A vape pen from Denver-based company OpenVape (Photo via OpenVape)

Denver recalls OpenVape hash oil, pot grown by Strainwise-branded shops

ORGANA LABS PRODUCT STATEMENT

We at Organa Labs are absolutely confident our products are safe.

This belief is based on scientific standards used in our production process, employment of PhDs and engineers who oversee our manufacturing facility, and sale of over three million products without incident.

Yet the Denver Environmental Health department (DEH) has launched a campaign against legal cannabis based on an extremist interpretation of the State’s initial attempt to address pesticide regulation. This campaign threatens all Colorado cannabis consumers and safe access to quality products.

Access to cannabis in Colorado is a Constitutional right based on the voters’ passage of Amendment 64. The DEH action attacks this right, and risks regressing industry back to the black market.

Here are the facts. You decide what’s right.

• In November 2015, after being silent on cannabis pesticide regulation for years, Governor Hickenlooper announced a zero tolerance policy on allowable pesticides. This was done without any scientific basis. No other consumer product has a zero tolerance policy.

• Simply stated, zero pesticide tolerance is an unattainable standard for any consumer product. Yes, there must be conservative limits, but zero tolerance would put all farmers, grocers, food producers, and cannabis companies out of business.

• The unrealistic zero tolerance policy problem is compounded by the fact that there is no state-licensed testing lab that can reliably determine pesticide levels. To date, unlicensed labs have produced wildly different results when testing samples from the very same batch of cannabis products.

With an unattainable tolerance policy and the lack of reliable testing, the uncertified lab chosen by the DEH for testing pesticides determines any sample showing any level of pesticides, even less than one part per billion (PPB), is a public safety hazard. One PPB is the equivalent of one drop of oil compared to the amount of oil contained in the largest full oil tanker truck.

Yet the amount of pesticides allowed for other consumer products is dramatically higher. Consider the tolerance comparison summarized in the chart below:

We at Organa Labs stand with our valued customers and continue to enjoy all our products, confident they are of premium quality and entirely safe to enjoy when used responsibly.

There is no substantiation for claiming a public safety risk and, to our knowledge, has never been a health-related incident from using our products.

We call on the DEH and other governmental agencies to establish and enforce science-based policies and mechanisms that don’t constitute an attack on consumer rights and the legal cannabis industry.

Organa Labs will continue to uphold the highest of product safety and quality standards, and champion investment and development of scientific guidelines for our products, our industry, and our valued customers.