Colorado's governor has ordered the destruction of marijuana treated with unapproved pesticides, more than six months after Denver authorities started quarantining plants tainted by unauthorized chemicals. 
 
 Gov. John Hickenlooper issued an executive order Thursday calling marijuana treated with certain pesticides a "threat to public safety" and said it should be destroyed. 
 
 The order came after The Denver Post reported that pesticides barred for use on cannabis were still being applied and found at high concentrations in products sold to consumers. 
 
 Denver city officials placed thousands of plants on hold last spring after finding they'd been treated with unauthorized chemicals. 
 
 The city has since issued a half-dozen recalls of marijuana products. Other plants have been released back into commerce because residual levels of the pesticides dropped to safe levels. 

 Starting next year, recreational and medical marijuana sold in Oregon must be screened for nearly 60 pesticides commonly used in cannabis cultivation. 
 
 Labs analyzing pesticides will have to be accredited by the state, a rigorous process designed to ensure they are using appropriate equipment and scientific methods. 
 
 Labs, not growers or processors, will be required to take samples from every batch. Marijuana concentrates, which tend to be contaminated at higher levels than flowers, must be tested before they go onto store shelves or used to make edible products. 
 
 And marijuana that tests at levels higher than what the state allows must be destroyed under the watchful eye of a state regulator. 
 
 The new requirements, spelled out in temporary rules issued by the Oregon Health Authority, represent a radical shift in how Oregon addresses pesticide use in the cannabis industry. 
 
 Though Oregon currently mandates pesticide testing for medical marijuana, a combination of lax state rules, inconsistent lab practices and inaccurate test results has allowed pesticide-laced products to enter the medical marijuana market, an investigation earlier this year by The Oregonian/OregonLive found. 
 
 Oregon's new rules - which take effect next June - are designed to protect the health of recreational and medical consumers who smoke, vape, dab and eat the drug, said David Farrer, a public health toxicologist with the health authority. 
 
 The state requirements detail how each batch of cannabis should be tested and tracked, rules that set marijuana apart from other products people consume. 
 
 "Every product that you purchase on the shelf you could trace back to the batch that was tested for pesticide," said Farrer. "That is a tremendous amount of assurance that doesn't exist for any other agricultural product." 
 
 The owners of Dab Society, a Portland-based maker of butane hash oil, said they welcome the new rules. The company changed how it makes its concentrates after The Oregonian/OregonLive's investigation found one of their products, Dutch Treat, was contaminated with multiple pesticides. 
 
 The Real Dope Having trouble keeping up with all the developments as Oregon wades deeper into legal marijuana? Sign up for The Real Dope, a weekly newsletter emailed directly to you every Tuesday from The Oregonian/OregonLive. 
 
 The findings prompted them to slow down production so they could focus on growing their own cannabis, a step that gives them more control over the raw materials going into their products. They've limited the number of growers they work with, relying on just a couple who use only products allowed in organic agriculture, said Michael Thale, one of the company's owners. 
 
 "We are 100 percent advocates for organic-grown cannabis," he said. "I think that's what Oregon stand for and that is what consumers want." 
 
 Jesse Peters, a marijuana grower who owns Eco Firma Farms, said tighter pesticide rules mean growers have to adapt. 
 
 "For a lot of producers," he said, "this could be the end for them or it could mean they choose not to come into the regulated market." 
 
 States where marijuana is legal for medical or recreational use have struggled to address the use of pesticides on cannabis and how to test for them. 
 
 When it comes to pesticides, the label on the container is the law. Labels detail how and when the pesticide may be used and the types of crops the product may be used on. Pesticides allowed on kale or bananas, for instance, might not be allowed on strawberries and spinach. 
 
 No pesticides include marijuana on their labels but that hasn't kept cannabis growers from relying on a wide range of chemicals to defeat a variety of mites, as well as mold and mildew - all of which can render a crop worthless. 
 
 Officials with the Oregon Department of Agriculture on Monday plan to brief lawmakers about their recommendations on pesticides in marijuana production, said agency spokesman Bruce Pokarney. He said the agency has drafted "guidance" for growers, but said top administrators declined to make the information public before Monday's meeting. 
 
 "It's a guideline," he said. "It's not just a list of products." 
 
 State agriculture officials in Colorado and Washington have issued their own lists of pesticides acceptable for use on marijuana. Washington, like Oregon, plans to require routine pesticide testing next year. 
 
 Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, in an executive order signed Thursday, declared "off-label" pesticide use a "threat to public safety." The order gives Colorado officials the authority to place a hold on tainted marijuana or have it destroyed. 
 
 Under Oregon's current rules, marijuana must be tested for broad categories of pesticides. The state leaves it to labs to determine which individual pesticides to include in the screening. At least one lab admitted that it stopped testing for one common pesticide covered by current rules, saying failed samples hurt his business. 
 
 Under the new rules, labs won't get to pick and choose which chemicals to include in their analyses. The state, with help from an advisory group made up of state officials and marijuana industry representatives, developed a list of 60 pesticides that must be included in every pesticide analysis. 
 
 "Everything that anyone in the advisory group had every heard of being used on marijuana is on the list," said Farrer, the state toxicologist. 
 
 Growers whose products pass every pesticide analysis during a 12-month period can apply for a waiver from regular testing under the new rules. Instead of having every batch tested, growers who are granted waivers could have their products tested on a random basis. 
 
 At least one scientist said that while the rules are a step forward, they aren't enough to protect the public health, especially when it comes to chronically ill people who rely on marijuana to cope with medical conditions. The state established an acceptable level for every pesticide on its screening list, but in some cases, those levels are actually higher than what is currently allowed. 
 
 "I think it's a nod to commerce not to consumer health," said Ric Cuchetto, a chemist who used to work at Chemhistory, a marijuana testing lab in Milwaukie. 
 
 Farrer acknowledged that the so-called "action levels" for each pesticide are based more on the capabilities of marijuana labs than on science. He said state officials want to make sure there are enough labs to process marijuana samples when the rules go into place early next year. 
 
 "We need there to be enough labs that are accredited to do these tests, to handle the volume of samples we have," he said. 
 
 He said the state will monitor test results to see if labs are capable of identifying pesticides at even more precise levels. The state may change its rules to reflect that once regulated testing is underway, said Farrer. 
 
 Alex Hoggan, owner of Chemhistory, said he's already getting calls from growers asking whether certain pesticides are on the state's list. 
 
 "They are already looking for ones not on the list because it's just the nature of the beast," he said. "It's inevitable that when something happens you have to find something to use." 
 
 Hoggan said changes to how testing is performed will mean higher prices for tests. Depending on the test, Hoggan charges between $100 and $150. He expects those prices to spike to $200 to $250 per test, which he called "a fair price." 
 
 "But everyone is trying to get a deal," he said. "It's ridiculous." 
 
 Courtney Zehring, a cannabis grower who operates Tokie Farms outside of Medford, said she welcomes the new rules. She said she doesn't use pesticides. But walk into any grow store in southern Oregon, she said, and you're likely to find jugs of chemicals that target common pests that destroy cannabis crops. 
 
 "I am stoked," she said. "To me, it's like how much cleaner can we get it? I want to know the cleanest way to grow." 
 
 -- Noelle Crombie 
 
 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie
– It's a new front for states dealing with legal marijuana: potentially dangerous pesticides used to grow the stuff. Colorado's governor on Nov. 12 ordered state and local agencies to destroy any marijuana or marijuana products tainted by unapproved pesticides, the Denver Post reports. And Oregon won't be far behind: Beginning in 2016, any marijuana sold in the state must be screened by an accredited lab for 60 common pesticides, reports the Oregonian. Any batch that exceeds allowable amounts must be destroyed. In Colorado, Gov. John Hickenlooper's order goes much further than similar efforts taken by Denver health officials. According to the AP, city officials started quarantining marijuana plants grown with unapproved pesticides more than six months ago. They would then release the plants back into circulation once tests showed pesticide concentrations in them were below harmful levels, the Post reports. Unlike Denver's policy, Hickenlooper's order doesn't appear to leave room for even trace amounts of unapproved pesticides, the Post reports. "When a pesticide is applied to a crop in a manner that is inconsistent with the pesticide's label, and the crop is contaminated by that pesticide, it constitutes a threat to the public safety," the order states. Because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, the EPA hasn't run any tests to see what pesticides are safe for use on marijuana, so states are on their own. A Post investigation found high concentrations of unapproved pesticides in consumer products, leading to the quarantines and recalls last spring, and an Oregonian investigation found much the same. "For a lot of producers, this could be the end for them or it could mean they choose not to come into the regulated market," says one organic grower in Oregon. (In one part of Colorado, pot will help pay for college.)