Article content

Health Canada recently unveiled a new regulatory regime that will impose extensive and mandatory pesticide testing requirements on all licensed producers (LPs) of cannabis. Come Jan. 2, LPs will have to send product samples to independent laboratories, where they will be screened for almost 100 active pesticide ingredients before they can be sold.

It’s a marked change from the early days of legal medical cannabis, when LPs were forbidden from using most pesticides on their products, but faced no obligation to test for their presence. Most of the eight sources interviewed praised Health Canada’s move as a necessary one, given the industry’s history with pesticides.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or New federal regulatory rules around cannabis, pesticide use welcomed Back to video

“My opinion is that the industry, on the whole, is trying to do a good job,” says John Coleman, co-founder and president of cannabis testing lab Anandia Laboratories. “The problem is, you’re going from essentially a completely illegal industry to one that is legal and highly regulated, and it’s a transition. Getting rid of some of the bad habits is going to take a bit of time,” Coleman suggests.