Cannabis can either be medicine or poison for your body and the environment, especially when it comes to the way it’s grown and how the products are processed.

Greenwashing refers to making untrue claims that trick consumers into thinking a product is sustainable or has a regenerative effect on the environment when in actuality it does not. I would argue there’s a second form of greenwashing that takes place in the realm of cannabis consumables, where consumers are tricked into thinking that these greenwashed products are better for their bodies, too. 

The way cannabis is marketed straddles the line between wellness and vice. Where it falls depends on what you’re selling. While cannabis wellness products are greenwashed to seem good for you and the environment, vice products are greenwashed to make you think that maybe that “all-in-one” disposable diamond-infused distillate vape with added terpenes running on a non-chargeable lithium-ion battery isn’t so bad after all.

Due to weed’s lack of federal legality–and a particularly uninformed consumer base consisting mostly of new users with zero knowledge surrounding this very complex plant– cannabis marketing has no one to answer to when making unsubstantiated claims. Half the time, the marketing departments don’t even know that what they’re saying is false because they too lack the years-long biochemical education it takes to truly understand the cannabis plant and how its thousands of chemical components affect the body, together and individually. 

At the end of the day, most jobs in cannabis are centered around selling products, not educating consumers or even their own employees. Because cannabis advertising is subject to severe censorship, only allowed to legally exist in grey zones parallel to the mainstream, marketing departments are forced to get creative, often in the worst ways possible.

There are no consumer watchdog groups making sure brands aren’t lying to an already confused consumer base. Add to that the history of propaganda that’s marred cannabis education and public perception since the turn of the century, and you have the shit storm that is the current state of weed marketing. 

Raw Garden is a perfect example of a brand that employs greenwashing practices. The hugely popular corporate cannabis brand operates out of the Santa Ynez Valley, doing business as Central Coast Agriculture. They specialize in solvent extracts, vapes, and mega-farmed mids.

Their website reads, “Pure, clean, natural cannabis expertly crafted for consistency.” They also tout a “Clean Green” certification, claiming, “This is the closest thing to organic cannabis that one can get.” 

Because cannabis is not federally legal, the industry uses privately owned and operated “third-party certifications” to confirm that a brand’s farming or production practices meet organic or regenerative (which is a step above organic) standards.

Clean Green is an “organic regenerative” certification founded in 2004. Unlike other third-party organic or regenerative certifications, Clean Green does not always require an in-person farm inspection. Just an application, and the fee. 

GREENWASHING ORGANIC

“While reputable certifications are the only way consumers can believe anything that brands are saying when it comes to marketing themselves as environmentally friendly, we have to talk about the different grades of what is required within these certifications,” says Judi Nelson of Sol Spirit, an award-winning regenerative cannabis farm and glamping experience in Trinity County. 

“For example, organic produce that you buy at Costo just means the grower met a minimum standard of not spraying chemicals that are on a certain list. That’s all it means. You can still grow a 1000-acre monocrop and as long as you’re only using approved pesticides, you can maintain your organic certification.” 

She continues, “The USDA organic certification has been watered down by big ag over the years. Sure, it’s better than non-organic, but in a way, it’s kind of the perfect example of greenwashing. The organic certification has been manipulated by big business. People spend more money on organic products, so it’s profit-motivated. It’s become more about pushing the boundaries of what can be considered organic to charge more for broccoli than it is about getting people broccoli that is actually organic.” 

DIRTY DOES IT

Despite its “organic regenerative” Clean Green certification, Raw Garden should not be considered an earth-friendly cannabis brand. They’re so earth-unfriendly that their DBA, Central Coast Agriculture, was just ordered to pay $1.3 million to the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District to settle fines associated with years worth of clean air violations. 

According to the Santa Barbara Independent, “From 2020 through 2023, district officials said the [extraction] lab in Lompoc was a major source of gases that contribute to the production of ozone on hot, sunny days. The Lompoc lab is believed to be one of the largest in the county, if not the state. For several years, despite multiple warnings and notices of violation, it was operating without permits or the ‘best available’ technology for air pollution control.” 

In 2020 alone, Raw Garden’s lab released 135 tons of ozone precursor gasses into the air, twice that of all the gas stations in Santa Barbara County combined. Exposure to this kind of pollution can trigger sore throats, shortness of breath, and coughing. Despite this, they are still Clean Green certified. 

Greenwashing is so rampant in the cannabis industry that you have to question every brand or farm making these kinds of claims. Raw Garden is but one of thousands of businesses that are guilty of this kind of false marketing.

Other popular greenwashing offenders are Central Coast mega-grows like Autumn Brands and Glass House Farms, trendy brands like Pure Beauty, and most others you see at normal dispensaries.

The truth is, you can’t mono-crop cannabis on a scale large enough to line the pockets of your investors in this market without using pesticides. If a huge operation claims to be regenerative or fully organic, you should start asking questions.

