Peace of Mind. Free From Pesticides.

At PAX, our mission has always been to provide consumers with the highest quality, purest cannabis products. What we put in our bodies matters, and we want our customers to feel confident about the products they choose to consume, knowing we put their well-being first. 

There’s been a lot of conversation of late about pesticides in the cannabis supply chain. Pesticides are chemicals designed or intended to deal with pests or boost crop yields in agriculture. However, they can cause harmful effects on humans, including toxicity, respiratory issues or other long term health effects, particularly when ingested or inhaled. So we thought we’d break down how we make sure our products are free from pesticides.

Clean from the Source

The farms we work with are primarily outdoor operations managed by tenured farmers who prioritize holistic soil and plant health strategies. While proponents of indoor cultivation value the controlled environment and ability to grow year round despite seasonal weather, outdoor cultivation allows for natural airflow and sunlight that can help control mold and other pathogens. We ensure our partner farms have a thorough pesticide plan and mitigate potential drift from neighboring agriculture. Increasingly, many cannabis farms in California are pesticide-free and leverage organic practices. 

Comprehensive Intake Screening

We conduct full intake testing before accepting cannabis inputs, rejecting any right from the outset that don’t meet our stringent standards. This evaluation includes sensory testing for sight, aroma, taste, and touch to ensure the product smells like cannabis, contains no signs of oxidation, and is free from foreign odors and contaminants. 

Then we move on to our analytical analysis where we require Non Detect (ND) or <LOQ results for heavy metals, microbial contamination, mycotoxins, pesticides, residual solvents, and receive confirmation of potency. We do not allow remediated material into the supply chain and only accept COAs from PAX-vetted and approved labs for consistency.

Higher Testing Standards

In the absence of federal cannabis standards, we comply with a different set of rules in each market where we operate. Each state has a slightly different pesticide list and subsequent testing allowances. In California, for example, we work with third-party licensed labs to test for the following 65 pesticides (72 if you count the different versions of a few of these). While state agencies have established allowable limits, PAX requires more stringent non-detects for all.

Pesticide	CA limit (ug/g)	PAX limit (ug/g)
Captan	0.7	ND
Chlordance (cis, trans)	0	ND
Chlorfenapyr	0	ND
Chlorpyrifos	0	ND
Dichlorvos	0	ND
Methyl Parathion	0	ND
Pentachloronitrobenze	0.1	ND
Abamectin	0.1	ND
Acephate	0.1	ND
Acequinocyl	0.1	ND
Acetamiprid	0.1	ND
Aldicarb	0	ND
Azoxystrobin	0.1	ND
Bifenazate	0.1	ND
Bifenthrin	3	ND
Boscalid	0.1	ND
Carbaryl	0.5	ND
Carbofuran	0	ND
Chlorantraniliprole	10	ND
Clofentezine	0.1	ND
Coumaphos	0	ND
Cyfluthrin	2	ND
Cypermethrin	1	ND
Daminozide	0	ND
Diazinon	0.1	ND
Dimethoate	0	ND
Dimethomorph (I, II)	2	ND
Ethoprophos	0	ND
Etofenprox	0	ND
Etoxazole	0.1	ND
Fenhexamid	0.1	ND
Fenoxycarb	0	ND
Fenpyroximate	0.1	ND
Fipronil	0	ND
Flonicamid	0.1	ND
Fludioxonil	0.1	ND
Hexythiazox	0.1	ND
Imazalil	0	ND
Imidacloprod	5	ND
Kresoximethyl	0.1	ND
Metalaxyl	2	ND
Methiocarb	0	ND
Methomyl	1	ND
Mevinphos (I, II)	0	ND
Myclobutanil	0.1	ND
Naled	0.1	ND
Oxamyl	0.5	ND
Paclobutrazol	0	ND
Permethrin (cis, trans)	0.5	ND
Phosmet	0.1	ND
Piperonylbutoxide	3	ND
Prallethrin	0.1	ND
Propiconazole	0.1	ND
Propoxur	0	ND
Pyrethrins (I, II)	0.5	ND
Pyridaben	0.1	ND
Spinetoram (J, L)	0.1	ND
Spinosad (A, D)	0.1	ND
Spiromesifen	0.1	ND
Spirotetramat	0.1	ND
Spiroxamine	0	ND
Tebuconazole	0.1	ND
Thiacloprid	0	ND
Thiamethoxam	5	ND
Trifloxystrobin	0.1	ND

Cleaner, Safer System

But we don’t stop there. In addition to getting our certificates of analysis (COAs), we also test our full system to ensure our vapor is free from harmful contaminants, heavy metals, microbials, mycotoxins, pesticides, and residual solvents. The quality of vape hardware is equally as important, as is what happens when you put hardware and oils together, at temperature. We perform emissions testing to look at what’s in the vapor produced by our system and ensure no harmful extractable or leachable compounds are present. 

Consumer safety and quality are core to our values as a company, and we’re proud of our track record of delivering products our customers can trust.