Corey Black, owner and founder of Earth Keeper Cannabis in Winthrop, holds marijuana Oct. 16 that was offered to her by a licensed grower. Below it are lab test results showing the cannabis is contaminated with dangerous levels of toxic chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Authorities and dispensary owners fear that toxic cannabis is invisibly entering the medical market, which has little oversight. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
Buy ImagePotentially fatal levels of toxic chemical pesticides and fertilizers were found in several strains of cannabis grown by alleged illicit grow houses that have received legal caregiver licenses.
The tainted cannabis flower is being shopped in bulk to legal medical dispensaries by suspected grow house owners, officials and dispensary workers say.
The Office of Cannabis Policy confirmed giving medical marijuana caregiver licenses to several suspected grow houses. Agency records indicate there may be more than 120 licensed grow houses statewide . Clandestine, illegal cannabis grow houses have become a pervasive problem in rural Maine, with authorities estimating between 100 to 700 single-family homes have been gutted and converted into industrial-scale marijuana farms operated by Chinese transnational criminal groups. About 50 such operations have been raided so far this year.
Toxic pesticides, carcinogenic fertilizers and large black mold infestations have been found in nearly every raided grow house. Related
Read part 1: Illegal grow house operators and their tainted product take refuge in Maine’s legal market
Because Maine’s medical cannabis market lacks mandatory chemical testing or inventory tracking requirements, officials warn that toxic grow house weed could be invisibly entering Maine dispensaries entirely legally.
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“OCP remains concerned about illicit actors and illicit behaviors taking refuge in the medical cannabis program,” the agency’s media relations director, Alexis Soucy, said in a statement. ‘THAT STUFF IS DANGEROUS’ Several medical cannabis dispensaries in central Maine are reporting a sudden increase in suspected grow house operators attempting to sell cannabis flower by the pound for suspiciously low prices.Corey Black, the owner and founder of Earth Keeper Cannabis in Wilton, reported three such instances between Oct. 4 and 9 to the Office of Cannabis Policy.Security camera footage from the store […]
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