Pubdate: Fri, 26 Feb 2016
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2016 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Authors: Ricardo Baca and David Migoya

STATE ISSUES ANOTHER POT PESTICIDE RECALL

For the fifth time in less than a week, state cannabis regulators 
have issued a health advisory and recall of marijuana over concerns 
it is contaminated with potentially dangerous pesticides not approved 
for use on the crop.

Thursday's order by the Marijuana Enforcement Division involves 446 
batches of recreational and medical marijuana grown at a Denver 
cannabis cultivation facility servicing two pot shops owned by 
Michelle Tucker: High Street Growers at 330 Federal Blvd. and Back to 
the Garden at 1755 S. Broadway.

The MED did not say how many plants or products are impacted by the 
recall, but the agency recommended that customers with the 
contaminated pot return it to the place of purchase.

State officials said the plants had tested positive for two pesticide 
chemicals, myclobutanil and avermectin bla, neither of which is 
allowed to be used on commercially grown marijuana in Colorado. But 
the owner of Back to the Garden and High Street Growers told The Post 
that while her team had previously used the banned pesticides, their 
residues are no longer present in the finished, smokable products she 
sells to customers.

"It's an incorrect action," Tucker said late Thursday. "By the 
admission of the Department of Agriculture, the people who tested the 
product, there was nothing found in any of my finished, smokable 
products sold to the public."

Tucker said her growers stopped using pesticides containing 
myclobutanil and other banned chemicals "a year ago" after the city 
of Denver first stepped up its pesticide enforcement actions, which 
ultimately pushed the state to publish a list of allowable pest- 
control chemicals for use on cannabis.

Any residues of the banned chemicals in her current inventory were 
only found in the fan leaves and stalks, Tucker told The Post. 
"They're not in any of the products or flower I've sold," she said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom