT, in turn, has to be merged with a list of the wholesale licensees in order to get the business name (using the 6-digit license number to join the files). Unfortunately, this file is no longer available on the LCB website. Fortunately, they will make the current list of marijuana wholesale “applicants” and “licensees” available in response to public records requests (made to publicrecords@lcb.wa.gov).
Hope that helps.