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Majority of Hawaii’s Black Market Marijuana Is Contaminated

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Steep Hill Hawaii has been testing samples of black market marijuana. In those samples, 50-percent came back showing contaminants such as yeast, pesticides and mold. Patients purchasing from the black market should be very cautious.

Steep Hill Hawaii used black market (homegrown) samples to prove the efficiency of its equipment to the Department of Health during its approval process, according to Hawaii News Now. The humidity in Hawaii can cause issues for homegrowers. Several factors play a role in how contaminants are detected in marijuana.

Michael Covington of Steep Hill Hawaii said, “I personally was shocked to find out how much stuff was in black market cannabis that you would never expect. E.Coli, which comes from fecal matter. Salmonella, which comes from raw egg and chicken. We found that on product we tested.”

Covington said, “The dispensaries weren’t open so we had to go to the black market to try to find cannabis that was clean. In doing that, a lot of times we ran across contamination in people’s samples.”

Patient Teri Heede had to throw out all of her plants recently. Heede doesn’t use pesticides or herbicides on her plants.

She said, “I had to rip them out. The weather has been really bad. There was mildew, mold, whatever is growing. I’ve lost all my plants. All my adult plants are gone, and now I have to look at a way to replenish them. And that’s problematic.”

When Heede is out of medicine, she goes to other patients before going to a dispensary. According to her, dispensary prices are too high. When seeking out other patients to obtain medicine from, she looks for those with the same growing practices she uses.

Heede said, “I would go to somebody who either has some tested stuff or someone I know who grows identically to what I do. That’s why a lot of patients hang together.”

Hawaii has some of the strictest regulations and guidelines in the country. What’s made available to patients in dispensaries may be a little more expensive, but they’re shown to be very clean from lab testing results.