The legalization of cannabis in Canada has been quite rough. The efforts to legalize marijuana in Canada has proven that an absence of legislative preparation can affect public health. Health Canada established necessary cannabis testing requirements to observe and limit the use of pesticide within licensed producers. As from 2019, producers in Canada will be required to have a single lab test all products for various pesticides before they are sent to the market.
Before cannabis was legalized in Canada, the medical cannabis regulations of the nation didn’t call for mandatory pesticide testing. Even though licensed medical cannabis producers were banned from utilizing toxic sprays on plants, there was no established system to hold people responsible. Hence, the history of the industry with pesticides hasn’t been valuable, and most Canadians trust that these new testing requirements are necessary.
According to John Coleman, co-founder, and president of cannabis testing lab Anandia Laboratories the overall marijuana industry is trying to do a good job. The issue is based on moving from a completely illegal trade to a legal and highly regulated industry, and it’s a transition. It’s going to take some time to get rid of some of the bad habits.
Lab testing was avoided by most producers some of them voluntarily did it. Some had tested before retaining their licenses after being caught with infected products. According to Jodi McDonald, president and founder of Keystone Labs, these laws will bring equality by bringing everyone to the same standard,
Canada won’t outlaw the use of pesticides like the U.S. who have strict pesticide regulations. Instead, the Pest Management Regulatory Agency has mentioned the type of pesticides allowed. Health Canada also crafted a list of unauthorized active ingredients. If a product surpasses a certain limit in parts per billion, the health department will quarantine the product and start an investigation into the business to discover precisely where and how the contamination resulted. However, if it doesn’t surpass the limit, the product can be sold.
According to the new pesticide law, before meeting testing requirements: “license holders under the Cannabis Regulations must prove that none of the unlicensed pesticide active ingredients, as stated in the Mandatory cannabis testing for pesticide active ingredients-list and restrictions imposed by Health Canada, are utilized in the treatment of their products.”
The issue lies in the fact that some dangerous active ingredients are still allowed to a certain extent. Cannabis laws in California and other U.S. states permit pesticide regulators to operate under the rule that “no pesticide product is federally registered for use on cannabis.”
In the Golden State, some pesticides can legally be used on cannabis if they meet specific criteria. For example, pesticides legally are applied to marijuana under state law if the active ingredient within the spray is not toxic.
In the process of determining the rundown of acceptable sprays in California in comparison to legal pesticides in Canada, a few differences come into play. Firstly, California’s review of licensed pesticide is organic compounds, including neem oil, different beneficial bacterium, rosemary oil, peppermint oil, castor oil, sodium bicarbonate, sulfur and more. Moreover, it doesn’t mention the limit in parts per billion which are being tested.
