Licensed Producers

By Jakob Rodgers, The Gazette

Pueblo is perfectly positioned to corner the outdoor pot market.

Snug in Colorado’s “banana belt,” the city and county enjoy a mix of sunny, warm and dry weather that cannabis plants crave, growers say. Temperatures average more than 5 degrees warmer in Pueblo than in Colorado Springs. And while the rest of the Front Range might get clobbered with snow, Pueblo usually stays warmer and drier.

In Pueblo County — the state’s first to allow outdoor and greenhouse grows — the land is far more affordable than other parts of the Front Range. And unlike other areas of the state — such as the San Luis Valley or the far eastern plains — land can be purchased near a city of more than 100,000 people, complete with an airport and thriving cultural scene.

Pueblo’s recreational and medical marijuana plant count was second only to Denver County in the first half of 2016.

The recreational marijuana industry’s explosive growth “literally saved our construction community” during the latter part of the Great Recession — accounting for more than half of the county’s construction-related revenues over the past three years, said Chris Markuson, Pueblo County’s director of economic development and geographic information systems.

But economic leaders say Pueblo’s recovery is more than just the marijuana boom. The community sought to diversify its economy — having learned 35 years ago the perils of relying on one industry for prosperity — and has been relentless in using taxpayer money to woo aerospace, recreation and renewable energy businesses.

Read the full story on Gazette.com.

This story was first published on Gazette.com

By John Chandler, The Cannabist Staff

Even the best-managed commercial cannabis cultivations must continually worry about, and defend against, pest infestation.

When pests get out of control, it puts more than your high-value cannabis crop at risk. You face the loss of your reputation, as well as potential government intervention, batch failure and product recall. In fact, the cost of remediation for an outbreak is often five or more times greater than preventative care. With a proactive Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program, you can effectively keep pests at bay to avoid economic loss.

As state and federal laws surrounding production of cannabis continue to evolve, low-toxicity approaches such as biocontrols can help ensure both regulatory compliance and safety for consumers and employees. Unlike traditional pesticides, most biocontrols are exempt from federal registration with the Environmental Protection Agency. Biocontrols are largely regulated by state departments of agriculture, so confirm with local regulatory authorities to ensure compliance.

But what’s the best strategy for incorporating a biocontrol program? Is it right for your facility?

What are biocontrols?

Biological controls, also known as biocontrols, are beneficial living organisms such as predatory insects, mites, nematodes and microbes such as certain types of fungi and bacteria that can be applied as a method of controlling pests. When properly utilized, they help with common problems including fungus gnats, root aphids, spider mites, russet mites, whiteflies and thrips.

Beneficials are predators, parasites and/or pathogens that take out pests in various ways:

• Predatory mites that eat other mites and insects, such as A. californicus, A. swirskii and A. andersoni, can be applied preventatively to the crop via breeder sachets — self-contained packages placed within the plant canopy that contain a food source for the predators, allowing them to breed and emerge in a “timed-release” way, minimizing application labor.

• Parasitoid wasps such as Aphidius sp., Encarsia formosa and Eretmocerus eremicus turn aphids and whiteflies into mummies.

• Chrysopa carnea, green lacewing larva, are voracious consumers of many soft-bodied insects at various stages of life, including spider mite eggs.

• Parasitic nematodes (Steinernema sp. and Heterorhabditis sp.) and entomopathogenic fungi (Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae and Paecilomyces fumosoroseus) invade the bodies of many insect pests, using their host as a breeding ground.

Large-scale horticultural facilities regularly rely on biocontrols to manage or eliminate pest populations. During a recent visit to a 100-acre field-grown strawberry operation in California, I witnessed a farmer applying Phytoseiulus persimilis — a predatory mite — to mitigate a spider mite population. Spider mites are ever-present in commercial agriculture and cannabis, but the use of predatory foliar mites can limit the spread of these pest mites.

When should you use beneficials?

