Marijuana is often tainted a in sickening way… but states are allowing it to be sold legally anyway

Recent research has found that cannabis products contain alarming levels of dangerous mold – which can make you sick or even kill you, a study has found.

The analysis, which looked at more than two million mold test results from nine states, suggests that contaminated samples are being released for sale and that the monitoring system currently in use is inadequate.

As marijuana sales have increased in states where the drug has been legalized, the dark side of the industry is beginning to surface.

Because marijuana’s moist growing conditions predispose the plant to developing potentially life-threatening fungistates where the drug is legal require testing for the dangerous contaminants.

Yet, due to unreliable monitoring, labs in many states appear to be underreporting contaminant concentrations and still selling the contaminated product, according to the Wall Street Journal, which conducted the study.

Little research has been done on marijuana cultivation, which also means that growers do not have an accurate model to determine the ‘safe’ limit on mold content.

Mold samples taken from marijuana plants. The petri dishes on the left show evidence of Fusarium – a large genus of filamentous fungi that connect the cannabis plant, as well as the toxins they produce

The existing scheme, set at just 10,000 ‘colony forming units’ per gram, was modeled with other crops.

“Growers, labs and regulators appear to be exposing people who use legal marijuana to dangerous contaminants,” Tess Eidem, senior research associate in the Environmental Engineering Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder, told the Wall Street Journal.

“There’s no way to know what’s going on when you get a system that doesn’t follow the rules,” Eidem added.

“We’re running a big experiment without enough knowledge,” said David Miller, a professor who studies mold toxins at Carleton University in Canada.

“Discrepancies between what companies report on packaging and the contents of those products are an example of inaccuracy and fraud in the cannabis testing market,” the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine said in a September report.

Because marijuana’s moist growing conditions predispose the plant to developing potentially life-threatening fungi, states where the drug has been legalized require testing

Marijuana users are nearly four times as likely to become infected with mold as non-users, as the potentially toxic molds are known to cause infections, dangerous immune responses and even death. Pictured: Man exhales smoke while smoking legal weed with a vape pen

Fungi, including Aspergillus and Fusarium, have been linked to the cannabis plant, as well as the toxins they produce. If ingested, such molds can pose serious health risks, especially for people with weakened immune systems.

Marijuana users are nearly four times as likely to become infected with mold as non-users, as the potentially toxic molds are known to cause infections, dangerous immune responses and even death.