Experts expect dramatic Ore. marijuana price rise in 2016
Experts predict the price of both medical and recreational marijuana will increase dramatically in Oregon next year. It’s all due to new regulations regarding testing cannabis for pesticides.
Cannabis has always been tested for some pesticides.
“There are rules, but they’re vague,” Ellen Parkin, lab director at CannAlytics in Bend, said Tuesday.
They’re vague — and constantly changing.
“It’s been interesting to watch, but also a little bit confusing,” Parkin said. “I’m just hoping we can just finalize this so that I actually know what I need to do for my lab to be up to snuff.”
The Oregon Health Authority has released a list of 59 pesticides that laboratories will have to test for starting in June.
“It was possible for laboratories before to choose a list of pesticides that they knew were not being used by anyone,” said David Farrer, public health toxicologist with the OHA. “They could market themselves to growers as kind of an easy-pass laboratory.”
The changes mean a lot of work for small labs.
“I think they’re going to be great,” Parkin said. “It will put everybody on the same page.”
Health officials believe the changes are necessary because the pesticides can be dangerous.
“We think it’s important, because pesticides can be toxic,” Farrer said. “There are a lot of things we don’t know right now about how much pesticide exposure would come from the use of cannabis.”
State officials announced Monday some of the rules could be implemented as soon as January, which means a race to meet the requirements for small labs in Bend and elsewhere.
To test for all of those pesticides, small labs will have to make some major investments.
“Half-a-million-dollars worth of equipment — that’s a lot of money,” Parkin said.
It’s not just the cost of the equipment. The testing itself is also a lot more time-consuming, and that will drive up prices.
“Right now, compliance package testing in the state of Oregon are typically in the $100 to $175 range (per testing sample),” said Carlos Cummings, vice president at CannAlytics. “My guesstimate would be probably close to a 50 percent to 100 percent markup across the state.”
