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How Colorado Regulates Mold And Pesticides In Marijuana

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8min 25sec
PotZero Gypsum
Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
Cannabis grower Robert Trotter is the founder of a PotZero in Gypsum, an environmentally sustainable ag business with zero carbon emissions.

When you buy food at the grocery store you trust it’s safe — not too many pesticides, and hopefully no harmful bacteria or mold. Can consumers of cannabis have the same confidence when they walk into a dispensary? A Denver cultivator voluntarily recalled product from 144 stores statewide this week. It's the third recall in Denver for mold and yeast contamination in 2019.

Ricardo Baca was the founding editor of “The Cannabist,” at The Denver Post where he reported extensively on pesticides in cannabis cultivation. Now Baca has a PR firm, Grasslands, that works with the cannabis industry. On Colorado Matters, he provides some perspective on how this is regulated when federal agencies can't get involved.