Organic Cannabis Association Offering Pesticide-Free Certification

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The Colorado-based Organic Cannabis Association announced this week that it’s now offering a first-of-its-kind certification for any growers who want to stamp their product as 100% free of residual pesticides.

The process for certification is a voluntary one, and is only immediately available for Colorado companies, according to a press release. But it comes at a time when pesticide-related product recalls have become almost a regular occurrence in Colorado.

For growers interested in the certification, it involves multiple inspections and is “more rigorous than any regulatory framework” currently in place, the release said.

There are three phases to the certification, which begins with an initial site visit along with sampling and testing. Then comes three more site visits along with a formal review of insect and pest management techniques. The certification is issued only after a final review of independent lab results and an audit of pest management methodology.

It’s also not cheap. The price of the certification starts at $5,000 for a tier one grower, and scales up from there depending on the size of the grow and how many licenses a single business may have. The full certification process could take anywhere from three to six months, said spokesman Ben Gelt.

The association hopes to set up the same type of certification in other states with legal cannabis markets, possibly in eight months or so, Gelt said.