The marijuana plant is used for recreation and health purposes across many places around the world. Growers of these plants may not realize that former toxic spills can still be within the soil. The reason for this is during the remediation process of soils not everything is always remediated. It would take tons of money to do such an overburdening process to go through all the land. However, the most toxic areas are considered remediated. This leads us to the prospect of less toxic areas that never were remediated and now come in contact with new growers not knowing the real information about toxic lands and phytoremediation. Before one buys medical or recreational marijuana the plant should be tested. Next time you visit a medical marijuana location or recreational business for these plant products ask if the ground was checked by a professional environmental consultant. If the business says no then do not buy marijuana products from them as the process of growing the plants can become its own phytoremediation and sifting the pollution from the ground into the plant through cation exchange (Roberts, 2017).
In some cases, 1600 times the amount of chemicals were found in marijuana compared to pesticides. The only way to know if the ground has toxic pollution is to send the soil off for testing at an approved Environmental Protection Agency lab (Alternative Daily, 2022). The tests which are conducted through pH meters will indicate acidity but cannot tell what type of pollutant is within the ground. There are a lot of Superfund sites across the United States. It would not be unheard of that leaching could occur from a Superfund site before cleanup started and now be in fields where marijuana is being grown (Lindahl, 2019). At first, there would be no really major effects but over time one could develop cancer or many other diseases attributed to marijuana grown in toxic soil (Solis-Moreira, 2022).
References:
Alternative Daily. (2022). Is Your Marijuana Toxic: Here’s How You Can Tell
Is Your Marijuana Toxic: Here's How You Can Tell (thealternativedaily.com)
Roberts, C. (March 16, 2017). How Cannabis Cleans Up Nuclear Radiation and Toxic Soil.
How Cannabis Cleans Up Nuclear Radiation And Toxic Soil | High Times
Lindahl, C. (January 18, 2019). Future home of El Monte pot business is contaminated but being cleaned up.
Solis-Moreira. (Feb. 4, 2022). Cannabis farms with heavy metals in soil could be creating toxic marijuana products.
Cannabis farms with heavy metals in soil could be creating toxic marijuana products - Study Finds