{"id":64694,"date":"2019-10-15T19:01:45","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T01:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/denver-cannabis-recall-reaches-durango\/"},"modified":"2019-10-16T01:01:45","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T01:01:45","slug":"denver-cannabis-recall-reaches-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/denver-cannabis-recall-reaches-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver cannabis recall reaches Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Cannabis
Cannabis products are being pulled from shelves across the state, including four shops in Durango, after it was learned some products from a Denver-based marijuana cultivator had elevated yeast or mold counts.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

At least four Durango cannabis companies may have pulled dried flower product from their shelves this week after a cultivator recalled \u201cdry marijuana plant material\u201d found with \u201celevated yeast or mold counts,\u201d according to a Denver-based public health agency.<\/p>\n

A public release from the Denver Department of Public Health & Environment said 144 retail cannabis stores, 11 manufacturing facilities and three cultivation companies around the state may have received \u201cflower, shake, trim and pre-rolls\u201d that \u201cwere evaluated and contained potentially unsafe levels of yeast\/mold\u201d from Denver-based Bonsai Cultivation<\/a>, according to the release.<\/p>\n

Yeast and mold can grow on cannabis in damp conditions and create toxins that can be lethal, according to the Cannabis Industry Journal. \u201cOnce a patient smokes and\/or ingests cannabis with mold, the toxins and\/or spores can thrive inside the lungs and body<\/a>,\u201d according to the media organization.<\/p>\n

The four Durango dispensaries listed in a release about the recall include:<\/p>\n

Colorado Grow Co., 965\u00bd Main Ave.<\/em>Durango Organics, 37 County Road 232.<\/em>Durango Rec Room, 145 E. College Drive.<\/em>Mountain Annie\u2019s, 1644 County Road 203.<\/em>Pat Dalton, owner of the Durango Rec Room, said his business sold Bonsai Cultivation products but did not receive any of the batches listed in the Bonsai Cultivation recall. \u201cWe were lucky,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Durango Rec Room, since it opened about five years ago, has not had to destroy or return product because of contamination, Dalton said. Part of the reason he hasn\u2019t received a bad batch is luck, he said, but much can be attributed to regulations and regulators.<\/p>\n

Colorado has some of the strictest regulations for marijuana grows and sales in the country, Dalton said. The rules keep cannabis business owners \u201con their toes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cColorado has got this stuff buttoned down,\u201d Dalton said. \u201cThey keep a really, really close eye. That\u2019s why we haven\u2019t gotten bad product \u2013 they do it right. Colorado doesn\u2019t mess around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado Grow Co. declined to comment; a manager at Mountain Annie\u2019s referred The Durango Herald<\/em> to corporate headquarters in Ridgway, which did not respond to a request for comment; and Durango Organics representatives were unavailable Tuesday for comment.<\/p>\n

Richard Pruckler, a supervisor with the Denver Department of Public Health & Environment, said the food and cannabis regulators at the city agency work closely with state employees to enforce rules and ensure contaminated cannabis stays off the market.<\/p>\n

Colorado rules have evolved since Amendment 64 legalized marijuana statewide, said Pruckler, who has been working with cannabis since 2014. Regulators in early years sought recalls for over-contamination of pesticides, but the trend has since shifted to yeast and mold contamination, he said.<\/p>\n

At least two other Denver-based cannabis companies issued recalls this year because of yeast and mold contamination, according to the Denver Department of Public Health & Environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cannabis industry is very innovative and forward thinking; we have to keep up with them,\u201d Pruckler said. \u201cNew products means new issues, and that means new rules. First, we started seeing pesticides, then we started seeing newer things like novel use, like inhalers and suppositories, the vaping stuff we\u2019re seeing now in the news \u2013 we\u2019re just learning about what\u2019s in those products and it takes time for science and policy to catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

companies received potentially contaminated product<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,135,1611,29,1610],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-64694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-marijuana","tag-medical-marijuana","tag-newsletter","tag-recreational-marijuana"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64694"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=64694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}