Biocontrols are not the answer to every problem. They certainly won’t bail you out of web-covered colas in week seven. They must be used proactively. The idea is to maintain low levels of beneficials to watch over the crop, constantly searching for pests. If you have breeder sachets of A. californicus in your plants and a government inspector inadvertently brings in a couple spider mites while on a site visit, you won’t even know, because the californicus will take them out before they become a problem. The same goes for other pests. Once a large population of pests is established, beneficials can’t keep up with exploding populations. A knock-down spray treatment is necessary in these cases, with mild pesticides that won’t carry a residual effect that would prevent the next release of beneficials from taking hold. Horticultural oils are a good choice for this sort of knock down.

This breeder sachet contains A. californicus predatory mites. (Courtesy of Urban-Gro)

A couple of my favorites

The parasitic nematode, a nearly microscopic worm called Steinernema feltiae, is one of the most effective ways to handle those pesky, persistent fungus gnats. Steinernema, applied through irrigation or a “sprench” (spray/drench) actively search for fungus gnat larvae. They enter the pest larvae through a natural opening and reproduce inside, effectively killing the larvae. Steinernema, like many biocontrols, need to be applied fairly frequently. They can be a very cost-effective solution. As an added benefit, they also infect thrips larvae, so you have an added layer of protection from those pests.

Phytoseiulus persimilis, commonly known as persimilis, is a voracious predatory mite that will consume all life stages of spider mites. They can eat up to 20 eggs or five adults a day. Thanks to their appetite and rapid reproduction, they are known to completely eradicate mite populations. I like using them in the plant clone stage to ensure you are going into early flower without spider mites. They can also be used to suppress small outbreaks. Many large cannabis and tomato greenhouses receive weekly shipments to spread in specific areas that are getting out of control.

What went wrong?

I’ve heard a number of growers say they haven’t had luck with bios in the past. This can be due to a number of reasons. Incorporating a biocontrol program can be tricky, but they certainly can work with some attention to detail.

First, since bios are normally overnight-shipped from manufacturers, make sure they have arrived alive. When you have received a shipment, carefully inspect the organisms with a hand lens. Reputable beneficial manufacturers should replace them if you let them know of problems immediately upon delivery. A package of beneficial nematodes should smell earthy when fresh, not like decaying matter. Use a microscope to ensure viability of nematodes.

Second, if there have been toxic and persistent pesticides used in an indoor facility in the past months or even years, residue may still be lingering that would prevent the beneficials from establishing and effectively controlling pests. Specifically, miticides like abamectin (Avid) are highly persistent indoors. Check with your supplier for specific concerns about pesticides.

Third, you should start small and incorporate bios into a small portion of your facility. Carry a hand lens and monitor the effectiveness of your releases. Beneficials can be very hard to see cruising in the foliage, but if you dedicate a couple hours, you should be able to find them.

No need to avoid beneficials

I’ve seen no ill effects from introducing biocontrols. The beneficial insects released into production facilities are not attracted to the resinous, sticky buds of flowering marijuana plants; they’re attracted solely to pests. In the five years I’ve been managing and consulting for large-scale cannabis facilities, I’ve never gotten a report of any crop damage or failed microbial testing due to beneficials. I’ve also never gotten a report of someone finding beneficials in their finished product.

I’ve also heard many growers say they avoid implementing a biocontrol program due to perceived cost of bios and concern over application details. It is not necessarily more expensive to use biocontrols when factors like employee time, chemical cost and limited working hours (due to restricted entry intervals) are considered.

Many traditional greenhouse growers choose to incorporate biocontrols into their IPM programs because they are in fact good for their bottom line. Also, the value added to chemical-free crops may be extremely critical for some markets. Incidentally, the best bud I’ve smoke recently came from a facility utilizing bios.

Good IPM decisions and implementation of biocontrol programs often require product expertise. When experts collaborate with growers, there do not have to be pest-caused crop losses. Just remember that IPM plans for large-scale cannabis growers should be designed to meet state-specific needs for regulatory compliance.

