In December 2018, Maryland medical marijuana cultivator ForwardGro, LLC was fined $125,000 after state regulators found that employees had been ordered to illegally apply pesticides to cannabis plants on multiple occasions.
The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission – the agency responsible for the regulation of medical marijuana sales and cultivation in the Old Line State – also imposed a two-year probationary period against the company, according to WBAL TV-11. Three former ForwardGro employees at the cultivation location – among the first-ever approved in the state in year – alleged in separate affidavits in July 2018 that they were either instructed to spray plants with pesticides or lie about their alleged usage by others.
At the time, the use of pesticides for medical marijuana cultivation was illegal, according to an MMCC spokesperson. Several medical marijuana establishment industry professionals provided further statements detailing side effects customers had reported after having consumed products alleged to have been grown by the company.
With marijuana still illegal federally, pesticide regulations up to states
Based on the results of the MMCC-led investigation launched in the summer of 2018 after the Maryland General Assembly received multiple sworn allegations regarding unethical pesticide application practices, the commission found that ForwardGro had further violated state rules because some plants were kept in an unsecured area, according to Commission Executive Director Joyce Strand. Some plants were found to have "powdery mildew and unwanted insects" and the facility did not have "proper surveillance," while employees were also alleged not to have used protective equipment when applying the substances, WBAL reported.
The ForwardGro case highlights a larger loophole in the legal marijuana industry that – even to this day – has left the regulation of pesticide application up to state-level regulatory authorities established in states with legalized medicinal or adult-use marijuana.
Because marijuana (the form of cannabis that contains Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active chemical that produces the mind-altering effects) is not federally legalized for any purpose, the federal government does not have oversight regarding pesticide use in legal marijuana cultivation. In the case of Maryland medical marijuana businesses, the responsibility of pesticide enforcement lies with the MMCC and the state's Department of Agriculture, according to the state.
Per Maryland's Natalie M. LaPrade Medical Cannabis Commission Reform Act, cultivators are allowed to use pesticides specified in a list issued by the Maryland Department of Agriculture in conjunction with the MMCC as a result of emergency pesticide application regulations made effective July 6, 2018. In Maryland, more than 100 different pesticides are currently allowed in the cultivation of medical marijuana, according to a list provided on the MMCC website.
Cultivator opposition to pesticides
One former ForwardGro employee revealed in his affidavit that he had been ordered not to talk to a company compliance officer regarding "anything to do with the cultivation process" or pesticide-related matters by a supervisor, according to an article in the Baltimore Sun article released July 9, around when the story first broke. Industry opposition to pesticide use in the cultivation of medical marijuana in Maryland was a relatively new cause when ForwardGro first came under investigation in 2018.
The three former ForwardGro employees who provided affidavits to the Maryland General Assembly did so with the help of : the Maryland Ethical Cannabis Association, a then-burgeoning association of medical marijuana-related businesses in the state. Members of the MECA provided further statements related to their experiences with ForwardGro-cultivated products, including President and Ash+Ember dispensary Co-Owner Ashley Colen, who claimed that several customers reported that they had experienced burning in their eyes and throats after using the products.
Colen stated that she stopped selling the products in question after the customers reported the side effects. As the first company in the state to receive authorization from the MMCC to cultivate medicinal marijuana in 2016, Forward Gro's security team at the time included former Anne Arundel County Sheriff and previous ardent anti-marijuana advocate George Johnson, acting as an advisor.
