Why can’t cannabis products legally be labeled organic?

If you’ve ever heard an argument for why cannabis isn’t as dangerous as other drugs, you’ve probably heard the line: “It’s organic, it comes from the earth!”

The irony of that statement is that even if cannabis products are grown 100-percent organically, they legally can’t use the term “organic.”

Federal law gives the U.S. Department of Agriculture power over organic certification. Since cannabis is not a federally recognized crop, it can’t receive a USDA certification.

Enter Chris Van Hook, a USDA-accredited organic certifier. In 2004, he founded Clean Green Certified program, a third-party organic certification program for cannabis. In the years following, other similar third-party certifiers, such as Envirocann and Certified Kind, have popped up. They all have a similar process for certifying products modeled off that of the USDA.

Clean Green does an inspection and takes a soil sample which is sent to a lab where pesticide content is evaluated. If the sample passes the evaluation, a grower can receive the Clean Green Certified label.

“It’s typically for growers, but dispensaries can be Clean Green certified too,” says Clinton Gartman, the regional inventory procurement manager for Santa Cruz Naturals, which is Clean Green certified.

For farms, the certification is based on how the product is grown, the composition of soil and fertilizers to make sure there are no poisons or chemicals that would be in the final product. For dispensaries, the certification is based on cleanliness and sanitation and making sure that the majority of their processes are using non-volatile cleaning products, such as bleach.