Oregon stops sales of Guardian Mite Spray after lab finds contamination
The Oregon Department of Agriculture stopped sales of a pesticide statewide Feb. 5, a follow-up from the mid-January report that a private laboratory testing cannabis found an active ingredient that wasn’t listed on the pesticide label.
The lab, Oregon Growers Analytical of Eugene, found a commonly used insecticide, abamectin, in Guardian Mite Spray. Its label says its active ingredients are cinnamon oil and citric acid, and that it is 100 percent natural, according to the ag department.
The insecticide was found on cannabis intended for eventual use by medical marijuana patients.
In January, the ag department took Guardian off the list of products approved for use on marijuana while it investigated. Washington and Colorado, which like Oregon have legalized marijuana, followed suit. Oregon’s stop-sale order, issued last week, is the regulatory hammer.
The order means people can’t sell, buy, use or distribute the Guardian pesticide until the ag department and fellow regulatory agencies such as the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and the Oregon Health Authority take a closer look. In Oregon, it’s against the law to adulterate a pesticide product, misbrand it and make false or misleading claims about it, according to the ag department.
The stop-sales order is vindication for Rodger Voelker, Oregon Growers Analytical’s lab director and a former ODA chemist.
Sensing an economic opportunity as Oregon and other states moved to legalize pot for medical and recreational use, Voelker and others joined Executive Director Bethany Sherman in founding the testing lab in Eugene about 2 1/2 years ago.
Voelker said he began finding abamectin in cannabis samples in October 2015, and again in November and December. Some growers went ballistic when he told them, and insisted the lab made a mistake or introduced the contamination itself.
“I was pulling my hair out,” Voelker said. “Could we be doing something wrong in the lab?”
But the growers with problems had been using Guardian. When he tested the product directly, Voelker found abamectin as an active ingredient. “Sure enough,” he said.
Voelker said Eugene-area pot growers have a strong organic ethic, and want to use natural products such as Guardian claimed to be. It seemed to work “amazingly well,” he said, and word spread.
He reported his findings to the Department of Agriculture, which seemed skeptical at first, but removed Guardian from the list of approved pesticides as it began its own investigation. Two and half weeks later, the department confirmed Voelker’s findings and issued the stop-sale order.
“They did a great job of moving on it,” Voelker said. “That is the government working at record speed.”
Voelker said pesticide testing is complicated, and state employees understand the potential liability involved. “You’ve really got to get this thing right.”
Guardian Mite Spray is made by All In Enterprises, Inc. of Machesney Park, Ill. The company could not be reached for comment, but a man who identified himself as the owner spoke to The Oregonian/Oregonlive.com in mid-January. The news outlet reported the man said he wasn’t aware he had to list all active ingredients on the label.
Voelker, of Oregon Growers Analytical, said that explanation doesn’t make sense.
It’s unclear whether abamectin poses a health hazard to people who may have smoked it or consumed it in other forms. It is highly toxic by itself, but most formulated products containing it are of low toxicity to mammals, according to a pesticide profile developed by Cornell University.
http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/24d-captan/abamectin-ext.html