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Pure Green is one of the latest medical marijuana facilities to open in Oregon. The Northeast Portland outlet will sell medical cannabis to patients. Some medical marijuana advocates worry the new guidelines for testing will be hard for the industry to meet.

(Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian)

Some medical marijuana advocates worry the latest draft of state rules for retail outlets includes testing standards for pesticides, mold and mildew that may be difficult to meet.

Concerns about the standards come as the Oregon Health Authority lays the groundwork for registering medical marijuana facilities on March 3. Those retailers will operate at first under temporary rules that spell out security and testing requirements. The state will hold hearings on the rules before they are finalized later this year.

Oregon is among about a dozen states with testing requirements for medical marijuana. Advocates here sought the requirement, arguing that patients with weak immune systems, cancer and other serious illnesses should be assured that the drug they are using isn’t tainted with pesticides and mold.

Gov. John Kitzhaber, in signing House Bill 3460 into law last summer, reinforced that message when he set patient safety as a goal for the committee crafting the new rules.

Under state law, medical cannabis that’s sold in retail outlets in Oregon must be tested for mold, mildew and pesticides. Marijuana that doesn’t meet the state’s requirements must be returned to the person who originally brought it to the dispensary.

Though not required by law, the rules say that cannabis be tested for tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, levels. THC is the property that gives users a high. The state also requires that medical marijuana be tested for cannabidiol, or CBD, which is not psychoactive and is often sought after by patients for its therapeutic value.

The latest version of the rules prohibit pesticides commonly used on certified organic plants and even soap on medical marijuana sold in facilities. The rules also significantly lower the acceptable level of mold and mildew on medical cannabis.

Todd Dalotto, a Corvallis-based horticultural researcher, served as a member of the advisory committee that helped draft the rules. Dalotto said he's "concerned and alarmed" by the latest draft.

Dalotto, chairman of the state’s Advisory Committee on Medical Marijuana, said Oregon Health Authority officials previously committed to using a recently issued compendium of scientific and technical information about cannabis produced by the American Herbal Pharmacopeia as a guide for testing standards. Washington state, which requires that recreational marijuana be tested, is using the document as a basis for its testing standards.

The latest version of Oregon’ s rules are based instead on the U.S. Pharmacopeia, which Dalotto said applies mostly to “highly refined, purified and synthetic pharmaceutical drugs.” Its standards for mold and mildew are too stringent for cannabis, said Dalotto, who called it a “very inappropriate reference for any herbal product.”

“My concern is that the only forms of cannabis that will meet these standards are the prescription forms of synthetic THC that are already available,” he said.

The latest version of the rules defines pesticides to mean “any substance or mixture of substances, intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any pests.” Dalotto said the broad definition extends to chemicals and products deemed safe for organic plants.

“That means when we do a mold inspection on a seedling, if we see soap residue, which is very common and very safe and very important to use, then we have to reject it because it falls under the definition of a pesticide,” he said.

The rules require that labs test for four broad categories of pesticides, replacing an earlier version that included 20 pesticides. Matthew Combs, who works for Oregon Growers Analytical, a new medical marijuana testing lab in Eugene, said those categories leave out pesticides commonly used by cannabis growers.

“I didn’t understand the reason behind changing the rule from one that addressed the industry as it actually functions to one that does almost nothing to actually protect Oregon cannabis patients from harmful pesticide levels,” said Combs.

But Rowshan Reordan, owner of Green Leaf Lab in Portland, said the rules cover a lot of pesticides “that growers are using.” She called the requirements “a good starting point.”

“What it is going to do is allow for more transparency and protection than we have ever had before and it allows for cost-effective testing,” she said.

Tom Burns, who’s overseen the process for crafting dispensary rules, said the requirements will evolve once the program is up and running.

Figuring out how to test marijuana turned out to be the toughest issue the rules committee grappled with, he said.

“There are no standards by which we test cannabis,” said Burns, director of the state's pharmaceutical drug program. “They just don’t exist. It’s such a brand new industry that we could not find any standard anywhere that we could easily hold up and say, ‘This is what is going on in the world of cannabis.’”

As growers adapt and the industry evolves, the list of pesticides required for testing will change, said Burns.

“To go live, we needed something that everyone could gear up for,” he said.

Nole Bullock, who operates Cherry City Compassion Center in Salem, said he started testing the medical marijuana in his shop two months ago. He passes testing-related costs onto the medical marijuana growers supplying the center, a move that drove away the "small craft grower."

Growers who supply medical marijuana facilities typically get between $1,800 and $2,000 a pound, dispensary operators said.

“We lost probably 25 percent of our producers,” said Bullock, who sat on the rules committee. “They didn’t want to bear that cost and we aren’t willing to push that cost to the consumer.“

Medical marijuana consumers, he said, are generally willing to pay about $225 to $250 an ounce.

“There is only so much the consumer is willing to pay in Oregon,” he said.

-- Noelle Crombie