Do you have a success story using biocontrols effectively in your own commercial facility? Please send me a message via the email in my bio below — I’m intrigued with the variety of unique approaches, and I’m happy to follow up in this forum with an update on biologicals.

By Melissa Sherrard, Civilized

Whether our reasons have been medical, spiritual, or recreational, we’ve been using cannabis as a species for thousands of years. However, it wasn’t until recently that we’ve started to understand how marijuana affects us in so many ways. Here we briefly describe what is known as the endogenous cannabinoid system (or endocannabinoid system) that is present in almost all vertebrates.

Discovered piece by piece since the 1960s, the endocannabinoid system (ECS) works to promote homeostasis, which in a biological sense is stable internal environment despite external fluctuations and circumstances. The ECS is composed of a huge network of receptors throughout much of the body (including the brain and other organs, connective tissues, glands, and the central and peripheral nervous systems) and even though these receptors do different things the aim of achieving homeostasis at every level of the body is always the same.



The ECS does this through a vast system of receptors (the two most well-known are CB1 and CB2) on the surface of cell membranes throughout the body, endocannabinoids created by the body on demand (the two most-studied are anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol), and metabolic enzymes called fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) and monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL) that break down cannabinoids once used. CB1 receptors are predominantly found in the central nervous system, glands, and organs 
while CB2 receptors are mainly found in tissues associated with the immune system. However, it’s believed that the ECS has more receptors than any other system in the human body, and many tissues have both CB1 and CB2 receptors, each providing its own specific action depending on the site.



This account by no means describes all the known nuances of the ECS and the effects it has shown in many physiological functions. The identification of the ECS led us to understand that our bodies harbor a vast biological system made specifically for interactions with active chemical compounds ourselves (endocannabinoids) and similar compounds we find in cannabis plants (phytocannabinoids). To end, it’s no secret that cannabis does unpredictable things to the human body, so there’s no guarantee that activating one’s ECS with marijuana will produce the desired effect, but as our understanding of the way various cannabis strains affect our ECS we can make use of them in the best way possible.

This story was first published on Civilized.Life

By Alicia Wallace, The Cannabist Staff

PUEBLO — If the United States stopped viewing CBD as an illegal substance, it would unlock the marijuana compound’s immense potential as medicine, the “father of cannabis research” said Saturday.

Raphael Mechoulam, a Hebrew University professor and organic chemist with six decades of research on cannabis, was in Colorado to serve as the keynote speaker for the inaugural conference of the Colorado State University-Pueblo’s Institute for Cannabis Research.

“I believe that CBD has to be moved from the highest illegal situation next to heroin, which doesn’t make sense, because it’s not toxic, doesn’t cause any addiction, so it should be moved,” Mechoulam said to The Denver Post and The Cannabist in a brief interview following his speech. “And once it’s moved, more people will be using it. And I hope it will become a major (medicinal) drug.”

Mechoulam’s hour-long speech focused on his research, an extensive collection that includes roughly 400 scientific articles cited nearly 100,000 times. Mechoulam is credited for the discovery of the endocannabinoid system and the isolation, determination of chemical composition and structure, and synthesis of the major cannabinoids – notably CBD, delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabigerol (CBG).

Mechoulam highlighted some of his team’s findings over the years including: delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol was shown to prevent vomiting and other side effects of chemotherapy in children with cancer; hinder the onset of Type 1 diabetes in mice; and serve as an anti-psychotic for patients with schizophrenia.

The research is there and, in some cases, has been there for decades, he said.

Now it’s a matter of somebody putting the findings to use and advancing the science into medicine.

“It should be done … but unfortunately, nothing is happening at the moment,” Mechoulam said.

Clinical trials are costly and those in academia don’t have the ability or the resources to take those next steps, he said, adding that he’s been “waiting for about 10 years” for a pharmaceutical company or other significantly sized entity to conduct a clinical trial on the effectiveness of CBD in the prevention and treatment of Type 1 diabetes.

