Medical Mike

I found this in the Sticky Threads from 2000 from a Guest called D9. I wonder how much of these buggers are in well cured, poorly cured,
uncured, microwaved, water cured, who knows how cured or grown smokes that we run into all the time. It sounds so nasty and when you
think about it kinda easy to happen it scares me a wee bit.
On one hand though you would think we would be dropping like white flys in a pyrethrum storm if it was a big worry but it seems like something to be aware of as we tend our ladies. Can you get salmonella onto it if you don't wash before clipping and after pooping? Can it get into butter or hashes? Does burning it make it safe? Vaporizing?
Maybe we should be soaking it in Lysol!
Mike


Be careful....
A variety of bacteria grow on damp marijuana. Many are deadly.
Klebsiella pneumoniae, enterobacter cloacae and streptococcus (group D) have been found growing in reefer.
Salmonella muenchen was found in marijuana growing across the Midwest.
Under anaerobic conditions (damp marijuana stored in airtight containers), clostridium species will rot pot; these are the famous botulism bacteria.
In addition, a number of bacteria-like actinomycetes have been identified in confiscated ganja, including thermoactinomyces candidus, T. vulgaris and tnicropolyspora faeni. These bugs cause
allergic reactions (sometimes severe), as well as "farmer's lung" disease. Bacteria in marijuana may be more dangerous to humans, but they are rare.
Fungi destroy more bud than bacteria and insects combined.
Molds are common, and can be nasty. Some fungi won't rot pot, but they will put you in the hospital.Four policemen developed pulmonary histoplasmosis after pulling up a plot of marijuana in Puerto Rico.
Many fungi causing disease in plants die off after their host is harvested. Exceptions include botrytis cinerea (the cause of gray mold) and alternaria alternata (brown blight).
After harvest, your competition becomes aspergillus, penicillium, rhizopus and mucor, the baddest actors on the planet. Each genus causes disease under different conditions.
A. niger, along with two even nastier Aspergilli, A. fumigatus and A. flavus are found growing in ganja stored at room temperature. It does not increase potency as some believe.
A. furnigatus was blamed for causing a near-fatal pneumonitis in a 17-year-old. They note the patient buried his marijuana underground for "aging".
A. flavus, on the other hand, kills slowly. It oozes carcinogenic metabolites called aflatoxins.

Aspergillus species grow better in warmer climates; penicillium in cooler climates. identified P. chrysogenutn attacking marijuana.
(P. chrysoyenum occurs abundantly in nature, and was Alexander Fleming's source of penicillin.) P. italicurn(blue citrus mold) has been isolated from marijuana stored with an orange peel at 0C. It is notorious for its ability to spread by contact (one bad apple spoils the whole bunch).Refrigerator storage encourages penicillium infestation.

Rotting marijuana produces a spectrum of odors, from stale to musty to moldy.
P. italicum perfumes a lavender bouquet, white A. flavus smells like a locker room. Clostridium bacteria stink like carrion.
Infested marijuana often darkens in color and becomes crumbly.
Anaerobic bacteria turn marijuana into brown slime. Marijuana undergoing rapid decay may feel warm to touch. (At this stage, your
stash is ready for the compost heap.) Tufts of fungi are often visible in moldy material. If marijuana is stored in darkness, strands look white to light gray. Exposed to light, storage molds spawn millions of colored spores in velvet clumps. A slight tap sends these spores into great billowing clouds. Generally, rhizopus and mucor species produce gray-black spores, penicillium species are light blue-green and aspergillus species are dark green-black.
To check for aflatoxins, inspect your stash tinder a black light. Material contaminated with aflatoxin-producing A. flavus will fluoresce to a green hue under ultraviolet light.
D9

GreenDragon2k

Plenty of funky bacteria weed out there, especially on the street. Good reason to grow your own, so you can have precice control over every minute of the plants life and curing process. Great post medical mike The good thing is bacteria will get nuked the moment a flame is applied. The biggest things you gotta worry about are the toxins the bacteria/mold has left behind as waste products. and/or actual unsterilized particles/spores landing in your mouth/lungs.

Aflatoxins are a common byproduct of many molds, and are in a surprising number of foods we eat as well. Compromising your liver for up to weeks, generally the root cause of common cold.

Keep your growroom clean and dry & store your pot properly and you shouldnt have a problem with these bacterial infections.

I know I've said its OK to cook slightly moldy bud (not anything thats completely fuzzy though) in the past before but I withdraw my statements about that. Any moldy bud should NOT be cooked & ingested... much less smoked. If you see mold or smell it it should go straight to the compost.

__________________
"Herb is the healing of a nation, alcohol is the destruction. " ~ Bob Marley

Biorhythme

Thank both of you guys for your post.They are very important to the homegrower I would think.If you have time would you post(or anyone for that matter)some safety precautions that should be in place for a grower.There may be something that the average guy may not think about that can cause problems.Besides having a "clean" area to grow in a basic hygiene what should we be looking at or for?