After investigation, the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission concludes that ForwardGro used unauthorized crop protection agents, failed to ensure employees used adequate personal protective equipment and failed to have appropriate security measures in place as required by the Commission’s regulations.
Responding to a complaint received in July 2018 , the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission opened an investigation into allegations that ForwardGro used unauthorized crop protection agents in its cultivation of medical cannabis. The Commission conducted a thorough investigation including several inspections of the ForwardGro facility as well as seventeen witness interviews including former and current employees, managers, and owners of ForwardGro. The investigation uncovered evidence indicating that prohibited crop protection agents may have been used to treat medical cannabis plants cultivated at the ForwardGro cultivating facility.
The investigation also determined that many employees were not given accurate or adequate notice of the application of crop protection agents.
Further investigation showed that, in the summer of 2017, a number of cannabis plants were held in an area of ForwardGro’s property that did not have the proper security or video surveillance recording system as required by the Commission’s regulations.
As a result of these violations, ForwardGro has agreed to pay a monetary fine of $125,000, serve a 24 month probation period, make critical changes in its leadership structure, and offer refunds on any flower or pre-roll products produced by ForwardGro prior to May 31, 2018. The full terms of the resolution are set out in the Consent Order, which is a Public Record pursuant to Md. Code Ann., Gen. Prov., §§4-101, et seq. (2014) and will be available on the Commission website at mmcc.maryland.gov.
Information discovered during the course of the investigation into ForwardGro indicates that the following crop protection agents may have been applied to cannabis cultivated at the ForwardGro facility: Actinovate, Azamax, Avid, Axiom, Azatin O, Def-Guard, Green Clean, Mildew Cure, Mitacide, Terra Grow, Triathlon BA, Neem Oil, Sanidate, Suffoil-X and Zerotol 2.0.
In early July, 2017 the Maryland Department of Agriculture published a list of pesticides approved for use in the cultivation of medical cannabis. The agents from the list above that are now approved for current use on medical cannabis include: Actinovate, Axiom, Azatin O, Neem oil, Triathlon BA, Zerotol 2.0. For a complete list of pesticides MDA approved for use on medical cannabis visit the MDA website at mda.maryland.gov.