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Comment by openthc | Hacker News Reader

Another thing that happens to outdoor grown cannabis is pesticide contamination. Even if your farm is a good distance from some commercial agriculture, if they spray it can, and does, contaminate your crop -- which for regulated cannabis requires destruction. Literally burning (or composting) thousands of dollars of product.

And if the pesticides test are hot on the cross-contaminated cannabis; how much is on those apples three fields over?

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Residue levels are researched and regulated, along with drift trespass lawsuits and crop damage insurance.

I guess my answer to cannabis is that if the zero-tolerance remains a factor then it's a business risk decision to grow outdoors vs indoors.

Wouldn't composting risk having the pesticides go into the next crop further contaminating?

Although, to your point, they can just sell it to the nearby farms growing stuff we eat that isn't tested the same way...

Typically, and USA specific, the rules are to grind it up, mix with equal parts existing dirt/compost and then it's OK. So that dilutes it by half; then this compost is spread around and, like you said, can be used for other crops. Also, as the material sits in the compost pile, which should be agitated, the pesticides will leach out/break down.

I just got a message from WA-LCB today with updated pesticide information, working with WSU, so here's some details -- https://agr.wa.gov/departments/cannabis/pesticide-use

And here's the Action Limits defined in WA law: https://app.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=314-55-108

Many asterisks here but there are methods for remediating herbicide and pesticide contamination. Not saying it’s universally solved, but its not universally unsolvable either.

Edit: I meant to speak specifically in terms of compost production.

> which for regulated cannabis requires destruction

Which regulation is this that requires destroying a nearby crop... instead of the one the pesticide was actually applied to? I'm confused here. Pesticides don't "contaminate" crops in that way, they're literally intended to be use on the food.

I live in NZ where there are medical standards applied to legal cannabis - only recently have I seen dispensaries advertising non irradiated cannabis, presumably because the manufacturing facilities have progressed to no longer require it.

It might be something similar?

non irradiated?

It’s a common sterilisation technique [1].

[1] https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/food-irra...

Quite common for example for dried spices, which pre-irradiation used to have a risk of dangerous bacterial contamination if they were dried outside.

I’d imagine that there are different standards applied to things intended to be eaten vs things intended to be inhaled.

Some of it has to do with combustion breakdown products. Some Canadian producers got nailed with using (directly or indirectly) antifungals with that issue:

https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/news/2017/03/clarific...

Some of it has to do with highly effective lobbying by food manufacturers and a highly restrictive approach toward cannabis cultivation.

cannabis aint food

Well, sometimes.

Really? I'll mention that to the birds in my neighbourhood.

The seeds and oil are quite nutritious, and the leaves sometimes have a tinge of turpentine that fits well in a vinaigrette salad. It's also common to make cannabis butter for culinary as well as cosmetic uses.

these brownies are strictly for cosmic, err, cosmetic usage only officer

The regulations are because it’s inhaled. That it can be eaten is secondary

What's food is a matter of regulation now?

In fairness you can’t wash a dried pot flower like you would an apple.

systemic pesticides are actually taken into the plant, and dont wash out.

Big nope - pesticides are there to repel or kill bugs. A lot of times the recommendation is to wash fruit before eating it to remove pesticides or lead from fuel burned by cars in the vicinity, etc.

Uhh, no cars are emitting lead anymore? AV gas, maybe, if the field is near an airport that is a potential risk.

You can buy leaded fuel for racing. In theory lead contamination could be an issue near a speedway.

https://www.sunocoracefuels.com/fuels

I guess he meant general soot from burned fuel, as much if not more toxic than lead itself.

How bad is smoking pesticide vs eating pesticides?

The eaten one goes through your stomach acid and can be flushed out naturally through the system. The inhaled particles may get stuck in your lungs or worse: absorbed. Lungs are not a through channel. Things absorbed there go to the brain, blood stream, a lot faster. The stuff you spray on plants is usually meant to kill or repel bugs and critters. So won’t be friendly to lung or brain tissue. Possible cancerous too.

These pesticides are a bit like the magical Chernobyl radioactive cloud, which, thanks to some miraculous high pressure and low pressures zones, neatly avoided some countries by flowing along their borders.

Here, the pesticides are magically contained by our stomach acids, and never pass the gut barrier to enter our bodies, making them absolutely safe.

The produce you buy at safeway comes from all over the place and spraying sometimes is done with a a crop-dusting air plane.

Nobody claims they are contained in food. Just possibly less absorbable than via lungs.

That’s a stupid comparison because country borders don’t have physical differences.

The stomach is nothing like the lungs. Inhale a glass of water and let us know how fake that difference is.

some chemistry occurs as a result of burning. dependent on substance it can be worse, or more immediate.

e.g. benomyl [fungicide] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benomyl

will produce cyanide as combustion product.

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