“It’s a pity because in this particular case, diabetes type 1, it’s not different … in mice and in humans,” he said. “So here we’re missing something. I hope, one of these days, somebody will do a clinical trial and show, I hope, that one can treat diabetes type 1 with cannabidiol with essentially no side-effects.”

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials consider cannabidiol (CBD) and other marijuana extracts as Schedule I substances, the strictest of the classifications; however, that policy position is being challenged in an ongoing federal appeals court case.

The newly formed Institute of Cannabis Research’s three-day conference attracted 550 attendees from 10 countries and 21 U.S. states. The event’s discussion panels spanned an array of topics such as research, taxation, real estate, medicine, health and business.

This story was first published on DenverPost.com

By Linley Sanders, The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa — A medical marijuana oil program approved by the Iowa Legislature might not offer much help to patients with qualifying medical conditions, but advocates say it’s at least a step in the right direction.

The measure approved by lawmakers in the final hours of the legislative session Saturday would expand a little-used program now only available to people with epilepsy. If signed by Gov. Terry Branstad, the law would allow the limited production of cannabis oil at two locations in Iowa and legalize its use for an additional eight conditions.

Despite the expansion, medical marijuana advocates said the decision to cap the level of the active ingredient and limit the means of ingestion means the program has limited value.

Sen. Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, called the program “the worst in the country.”

“For people who were opposed to doing anything, I suppose they think this is a big deal,” he said. “But the fact of the matter is that they shouldn’t have put all the conditions in the bill because the medicine isn’t going to provide a therapeutic benefit for eight of the nine conditions, and that’s sad.”

Besides prohibiting smoking, vaporizing or consuming marijuana edibles, the bill limits the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, allowed in the oil to 3 percent. THC is the compound known for psychoactive effects, and by capping it at 3 percent advocates said it limits the oil’s potential to help conditions besides seizures.

Some programs, mainly in conservative states, have caps with even smaller percentages of THC.

Only 38 people have medical cannabis cards under Iowa’s current system, which makes it illegal to manufacture or distribute the oil. It’s unclear how many more would enroll if the new program is signed into law.

Sunil Kumar Aggarwal, a doctor researching cannabinoid medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, said some conditions besides seizures could benefit from low-THC oil, but that the benefit is less certain because of the cap.

“It’s an extremely non-scientific regulatory framework for cannabis,” he said. “It’s all politics. This is no way to do medicine.”

Rep. Jarad Klein, a key supporter of the legislation, said the program’s limitations stem from the hesitation of House Republicans to legalize any form of marijuana.

“A lot of my caucus said ‘We don’t feel comfortable with this issue at all,’” Klein said.

The bill would also create an advisory board to recommend changes to the cannabis oil program, though Iowa lawmakers would have the final say.

Klein acknowledged an interest in potentially raising the THC level above 3 percent if the medical board recommends it.

“A lot of this boils down to a compromise, and this is not necessarily … my personal ideal,” he said. “I had to get something I knew we could pass and that I have a high confidence the Governor will sign.”

The conditions covered in the expanded program include: cancer; multiple sclerosis; seizures; HIV or AIDS; Crohn’s disease; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Parkinson’s disease; untreatable pain; and any terminal illness with a life expectancy of under a year.

The Marijuana Policy Project, a national lobbying organization, said 29 states have comprehensive medical marijuana programs, while 16 offer cannabidiol extract with minimal THC. By the group’s standards, Iowa falls in the second category and is not considered to have a “workable” medical marijuana program.

“It will certainly be beneficial to those suffering from seizure disorders, no question,” said Maggie Ellinger-Locke, legislative counsel for the organization. “But the THC cap will leave most patients behind.”

Nonetheless, Iowa Epilepsy Foundation director Roxanne Cogil praised the overall effort.

“We feel this is a significant step forward to ensure meaningful access for Iowans,” she said. “We do look forward to continue to working with legislators to help improve the program.”