32 arrested, face federal charges in illicit marijuana grow site bust

They arrested six people -a Honduran and five Mexican nationals – after finding a grow site on September 30 along the Dolores River corridor in Montrose County, where they collected evidence of at least 1,000 recently harvested pot plants and processed marijuana.

Court documents say a few of those arrested appear to be working for drug trafficking organizations.

LivWell lawyer Dean Heizer said the nine-shop chain no longer uses Eagle 20 EW and added that no consumer illnesses have been linked to marijuana pesticides in Colorado or any other state.

“As such, persons who smoke cannabis that has been sprayed with Eagle 20 inhale … poisonous hydrogen cyanide”, the lawsuit said. Over the past few years, the marijuana industry has gone fairly unregulated on how businesses can grow their plants and what pesticides can and cannot be used, due mostly from industry pressure.

With Colorado state law at odds with the federal prohibition on commercial marijuana growing and sales, the marijuana industry has no clear guidelines on what pesticides are legal and safe to use.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates pesticides, told Colorado and Washington state authorities in June that they could apply to have a few cannabis-related chemicals approved through what’s called a special local need registration.

A report published by The Denver Post suggests that the proposed amendments would force physicians to jump through additional hoops, including upping their game in the area of pain management and testing for pregnancy during the initial exam, in order to continue writing medical marijuana recommendations.

Hays is also a member of the board for the Mesa Conservation District, a branch of the USDA which works under the governance of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Denver authorities in September announced two marijuana recalls for unauthorized pesticide use. This means you have to take and pass a state-mandated course to get an application permit.

The lawsuit is the first of its kind to be filed against a marijuana company over pesticide use and highlights the ongoing debate in Colorado over what pesticides are safe to use on marijuana.

In March, six separate marijuana growing operations were raided by Denver police and fire department officials who quarantined thousands if plants and shut down the operations, citing their use of risky mixes of chemicals-some of them unknown-as pesticide and fungicide. This left Colorado with having to use the Colorado Department of Agriculture to enforce the Pesticide Applicators’ Act.

More information about state (including Colorado) regulation of pesticide use in marijuana cultivation can be found in Beyond Pesticides’ investigative report on the issue, which was published this past spring.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver said in several of the cases, the marijuana was destined for users outside of Colorado.

This article was written by a contributor of Watchdog Arena, Franklin Center’s network of writers, bloggers, and citizen journalists.