Its a free world, if you want to smoke moldy weed I certainly wont appear at your door and tie you up to stop you
But here are some thoughts from High Times, regarding mold and fungus and their effects on people who smoke pot with these problems. I destroy all my crop that shows any signs of these problems, because I dont want to expose myself to any more harm than I experience daily, and I share my harvests with friends and loved ones, who I also would not expose to harm.
From
http://paranoia.lycaeum.org/marijuana/facts/moldy.weed
"Fungi destroy more bud than bacteria and insects combined. Bacteria in
marijuana may be more dangerous to humans, but they are rare. Molds are common, and can be nasty: Ramirez reports four policeman developing pulmonary histoplasmosis after pulling up a 5,000-square-meter plot of marijuana in Puerto Rico. Some fungi won't rot pot, but they will put you in the hospital.
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:
Ubiquitous _Aspergillus_ grows on anything from rocket fuel to astronauts. The genus is millions of years old; while _Home sapiens_ may come and go, _Aspergillus_ will remain. Westendorp first found an _Aspergillus_ species
attacking _Cannabis_ in 1854. More recently, Margolis & Clorfene describe a
mold that _increases_ potency in marijuana. Their "black weblike fungus"
sounds like an _Aspergillus_ species. _What_ species, I'd like to know....
Schwartz scraped _Aspergillus niger_ from the skull of a marijuana smoker
experiencing sinus headaches. I frequently encounter _A. niger_ growing in
ganja stored at room temperature. It does _not_ increase potency. Kagen also reports _A. niger_ growing in moldy marijuana, along with two _even nastier_Aspergilli: _A. fumigatus_ and _A. flavus._
Chusid et al. blame _A. fumigatus_ for causing near-fatal pneumonitis in a
17-year-old. They note the patient buried his marijuana underground for
"aging." No doubt the patient was looking for Margolis & Clorfene's fungus,
but _A. fumigatus_ found him instead. _A. flavus_, on the other hand, kills
slowly. It oozes carcinogenic metabolites called aflatoxins. Llewellyn &
O'Rear found aflatoxins contaminating Virginian marijuana.
_Aspergillus_ species grow better in warmer climates, _Penicillium_ in cooler climates. Refrigerator storage encourages _Penicillium_ infestation. Kagen et al. isolated _Penicillium_ from marijuana cigarettes. Babu et al. identified
_P. chrysogenum_ attacking marijuana. (_P. chrysogenum_ occurs abundantly in nature, and was Alexander Fleming's source of penicillin.) I isolated _P.italicum_ from marijuana stored with an orange peel at 0 degrees Centigrade. 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").
Five _Mucor_ species have been described on _Cannabis._ Members of this genus grow fast and die young. One of them, _M. hiemalis_, regrettably
bioconcentrates (and cannot metabolize) the herbicide paraquat from tainted substrates (Domsch et al.). _Mucor's_ first cousin, _Rhizopus,_ occurs in soil, ripe foodstuffs, and occasionally on people (especially diabetics).
Grebeniuk isolated _R. stolonifer_ from hemp stems. In an inoculation
experiment, I quickly rotted some damp marijuana with a colony of _R.
stolonifer_ found growing on bread.
DIAGNOSIS
Rotting marijuana produces a spectrum of odors, from stale to musty to moldy.
_P. italicum_ perfumes a lavender bouquet, while _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 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_ producegrey-black spores; _Penicillium_ species are light blue-green; and
_Aspergillus_ species are dark green-black.
To check for aflatoxins, inspect your stash under a black light (in medicalese,a "Wood's Lamp"). Material contaminated with aflatoxin-producing _A. flavus_will fluoresce to a green hue under ultraviolet light.
