What are you smoking?
Pesticide residue in marijuana poses potential health risk
Health experts have raised concerns about marijuana contaminated by pesticides, including products sold through medical-marijuana dispensaries, according to The Huffington Post. Jeff Raber of The Werc Shop, a Pasadena-based lab testing marijuana from California dispensaries, conducted a study that found samples from Los Angeles contained pesticide levels at 1,600 times the legal digestible amount.
Pesticides detected include bifenthrin, diazinon and permethrin, as well as plant-growth regulator paclobutrazol.
The amount of pesticide a smoker absorbed depended on the method of smoking: A hand-held glass pipe caused 60.3 percent to 69.5 percent of chemical residues to be inhaled, while 0.08 to 10.9 percent got through a filtered water pipe.