In previous months we’ve been following pesticides very closely in the Washington cannabis market. January brings new public pesticide tests from the Ike’s Ok program, and we have new pesticide regulations from the WALCB.

January Pesticide Results from ‘Ike’s OK’

New year, new cannabis industry.

Now we are four months into the public pesticide testing program launched by one of the states biggest retail chains, Uncle Ike’s. The program shocked the industry, when at one point in November, 5 out of 24 tests had failed! Things are looking better now, and January brings another clean round of testing:

Mantis Extracts (Terp Diamonds) – Passed
Oil Tycoon (Shatter) – Passed
X-tracted Labs Refine (Loud Resin) – Passed
Pearl Extracts (Disposable Vape) – Passed
Oleum Extracts (Cartridge) – Passed
Mfused (Cartridge) – Passed
TopShelf WA (Cartridge) – Passed
Elevate Cannabis (Flower) – Passed
Grow Op Farms (Flower) – Passed
Nova Dia Farms (Flower) – Passed

Now the current number is 45 tests ran, and 5 fails between 3 different Producer/Processors. We haven’t seen any failed tests since November which rises the questions, Did Ike’s have suspicions about certain brands and test them first? Did the industry self-regulate, and farms are now double checking product before sending it to retail?

Whatever the case, as a regular cannabis user I’m very happy there’s no more failed tests! On the wholesale Kush Marketplace we are absolutely seeing a high demand for pesticide tested products from extraction material to packaged flower, and most of all with distillates. If you have flower, or distillates you’re trying to sell, a pesticide test will maximize its value especially in the current market!

New Pesticide Regulations for Washington

On of the biggest changes recently in Washington cannabis regulation was handed down last week. Read the Full Bulletin Here from the WALCB.

For the specifics you’ll want to read the bulletin, but in short, 17 pesticides have been removed from the list of approved pesticides, while 19 different pesticides were added. According to the bulletin, the 17 pesticides were removed because;


the registrations for their distribution in Washington were voluntarily cancelled, or because the labels were no longer consistent with WSDA criteria.Marijuana growers can continue to use any existing stocks of the 17 pesticides that were removed from the list, but no new product can be purchased.


California Pesticide News

A California cannabis lab director was caught falsifying pesticide test results last month. Sequoia Analytical Labs in Sacramento has been feeling the effect of its director malpractices.

Apparently, this had been going on for some time. Nearly 700 batches ranging over a course of a couple of months were affected by the false pesticide tests, according to Leafly.

In a press release by Sequoia, they stated; During a BCC inspection on Tuesday, November 27, it was discovered that pesticide testing here was not in compliance with BCC Regulations. 22 of the required 66 pesticide, primarily, category 2 pesticide, were not being correctly tested due to a faulty instrument. It was further discovered that the Lab Director knew about this and was secretly falsifying the results in order to issue COA’s from July 1 to November 27.

The rest of the press release detailed the termination of the director and the voluntary surrendering of their license to do COA testing. With apologies in hand, they also stated that they will conduct any retesting for affected lots free of charge.  

We saw something similar here in Washington with Peak Analytics. If you are not familiar, a couple of years ago, Peak Analytics had its certification suspended by the LBC for deficiencies in their practices.

According to the auditors, “Peak had an unusually low number of Microbial failures during this timeframe. The failure rate at Peak was approximately 1.69% while the average for the other certified labs was approximately 11% for the same timeframe”. You can read the full audit report here.  

Trusted Vendors Program is in full effect.

By adding our Trusted Vendors logo to your product(s), will give the buyer piece of mind that you and your product(s) can be trusted. This is something that cannot be bought, but earned.

To qualify for the program you will need:

  • 5 deals, or over $30k in sales over the Kush Marketplace with no major issues
  • All of your current Company / Contact info on file
  • Clean payment history, and credit card on file for future billings
  • Clean pesticide test on file (annually)

Sources

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/marijuana/bellingham-pot-lab-peak-analytics-suspended-after-auditors-question-testing-practices/

https://www.leafly.com/news/industry/sequoia-analytics-surrenders-license-for-faking-lab-data

https://www.sequoia-labs.com/



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