Many cannabis users think of it as a very safe medicine—the side effects are few, the risks are low, and it comes straight from a plant. While this is generally true, cannabis is not without health risks—not because of anything wrong with the plant itself, but because of how it may be grown. Like any other plant, cannabis can be contaminated by bad things in the surrounding air and water, including mold and mildew, mites, bacteria, pesticides, and heavy metals.
Today, we want to take a look at that last one—heavy metals—and explain what it means and why it’s bad for you.
The “heavy metals” that are a risk in agriculture include arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. They get into outdoor plants mostly from pollution and runoff, but they can contaminate indoor plants, too, when growers use fertilizers and pesticides that contain these dangerous metals. What’s so bad about them? Let’s take a closer look:
Arsenic: Arsenic is poisonous to humans and has often been used to commit murder and suicide. In toxic doses, it causes violent vomiting and diarrhea; cold, clammy skin; reduced blood pressure; and eventual death from lack of blood flow. It is a known carcinogen linked to many different kinds of cancer. While we all are exposed to small doses of arsenic all the time, larger doses are extremely dangerous.
Cadmium: Cadmium is a zinc byproduct used in manufacturing. It is extremely toxic and carcinogenic. According to OSHA, cadmium “targets the body’s cardiovascular, renal, gastrointestinal, neurological, reproductive, and respiratory systems.” It gets into the air mostly from burning fossil fuels, and causes lung irritation when inhaled. Large amounts of cadmium can cause kidney disease because the body can’t process it completely.
Lead: Another famous poison, lead can cause extremely serious health disruptions, especially in children, who may experience developmental delays and learning disabilities. In adults, more common signs of lead poisoning include headaches, intestinal distress, joint and muscle pain, and reproductive issues. While it’s no longer used in paint or pencils, lead is still a common contaminant in the air and soil.
Mercury: Organic mercury, which is a byproduct of fumes from burning coal, can cause serious neurological damage, including pain and numbness, tremors, difficulty walking, memory problems, and even seizures.
Of course none of us wants our medicine to be contaminated with these metals, but it can be hard to know if the cannabis you get at the dispensary is free of heavy metals or not. Lack of uniform regulations means that testing requirements vary from state to state. For example, the State of California doesn’t require safety testing, but some municipalities do. Colorado, bizarrely, requires safety and potency testing for recreational marijuana but doesn’t require any cannabis testing for medical marijuana. Washington State requires testing for potency, mold, microbial agents, and heavy metals.
Independent labs dedicated to patient safety have sprung up to fill this void, and high-end cannabis dispensaries only carry products that have been thoroughly tested for potency and safety. But many of these labs stop short of testing for heavy metals.
How do you ensure your medicine is not contaminated with arsenic, cadmium, lead, or
mercury? First, ask your budtender to show you products that have been tested for heavy metals. If none have, maybe you should consider a different dispensary. Second, be aware that concentrates such as wax and shatter are likely to have not only heavier concentrations of THC, but also of heavy metals, so you may be better off with buds/flower. Third, find out what the testing laws are in your state and, if you don’t think they’re good enough, let your legislators know.
Finally, if you need help finding safe cannabis products, set up a consultation with United Patients Group. We have evaluated many cannabis products and selected the very best ones, and we can recommend brands that prioritize safety. Because all patients deserve access to safe cannabis that is free from the risks of heavy metals.
I daresay I cannot comprehend anything more far-fetched or anything higher on the ‘fear-monger’s chart’ than this “essay”. Firstly, if there were to be any heavy metals in the product used, there would hardly be in any significant amount to be found, in reality.
However, you have chosen to ignore a relatively major fact here – Hemp plants de-toxify the earth they are grown in, so YES, they take up toxins, only to trap (encapsulate) them in the root ball> For this reason, hemp plantations are being used in a remediation protocol at & around Chernobyl and likewise (or in the works) for the Fukushima disaster.
… so there!
Dave, i was wondering……perhaps i am just thick because though i do know that hemp is used to clean our earth are you saying that the amount of toxins the roots pick up are not in the leaves so much?……i realize you wrote this over one year ago but i am hoping you can respond. Thank-you so much. Prema
I would have agreed with you until today- my best friend had two seizures last week and was just diagnosed with severe lead poisoning with the probable cause from daily vaping of wax.He will be ok but treatment is harsh like chemo. It’s also possible that the problem is his made in China metal rechargeable vape pen, but these are the only possible lead sources that could be identified.
Thanks for this clear response.
these toxins are found in most nutrients
A somewhat biased & uninformed article , fear mongering is a good description.
To balance things out a bit.
The difference between A Medication & A Poison , is the Dosage Taken.
Also
Different People have Different Reactions to Different Medications.
Ask _any_ Formally Educated Western Doctor their thoughts on the first & the second statements. You shouldn’t get any arguments or disagreements from them , they may ask for clarification to give a more concise answer using their personal opinion & experiences (if allowed) or their “accurate concise” answer will be what they are supposed to say “under company policy”
“Company Policy” will usually stop them from speaking well or even discussing THC based medicines. They may throw in some useful information about smoking being bad for your overall health as well as smoking something is on par with mainlining it.
(I agree with their Company Policy about Smoking being a safe delivery system for Medications)
I can tell you products like beasty bud and other plant chemical enhancers definately put heavy metal into the plant and no matter how you flush it’s in the plant…you smoke it and feel sick after repetitive use…grow organic and buy organic from reputable places…kirk out.
When your bud tastes bitter, stings your tongue, causes you to cough orange syrup and turns your bong water the same color… causes horrible mouth ulcurs, migraine, insomnia etc…. and it came from a reputable dispensary… yah this is real… m-tard deniers aside, please don’t smoke it if it seems off.
The trend lately is gangsters growing weed in warehouses under lights for profit. Lack of sunlight creates conditions that breed spider mites. So they spray banned pesticides that they buy on the black market to save their precious crops. I was poisoned very badly more than once in the past couple of years. I now pay more for hand delivered buds grown under the sun with no sprays. No more dispensaries with their poisoned products. Next you will hear in the controlled media that marijuana is causing cancer, but it will be the insecticides.
I agree that the quality of weed is getting worse now that the economy has blow up with it. everyone wants to get that money but has no idea about plants or make to grow them. people that use huge ppm’s in hydro , people that use soil less mixes that fertilize 4 days in a row for one day of water. the heavy metals in that product are going to be huge . yes there are metals in some of the foods we eat and those are not good either but better than being inhaled . a very big difference. (i havent eaten sea food in over ten years to concerns over it being contaminated as well) i have seen with my own eyes of people that live on farms and make there own soil with the compost and get 3 lb plus plants . no work of feeding , or paying for anything . that is the way to go unless you are thick in the head. just need land and a farm :)