(Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do!)
This February, monthly retail Cannabis sales in Washington state fell below $100,000,000 for the first time since before COVID hit in March of 2020. Either consumers are buying less, there are fewer consumers buying or prices have continue to decline in the face of well-regulated massive overproduction (or some combination of the above). Perhaps all of the COVID and shooting and fentanyl and suicide deaths are beginning to take their toll on commerce. Or, perhaps, people that wish to be able to enjoy cannabis free of pesticides have finally decided to leave this state … or to grow their own in order to ensure they know what is in their cannabis.
Jesus’ words used to title this brief post are words of wisdom. Please forgive the biblical reference as a departure from what few norms I hold when writing blog posts for High Intelligence dot org. The pesticide-related disruption wrought by the LCB over the Easter weekend and through much of last week was an unexpected disruption to the serenity and reflection that I normally enjoy on the holiest of weekends in the religion of my birth.
No-one knows for sure whether or not pesticides inhaled after being burned at very high temperatures or vaped at high but somewhat lower temperatures or, for that matter savored during low-temperature dabs are harmful to consumers. Just as certainly as no-one knows for sure that those same things are harmful to fetuses being carried by consumers. (Yet another reminder that it is best to be very careful with what one puts into one’s body when another body’s development is dependent upon those inputs.)
Federal illegality and long-standing Federal intransigence regarding the conduct of cannabis research has gotten in the way of there being much “gold standard” pesticide toxicity research done involving cannabis. Heck, double-blind placebo-controlled studies on pesticide toxicity are even harder to get funded, as such studies are generally viewed to be unethical.
So, not a great deal is known about the harms (or benefits) of smoking pesticides. There may be lessons learned that could be learned from tobacco, but it also seems unethical to learn from them. It’s cannabis, after all. It’s MEDICINE, not poison.
Quite a bit is known about the harms (and benefits?) of ingesting pesticides through eating and inhalation and skin absorption. Less is known about the effects that occur when injecting or boofing pesticides, but the data from food tend to suggest that POTENTIAL harms from ingesting pesticides outweigh any POTENTIAL benefits that might arise. In truth, most papers (of the few I have read) do not mention many benefits.
Why all this pesticide talk? I want to stress that CORCs (Consumers of Regulated Cannabis) should NOT be freaked out by the recently-uncovered “cluster” of pesticide positive samples reported by the WSLCB on April 6th.
Seriously — pesticides are everywhere and not worth losing too much sleep over when small amounts of legacy agricultural pesticides are found on product coming out of traditionally agricultural areas. It may be wise to be sensitive to HOW MUCH pesticides one is ingesting, but striving to hit zero exposures is truly difficult these days if you drink water or eat food that was not created in a lab with extensive chemical remediation capabilities.
I put out this warning (and suggestions to “chill” while the multi-agency Government Team figures out the extent and severity of the problem, IF ONE ACTUALLY EXISTS) to help turn around the plunging sales of Washington cannabis.
If you are a CORC in WA, rest assured that they have your back and do what you can (taking into consideration Federal law, of course) to support WA’s regulated cannabis market. Assume that Agency rules and enforcement efforts are adequately controlling the quality and safety of regulated cannabis and lay your money down to prepare for 4/20 and the times ahead.
The LAST thing the WSLCB and state Legislature want you to do is stop buying cannabis or to start buying your cannabis outside of the regulated system. Be a good citizen and use Jay Inslee’s team as your supplier.
Otherwise, cannabis sales may continue to plummet in WA, and that would result in fewer taxes that the Drug Use Prevention Community can hoover up to make our lives better. We NEED our lives to be better, so please spend generously.
Cannabis supports education and healthcare and a 1920’s-style prohibition mentality through many of Washington States’ Departments and Agencies. Please don’t’ deny them the tax revenue they need. Buy regulated cannabis. Buy MORE regulated cannabis ….. live responsibly, don’t drive under the influence, etc.
Above all else, look at the receipt from your purchase and note that almost 50% of the money you just forked out goes directly to the State Government to fund operations and the WSLCB itself.
And then ….. ask yourself if you REALLY think that regulated cannabis is “safer” than the much less expensive product available elsewhere.
Your choice. You are, if shopping in regulated stores, an adult by definition.
If you have more interest in learning about the ongoing agricultural pesticide event affecting Washington’s cannabis industry, keep an eye on HI-Blog. I’ll be posting a few things on this topic over the next month, I expect.
An informed consumer is, after all, a better consumer. In this case, he/she/they may also be a safer consumer.
Here is a link to the WSLCB site that lists detailed information on all cannabis product recalls that either they, or vendors, have initiated since the launch of the I-502 market almost 9 years ago.