“The risk of ingesting contaminated medicine has been the flagship reason why I push for widespread home cultivation.

Problems that may occur within your six-plant garden (the amount each person is now legally allowed to grow at home) — whether it’s spider mites or powdery mildew — can easily be contained and cured. But, when there’s 50,000 plants, one sick plant is easily overlooked. If you’ve seen the inside of a commercial flower room, you know what a jungle they can become. Sick plants can easily get lost in the mix, especially if they’re positioned toward the back of the garden, close to the wall.

The unusually long delays in both the medical and recreational rollouts gave way to three years of news coverage highlighting mold-ridden, pesticide-soaked cannabis being sold to patients. But, when you have reporters covering an industry yet to exist, hard news stories like mold being found in Massachusetts cultivation facilities get drowned out — especially when the organizations in violation have several years to distance themselves from the story.

For example, Kathy Curran from WCVB 5 released a profound investigative report in March titled, ‘What’s in your Weed?’ The report: ‘Put the purity of medical marijuana to the test, working with a patient to independently test samples bought off the shelves. Investigative reporter Kathy Curran found marijuana that not only should never have been sold, but uncovered gaping holes in the state regulations that are designed to keep medical marijuana safe and contaminant-free.’

This report should have stopped the medical cannabis industry in its tracks. But it did not.

Comprehensive investigative reports uncovering serious health hazards found in legally sold cannabis products should remain relevant, especially since recreational cannabis will be coming from those same grow rooms. Once cannabis is available to the public, I’m certain many of these investigations will be unearthed — and the reporters’ work will be revisited.

The empowerment that comes with growing your own medicine is profound. Exercise your right to cultivate — don’t let it fall from your hands and land at the feet of corporate cannabis. This has always been the people’s plant, as it shall remain.”