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Advocates have lobbied states with medical marijuana laws to mandate lab tests for a range of impurities and even potency, arguing that consumers deserve detailed information about the drug before consuming it. Oregon is among only a handful that require cannabis testing.

(Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian )

Oregon’s new law creating a registry of medical marijuana dispensaries comes with a key provision aimed at protecting patients: cannabis sold in these establishments must be tested for pesticide, mold and mildew.

The requirement represents the latest frontier in states’ evolving approach to regulating marijuana. Twenty states, and Washington, D.C., allow marijuana for medicinal use, but Oregon is among only a handful that require cannabis testing. Nationally, advocates have lobbied states with medical marijuana laws to mandate lab tests for a range of impurities and even potency, arguing that consumers deserve detailed information about the drug before consuming it.

“These states are at the vanguard of doing stuff that I think in 5 or 10 years will be absolutely de rigueur, absolutely standard fare,” said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or

, the country’s oldest marijuana advocacy organization. “They show the maturation of the industry.”

The 13-member committee charged with drafting rules for Oregon’s House Bill 3460

. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. in hearing room F at the Oregon State Capitol. The panel, a mix of advocates, lawyers, law enforcement officials and state administrators, has an agenda packed with thorny legal and technical issues as the state figures out how to regulate Oregon’s already booming medical marijuana retail industry.

The committee is expected to wrap up its work by Dec. 1.

Tom Burns, the committee facilitator who oversees the state's pharmaceutical drug program, asked the Oregon Department of Agriculture for advice on how to proceed with crafting testing standards. Theodore Bunch, coordinator of the state’s Pesticide Analytical and Response Center, is heading up that effort and expects to report to the committee on Friday.

Among the issues being considered: How often should marijuana be tested and who should perform the tests? Should third-party labs or the dispensaries themselves perform the tests? Should labs have to register with the state? Should those conducting the tests be required to undergo criminal background checks, similar to the ones required of dispensary owners? What standards should the labs follow? Are any levels of mold, mildew and pesticide acceptable?

Also, Burns wondered, should the results simply be posted alongside the drug or should the state prohibit marijuana contaminated with pesticide from being sold?

“This testing thing is really going to be very complicated,” he said.

Marijuana’s outlaw status under federal law complicates states’ efforts to draft testing rules. For instance, there aren’t any pesticides registered for use on cannabis since it’s illegal federally. And unlike labs that test for water quality or other environmental concerns, those that focus on marijuana testing don’t fall under any national accrediting body.

Whether to allow pesticide use at all when cultivating marijuana is a key question for Oregon policy makers, said Bunch. The long-term health implications of pesticide, mold and mildew exposure from smoking marijuana aren’t known, he said.

“From an inhalation standpoint, I don’t believe there are any tolerances or benchmarks that say this level of mold is acceptable or this level of mildew is acceptable,” Bunch said. “There aren’t standards out there in that regard."

Maine allows what it deems as low-risk pesticides in the cultivation of medical marijuana. The state plans to conduct annual, unannounced tests of marijuana and last week collected its first sample, said Joan Smyrski, assistant director of community services for the Maine Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services.

If the state receives a complaint about possible pesticide use on marijuana sold at one of Maine's eight dispensaries, officials inspect the establishment and conduct tests, Smyrski said.

Cannabis testing has emerged as a cottage industry nationally in the past couple of years. Oregon is home to a few testing companies, though they are not regulated by the state. Marijuana’s tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, potency is often listed alongside the drug in Oregon’s medical marijuana retail outlets, which have proliferated without state permitting or oversight. It’s less common to find a detailed analysis of pesticides used in growing the plant and whether it’s contaminated with mold, mildew or harmful bacteria, such as salmonella.

Rowshan Reordan, owner of

, a marijuana testing business in Portland, said demand for testing is on the rise. She employees five people, including a chemist, all of them medical marijuana cardholders.

She said potency tests are the most popular service she offers, but her lab also tests for salmonella, E. coli, mold and pesticides. Marijuana testing labs should have to undergo a certification process, said Reordan.

“A professional lab should have chemist who has the educational background to run the equipment and be able to follow good educational practice,” she said.

, a senior economist at the non-partisan Rand Drug Policy Research Center, has studied medical marijuana laws nationwide, said states are increasingly grappling with how to implement testing requirements.

“It’s very, very odd that we call medical marijuana medical without a clear understanding of what is in the product because we wouldn’t do that for ibuprofen, let alone Vicodin or Oxycodone,” Pacula said. “It’s shocking that it took this long.”

, who works as a medical marijuana industry consultant in Colorado, has lobbied for medical marijuana testing, though she acknowledged that it’s uncommon for people to become sick from marijuana laced with mold, mildew or pesticide.

She also said potency should be a standard requirement given the drug’s potential strength; patients need that information to determine the proper dose, she said.

“When you talk about adult use, you go into a liquor store and the proof is labeled,” she said. She said people who aren’t accustomed to the high THC levels found in some marijuana being cultivated today are at risk if they don’t know potency before taking the drug.

She said marijuana overdose symptoms include anxiety, sweating and nausea.

“Overdose,” Lamoureux said, “will not kill you but it’s highly uncomfortable.”

, a Portland-based advocate for marijuana legalization and host of a talk radio show dedicated to marijuana culture and policy, said testing is important for people who use it as medicine, but he worries the requirement will add to the drug’s price.

“I don’t think patients would be thrilled with it being much more expensive than what they are currently paying,” he said, adding that many patients turn to medical marijuana because they can’t afford the cost of prescription medicine.

Said Belville: “Part of the appeal of medical marijuana is the cost.”

-- Noelle Crombie