New measures put in place by Health Canada
to screen medical marijuana companies for contaminants have turned up
further problems in the industry, with the discovery of a banned
pesticide at Hydropothecary Corp.
The
company, one of more than three dozen federally licensed cannabis
producers, was told by Health Canada on Monday that leaf samples taken
during an inspection of its Gatineau facility contained myclobutanil.
The chemical, which is used to kill mildew, is a known carcinogen that
is strictly prohibited for use on plants that are smoked because it
produces hydrogen cyanide when heated.
“Earlier this year, Health Canada
announced it would begin conducting random testing of medical cannabis
products for the use of unauthorized pest control products to provide
added assurance to Canadians that they are receiving safe,
quality-controlled product,” Health Canada said in a statement Tuesday.
“The
first results of this random testing were received yesterday and have
identified low levels of myclobutanil, a pesticide that is not
authorized for use on cannabis.”
Hydropothecary
has halted all sales and shipments to customers while it investigates
the problem. The company told The Globe and Mail it will be screening
all of its products for safety in the coming days and making those
results public on its website.
“This is
an evolving matter and we are working closely with Health Canada to
determine the next steps,” said Shane Morris, Hydropothecary’s
vice-president of quality assurance and scientific affairs.
Mr.
Morris said the problem was discovered in trimmings taken from some of
the company’s mother plants – which are used to produce offspring plants
that are harvested. Hydropothecary is now testing its offspring plants
to see if they also contain the chemical. Mr. Morris said the company
does not know how the banned pesticide got into the plants in question,
and that will also be a subject of the investigation.
Though
harmful chemicals are a known problem in the black market, this is the
fourth time in less than six months that the government-regulated sector
has been hit with a tainted cannabis problem.
Mettrum Ltd., Organigram
Inc. and Aurora Cannabis Inc. each announced recalls in December because
of chemicals such as myclobutanil and bifenazate, an insecticide. Both
can lead to serious health problems if inhaled directly into the lungs.
The
discovery of myclobutanil at Hydropothecary indicates heightened
scrutiny by Health Canada, though, since the regulator had previously
not been testing companies for banned chemicals and had essentially left
the industry to police itself.
But
after the recalls, Health Canada announced in January it would begin
randomly testing producers.
The department has so far conducted seven
unannounced inspections of licensed producers, Health Canada said, and
these results are the first of that effort.
The
amounts of myclobutanil evident in the Hydropothecary tests are smaller
than the problems that triggered the Organigram, Mettrum and Aurora
recalls, which involved myclobutanil levels of up to 20 parts per
million (ppm).
According to Hydropothecary, Health Canada’s tests found levels of myclobutanil of 0.023 ppm and 0.012 ppm.
Mr.
Morris said Hydropothecary had been proactively screening its products
for pesticides down to a level of 0.05 ppm, which was a policy it
introduced a few months ago after the industry met with Health Canada,
and had found no problems. However, Health Canada’s test results show
the regulator is testing for even smaller amounts of banned chemicals
than companies are, indicating the government is clamping down.
It
is unclear whether Hydropothecary will issue a product recall in the
days ahead. Mr. Morris said that determination has not been made.
When
the three recalls came to light in December, Health Canada and some of
the companies involved said the levels found (of up to 20 ppm of
myclobutanil) were “trace” amounts and that consumers were at low risk
for health problems.
But a top U.S.
toxicologist disputes that assessment, noting that “trace amount” isn’t a
scientific term, and is often used subjectively to play down any
problems. Minute levels of chemicals can have dangerous effects on the
body, said Dr. Warren Porter, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Another expert told The Globe that levels above 1 ppm are not considered
trace amounts.
Because myclobutanil is
approved for use on some food crops, such as grapes, the medical
marijuana companies involved in the recalls have told consumers it is
not harmful. Toxicologists say those statements are misleading, since
pesticides are designed to be metabolized by the digestive system.
When
smoked, they enter the bloodstream directly through the lungs without
being broken down.
In fact, the effects
of inhaling myclobutanil through smoking have never been studied and
its manufacturer, Dow AgroSciences, said in January it has no intention
to seek such approval for the product.
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