The Oregon cannabis industry filed a motion to pause Aspergillus testing for flower citing unjust and unscientific regulatory frameworks. This is a result of an anti-drug organization who funded a genomics testing company to lobby predatory policy to encourage more dependence upon testing equipment and remediation techniques, specifically radiation methods.
This newly required testing is asking the flower that consumers smoke be cleaner than the air anyone is breathing, even sterile hospital environments are not free from Aspergillus. Per the regulation you may test twice (using the testing company’s product), that way if you fail the first time you can remediate and try again. One of the biggest issues is the sample size. This framework asks farmers to test their product multiple times which cuts into their margins that are already razor thin. This disruption is causing operations to shrink or even shut down and a newly unemployed workforce compounded with an already struggling market.
Medicinal Genomics is the company responsible for increasing unemployment, closing down small businesses, and withholding access to medicine for patients in Oregon.
These consequences were funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to lobby in favor of predatory policies in the Oregon cannabis market. This propaganda comes from this testing company who leads with death grips on wonky, unbased science and white papers to spread false rhetoric. Furthermore, they are attempting to steer the international market in the same way by influencing regulations that require more usage and sales of their equipment. 👀
Unfortunately, this is just one example of companies who take the opportunity to produce fear mongering propaganda for financial gain. They don’t contribute to the health and success of the people or products in this market. They only waste resources and decrease the overall quality of the segment guised in concern for consumer safety.
If you do want to read an unbiased paper on how Aspergillus and this science really impacts cannabis, check out the following contemporary data here:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1192035/full#:~:text=Our%20findings%20indicate%20that%20TYM,build%2Dup%20of%20these%20microbes.