Batshit Crazy? 2 Dead, 538 Pesticide Tests, and No Real Answers.

By now, you’ve probably heard of the two men who died after contracting histoplasmosis - a fungal infection - linked to the batshit they were using to fertilize their homegrown cannabis.

One even considered sourcing it from his attic (because, of course, that’s the first place you’d look for fertilizer)!

But they weren’t exactly batshit crazy for using bat guano—it's known for its high levels of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all great for plant growth. The real problem? Authors of the original report in the Open Forum Infectious Diseases found that many bat guano products sold online and in stores didn’t bother to warn about the fungal risks or include any ‘handle with care’ instructions.

And while the headlines sure had their fun blaming cannabis for all the shit, we can use this as a wake-up call to see what’s really going down in our weed.

_{(seriously, what sort of clickbait do you think the media legends would use if they were growing… idk, tomatoes?)}

But let’s circle back…

A large part of the pitch for an open, regulated cannabis market was that it would give consumers certified safer products. About that…

According to a Times analysis, more than half of cannabis smoking products in California’s legal market are packed with chemicals that aren’t even being monitored for public safety. Guess someone’s too busy counting their cash to worry about what’s actually our puffs.

💡 You can find the published lab tests results conducted on 150 products circulating the LA market here.

Things are looking rough for farmers trying to deal with aphid infestations and other contaminants. Sisu Extracts, one of California’s largest oil manufacturers, admitted that 60% of the cannabis crops up for sale were packed with pesticides that aren’t even on California’s approved list. They could only offer clean oil to the customers willing to pay extra. Classic.

On top of all this, the DCC (Department of Cannabis Control) is doing batshit all. Six years post-legalization, they claim they’re “committed to safeguarding the public,” but they’re still in the process of setting up a lab that can actually test for these chemicals. Sounds like the ‘legal’ cannabis industry is a toll booth on a road with no traffic lights.

In the meantime ECCO, an industry nonprofit, is stepping up to provide real standards for pesticide testing. They provide “independent, third-party testing and certification to determine compliance and adherence to our safety, quality, and environmental standards.”

So, if you're seeing that stamp of approval, it's probably safe to say your weed isn’t tainted with toxic pesticides (or bat poop). 🌿✅

According to a recent article, prehistoric hunter-gatherers in Ukraine (we’re talking Paleolithic era) may have been feeding, taming, and even sedating mammoths with hemp.

How did the researcher come to this conclusion? Well, it all started with a fragment of an engraved mammoth tusk.

The tusk, covered in long, thin geometric lines and zigzag patterns, led the researcher to draw comparisons to a field near Khmil’na in Ukraine. Closer examination of the markings showed similarities to the hop fields in the area.

Apart from being a very fun part of ‘high history’ these findings could also challenge prehistoric ideals suggesting that our ancients had botanical know-how and experimented with plant-based remedies to manage both their environment and the giant creatures they interacted with. The researcher suggests that “the culture of hemp could have decreased the death rate in young mammoths and radically changed the age profile of the Mezhirich herd”.

That’s it for this week’s puff!

May your holidays be high-spirited and your stress levels down low.

Catch you next week.

– Pothead