Hi guys, i found the thread from Flyinghigh interesting so went searching and found this ...Hippy.
P.S. because this is a long read i need to put it in a double reply because of the limitation of 10,000 characters per reply thread
To start off, I must say that mold and fungus is much more prominent and most likely inhaled far more than people would like to admit, as this study suggests
"Fungi were identified in 13 of 14 MJ samples" *1. But is this really bad, which molds are deadly and which are not, do I have to throw away my entire stash if it gets infected? Hopefully conclusions to these questions can be drawn from the information here.
Please note, any
*x is the number of the reference used (references are at the bottom), and anything in "quotes" and
italics are direct quotes from sites.
How bad is bad?
Here we look at how bad an infection can get from mold, and the most probable results are.
First, the "bad" part in molds are something called mycotoxins, and seem to be (usually) only bad if someone is exposed to them a lot over long periods of time. It seems most molds contain mycotoxins, so there's not much chance in avoiding them.
*8.
Most effects seem to be allergic reactions or asthma, which usually occur
"in sensitive individuals. About 15 million Americans are allergic to mold. The most common reactions are flu-like symptoms and asthma. Those with chronic lung or immune problems, are at risk for more serious reactions like fever, lung infections and a pneumonia-like illness." *8. Most actual sicknesses (like the one from aspergillus), bronchitus, mold "growing" in your lungs, is not a problem for healthy individuals and is not a prominent factor in the most common molds.
Surprisingly most research indicates that if a strain is particularly bad, it is MUCH worse when digested than when inhaled. Thus, with certain strains it's actually better to smoke the weed than to cook it, as some (notice, it's not all) strains will not die when exposed to extremely high temperatures. Anaerobic Bacteria for example is one of these, while not very harmful if inhaled, it is FAR more devestating when ingested.
Molds:
Here we answer, what are the most common molds and how bad are they?
The only "deadly" mold seems to be one named
Stachybotrys, and it is rather rare. So it's not a general concern (as in, I wouldn't worry if you have this one, you most likely don't). As well it seems more deadly (or perhaps higher infection rate) to infants and elder people, or people with generally bad immune systems.
The most common mold is
Aspergillus, and it occurs literally everywhere, from the soil to the trees.. you have definitely inhaled it before if you've ever been outside, and it is not a problem for people with regular immune systems. The problem with this mold arises with people with extremely low immune systems (AIDS, marrow transplants, etc..), where it may cause problems. To further emphasize this point,
"Aspergillus is a group of moulds which is found everywhere world-wide, especially in the autumn and winter in the Northern hemisphere. Only a few of these moulds can cause illness in humans and animals. Most people are naturally immune and do not develop disease caused by Aspergillus. However, when disease does occur, it takes several forms." *6. As well,
"The simplest may be contaminating pot with fungi like Aspergillosis, which is still toxic when smoked. Healthy people can inhale the spores and not get sick, but medical marijuana users can contract skin disorders, pneumonia and other pulmonary infections, some of them fatal." *4. Basically, I'd say that this mold, although bad, is not really a concern. Most healthy people should have no problem with it.
Next is
Anaerobic Bacteria, which only grows in dark and air tight (ie. sealed jar) situations.. Anaerobic specifically means that it does not require oxygen to grow. This one is easy to identify (brown & slimey, plus you had your stash air tight), and is rather bad. That is to say, it's easy to avoid, and thus you should never run into it, but if you do it's best to just throw it out. The most common of these is a mold known as
Clostridium botulinum, and everything you could want to know about it is here:
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/chap2.html.
Penicillium is another common one. From what I've read, it seems that it is not much of a concern. It's usually rather benign, and is most common from refridgerating (seems to prefer cold), but i'll get into that later. Your only real worry here is from contamination from putting something with the weed that can get Penicillium (ie. for re-hydration purposes), as we can see here:
"Adding peels to pot imparts a "pleasant bouquet" (Frank & Rosenthal). In my case, the peel imparted a nidus of infection. _P italicum_, the "blue citrus mold," is notorious for its ability to spread by contact (i.e., "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch")." *2.
The last one i'll talk about is the one that people often cite reference to when burying their weed to "increase the potency". To describe this more specifically:
"More recently, Margolis & Clorfene describe a mold that _increases_ potency in marijuana. Their "black weblike fungus" sounds like an _Aspergillus_ species" *2. This is kind of interesting, in that people will bury their weed in hopes of securing this specific one to increase potency.. but in my opinion it's not worth it, as it seems other strains come up a lot more often and just ruin the entire stash.
Identification:
How do you identify if you have a mold or not? I'll try to outline the main ways..
It seems that
"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. ... Tufts of fungi are often visible in mold material. In marijuana stored in darkness, strands look white to light grey. 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_ produce grey-black spores; _Penicillium_ species are light blue-green; and _Aspergillus_ species are dark green-black." *2, which provides identification for penicillium, aspergillus, rhizopus, mucor, anaerobic, and generally what to look for (colour change, warmth, tufts, spores).
It also seems that it is possible to check for aflatoxins using a black light
*2. It seems
"Material contaminated with aflatoxin-producing _A. flavus_ will fluoresce to a green hue under ultraviolet light." *2.
