CANNABIS CONTROVERSY
Allow me to correct an untrue statement made by Steve Sakala, CEO of Mana Artisan Botanics (“Organic CBD,” Jan. 25, 2018). Sakala’s quote, “Most people don’t realize that the cannabis they get at a dispensary or off the black market is heavily laced with pesticides and fungicides, grown in-organically with chemical fertilizers. Then we’re being told to use that as medicine,” is blatantly false.
Any cannabis or cannabis product purchased from a Hawai‘i-licensed medical cannabis dispensary is required by law [to] be tested and certified by a third-party lab that the product is free of pesticides, fungicides, heavy metals, mycotoxins and all forms of microbial contamination. Certified lab results for each and every product are available for review in any state-licensed dispensary. The State of Hawai‘i has some of the nation’s strictest lab testing standards for medical cannabis.
Conversely there are absolutely no statutory requirements for lab testing of hemp-derived CBD products sold in stores or online. A recent study by Penn Medicine, published in the Journal of American Medicine in November, found that nearly 70 percent of CBD products sold over the counter are inaccurately labeled. The study’s lead author Marcel Bonn-Miller, PHD believes this is a direct result of inadequate regulation and oversight of the hemp extract industry.
Before consuming any hemp-derived CBD product consumers should confirm the source of that product and be able to review certified lab test results substantiating the product’s purity and content. This is especially crucial for people with compromised immune systems.
Maui Grown Therapies cultivates its cannabis in Upcountry Maui using organic inputs and methods. We grow off-the-grid with solar power and our plants drink recaptured, purified condensate water. Every product we sell is lab-tested and quality-assured.
-Teri Freitas Gorman, Director of Community Relations & Patient Affairs, Maui Grown Therapies
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FIRST TIME WE’VE EVER BEEN COMPARED TO A DICTATOR
I passed on picking up an issue of MauiTime this week because I honestly felt that the disturbing cover-page of a tropical view of a nuclear mushroom cloud was re-traumatizing and unnecessary in so many ways (“Can Hawaii Survive Our Age of Stupid?” Jan. 18, 2018). If anything, it felt thoughtlessly and heedlessly thrown together. To say nothing of its regurgitation online.
Our people and visitors were brutalized emotionally for those long, long minutes and, even now, people are telling me they still feel remnants of fear and alarm in their bodies and memories.
Your cover image, in my view, heartlessly exploited everyone’s fears. Stacks of issues out there for children to see and read as well. It is reprehensible and shows a clear lack of considered decision-making in the extreme by your paper.
I ask that you all consider more carefully the use [of] such imagery in the future. If there was an editorial meeting and deep discussion of the cleverly photoshopped image prior to publishing, I’m interested in you letting us know what your considered discussion was and to what end.
We all know the State of Hawai‘i has to get its act together when it comes to emergency response systems–Big Time. It was a failure of epic proportions.
But, just think about it: MauiTime went to the easiest, most sensational imagery possible. And this is how autocrats and dictators move the masses. If you can’t inform them, scare them. In the “Age of Stupid,” stupid works both ways.
-Fay Hovey, via email
Photo: LibelSanRo/Pixabay
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