Colorado regulators now concede that so much contaminated marijuana has made its way to the state's retail shops that they must create a surveillance program for off-the-shelf testing of products to protect consumers.
"We know that there are contaminated products that are targeting consumers," said Heather Krug, a regulatory programs branch chief at the laboratory at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, adding that state health recall advisories confirmed problems exist with current safety protocols.
Krug made her statement during a meeting of the Science and Policy Forum work group, a state advisory committee for the marijuana industry, co-hosted last Friday by Colorado's Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) and the state health agency.
During the meeting, she and Kyle Lambert, deputy director of MED, unveiled plans by state regulators to create a new testing program for products in marijuana shops. The announcement of a plan for off-the-shelf testing follows an investigative report by The Denver Gazette that found consumer risk due to a safety system riddled with loopholes that marijuana cultivators, testing facilities and manufacturers exploit.
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