TERMS TO WATCH OUT FOR

So what are some ways consumers can protect themselves from dishonest marketing and the rampant greenwashing in cannabis? Here are some terms to watch out for. 

*The following terms are either used specifically to greenwash, or are useful terms for environmentally-friendly practices that brands lie about employing, and thus require additional questions for the budtender, dispensary, or brand—whom you can always contact through their website or DM. 

• Clean Cannabis: This term became buzzy a few years ago but does not actually mean anything. Despite a bunch of misinformed articles and content created on the topic that seemed to conflate clean with solventless, what the words “clean” or “pure” mean in the context of cannabis remains unclear. To be sold on the legal market, cannabis already has to test negative for certain pesticides, microbial, mold, and anything else that would make something inherently impure, unclean, or unfit for human consumption.
  “Clean” has nothing to do with how much impact a product’s production has on the environment, how they are treating the plants, what legal chemicals they used, and what they did with the runoff. Just because your weed isn’t outright dirty, sure as hell doesn’t mean it’s “clean.” 
  
• Organic: Never trust this term unless it’s backed by a third-party certification, and even then you may need to do some additional digging. The federal organic certification does not apply to cannabis since the plant is still federally illegal, so OCal is the only official state certification that allows the use of the word. Other certifications you can trust are Sun+Earth and DEM Pure, both of which are regenerative certifications that have much higher environmental standards than organic. 
  
• Sustainable: This is a tricky one. While it is good for brands to be conscious enough to try and not actively destroy the environment, sustainability doesn’t have a definition in terms of cannabis production, nor does it have a certification in place to verify if they are practicing sustainability. Because it’s such a grey zone, you’re better off going with a brand that practices regenerative farming with a third-party certification like Sun+Earth or DEM Pure. Regenerative cannabis heals the earth, while sustainability does not intentionally harm it.
  
• Regenerative: Unfortunately the term regenerative is another favorite of these filthy greenwashers mucking everything up. The environmental standards for a farm to be considered regenerative are extremely high and revolve around a closed-loop system that reuses resources instead of discarding them. This technique regenerates life and promotes biodiversity. Nothing ever goes to waste. Again, third-party certifications here are a must.
  
• All-Natural: This term is as useless in cannabis as it is everywhere else. If something claims to be “all-natural,” you can be sure it is not. 
  
• Craft: At this point in the game, craft can mean anything. Again, there’s nobody in place to confirm whether or not something is craft or what craft ultimately means. True craft operators usually have at least one certification and don’t sell dirt-cheap weed on a massive scale. 
  
• Ready-to-use or All-in-one: Both of these terms are used to market disposable vapes, which are far and away the worst offenders when it comes to environmentally toxic cannabis products. Recently, a ban on the using the word “disposable” in vape marketing went into effect, mandating that “all-in-one” pens be disposed of at hazardous waste facilities because the lithium-ion batteries are so toxic for the earth. However, there is no system in place to make sure these pens are being disposed of correctly, so this is effectively a greenwashing mandate to reframe these pens as not being single-use lithium-ion/plastic trash, though they totally are. 
  
• Solventless: This term refers to a type of concentrate extraction where the psychoactive trichome heads are separated from the non-psychoactive plant matter using a combination of pressure, heat/cold, water, and agitation, as opposed to a chemical solvent like butane or Co2. Despite the extraction process itself being more earth-friendly than chemical solvents which can off-gas into the environment as we saw with Raw Garden’s lab, whether or not a solventless product is truly earth-friendly depends more on the quality and practices used to grow the flower being extracted than it does on the extraction process itself.  
  
• Locally Sourced: While this term can support local economies and reduce transportation emissions, it may not always equate to being environmentally friendly.
  
• Biodegradable/recyclable packaging: There’s been a lot of hubbub around brands claiming to use recyclable packaging. When it comes to cannabis packaging and beyond, “recyclable” means almost nothing. It is not possible to recycle mylar bags in the US, and only 9% of other plastic packaging ends up being recycled. Made from recycled materials, however, is legit. Sol Spirit Farm is leading the way in this field. All of their packaging is now of completely biodegradable, even in an at-home compost system.

Greenwashing is a difficult landscape for consumers to navigate, but thankfully dispensaries like Sespe Creek exist. With their owner on the board of the Sun+Earth certification, Sespe is committed to stocking only earth-friendly cannabis and products, with an emphasis on flower from small, regenerative farms. 

If you can’t shop at Sespe, remember to check for reputable certifications like Sun+Earth, OCal, and DEM Pure. Otherwise, buyers beware! Assume they’re lying until you check them out for yourself. 

About the Author: Lindsay MaHarry is a journalist and content creator based in California, focusing on the destigmatization of cannabis, psychedelics, and other medicinal plants and fungi. Lindsay’s work has been featured in High Times, Weedmaps, Thrillist, Uproxx, Vice, Merry Jane, Gawker, and Spin Magazine. Follow her @_oystergirl_ on Instagram. For more content, subscribe to Hot Tokes with Oystergirl on Substack.