Cannabis News
Using plasma to kill airborne pathogens
Whether it’s cannabis or produce, every grower faces a constant battle against mold and similar threats. Cannabis is particularly vulnerable, as its humid growing environment and the physical structure of its flowers create an ideal breeding ground for many pathogens. Fruit, vegetables and cut flowers, on the other hand, often die in large quantities as they sit in containers or trucks before reaching their final destination.
For the past two years, DDH has been working with an industrial plasma manufacturer to adapt cold plasma technology for controlled environment agricultural and shipping environments. The result is a variety of products sold under the name Quantum Clear (QC).
plasma
DDH’s Travis Higginbotham says the original inventor had used plasma technology in other sectors and was looking for a partner to bring it to agriculture and horticulture. “It took us two full years of design and testing to get the equipment to work in grow facilities, centralized HVAC systems, shipping trailers and cold rooms,” he said. The company has collected data on various USDA fruit crops, third-party air quality testing for 50 different pathogens and volatile organic compounds such as ethylene, and pilot projects with large ornamental and cannabis operators.
© Due Diligence Horticulture
The appeal of this approach, Travs points out, is that the plasma field does not produce ozone, which is a concern with some current plasma technologies. The company has UL and Carb certifications, which verify that there is no ozone and that the units are safe for plant and human workplaces.
Preservation of products
The way it works is pretty simple, practically speaking, at least. Air enters on one side of the device, passes through a plasma area and exits on the other side. In this area, gases are energized into a plasma state that produces reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, including hydroxyl radicals and hydrogen peroxide. These compounds interact with airborne pathogens and organic molecules. “The idea is to create an area in the environment that breaks down the cell walls and changes the structure of certain compounds,” explains Travis.
Fruit storage and shipping environments have been an early focus. “The combination of darkness, low temperatures, humidity and well-packaged produce creates ideal conditions for mold,” he says. “Less air exchange and increased ethylene levels also encourage faster fruit ripening and smoother texture. USDA work with bananas, tomatoes, apples and strawberries showed that shipments treated with cold plasma maintained quality and had virtually no visible mold.”
© Due Diligence Horticulture
Due Diligence Horticulture has designed versions of the unit for shipping containers, refrigerators, HVAC systems and growing spaces. This enables flexibility throughout the supply chain, providing redundancy and centralized air handling.
All of this potential implementation was also based on the company’s focus on safety, Travis noted, not just for the humans working in the grow rooms, but for the plants as well. Several data sets suggested neutral or positive effects on performance and quality, although the company is still gathering more information. “We’ve doubled and even tripled the application capacity without negatively affecting the pistils of cannabis flowers. The technology is gentle on the plant, but destroys pathogens.”
cannabis
For cannabis growers, interest centers on airborne pathogens associated with empty fills, including aspergillus. “Operators also want to cut down on powdery mildew losses or limit the cost and frequency of IPM interventions during flowering. Since plasma treatment can be applied from tissue culture rooms to post-harvest spaces, trials have looked at how the units behave during the crop cycle.” The graph below shows the results of a producer trial in November 2025 where the Aspergillus count was reduced by 90% after 4 days of use.
© Due Diligence Horticulture
Growers of vegetables and ornamentals are also in trouble. Trials in shipping with coastal farms and cooler storage with Metrolina Greenhouses have been completed, and further work is underway in Central American Tissue Culture facilities and other controlled environments with good air exchange.
© Due Diligence Horticulture
Travis emphasized that installation is easy compared to systems that rely on chemical injection. “The units are stand-alone boxes designed for different voltages and room sizes. There is no subscription service attached to the equipment, and the devices come with a standard warranty and optional extended coverage. DDH also offers financing to help manufacturers secure Quantum Clear cold plasma units.”
© Due Diligence Horticulture
In various studies, the company reports an average reduction of 87.2% in airborne pathogens in less than a week and a greater reduction of over 95% when the units are run continuously for up to a month. “It’s a practical tool for growers who want to not only monitor air quality, but better understand air quality management.” he says “He’s responsible for getting the technology into the hands of producers through our testing program and QC to make sure it’s the solution they expected.”
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For more information:
Due Diligence Horticulture
www.ddhort.com
as reported by Crain’s in DetroitMichigan’s cannabis industry is ramping up its legal battle over the 24% wholesale tax that will take effect on January 1st. The Michigan Cannabis Industry Association (MICIA) filed an appeal in the state appeals court on Tuesday, challenging the decision of Court of Claims Judge Sima Patel, who denied the group’s request to block the tax.
MICIA spokeswoman Rose Tantraphol told Crain’s that she “doesn’t think the Claims Tribunal made the right call” and that the case is “an exceptionally strong case on the merits.” The association says the wholesale tax violates the 2018 voter-approved cannabis law, the Michigan Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTMA), and “we will not back down from fighting for the will of the people in court,” it said.
A tax passed by lawmakers in late October to fund road repairs is already making waves in the state’s cannabis market. Ann Arbor-based C3 Industries is closing its 35,000-square-foot growing facility in Webberville, cutting 62 jobs, according to a state Workforce Adjustment and Retraining notice. CEO Ankur Rungta told Crain’s that the business “cannot operate the Michigan production facility profitably with the new wholesale tax.”
Marquette-based Higher Love, which runs ten dispensaries along with growing and processing operations, announced it will lay off nearly 30 percent of its workforce, citing tax reasons, though the exact number of workers affected is unclear.
MICIA’s legal challenge argues that the Legislature lacked the supermajority needed to change the voter-approved law and may have sidestepped the rules by introducing a toll road funding bill without a public hearing. Judge Patel disagreed that the tax violated the law, but left the door open for further review, and that courts should consider whether the 24% wholesale tax undermines the intent of the MRTMA’s original 10% retail excise tax, which aims to keep legal marijuana affordable and curb the illegal market.
With the new tax set to go into effect within days, MICIA is asking the Court of Appeal for a quick ruling to stop the wholesale levy before it takes effect.
Cannabis News
Florida Marijuana Campaign Sues State Over Invalidation Of 71,000 Signatures With Turn-In Deadline Weeks Away
A Florida campaign seeking to put marijuana legalization on the state’s 2026 ballot has filed a new lawsuit against state officials, alleging they improperly directed the cancellation of about 71,000 signatures as the filing deadline quickly approaches.
Smart & Safe Florida has fought several legal battles this cycle to ensure its initiative can be put on the ballot.
The latest lawsuit, filed Monday in Leon County courts, alleges that Secretary of State Cord Byrd (R) ordered county election officials to invalidate about 42,000 signatures from so-called “inactive” voters and about 29,000 signatures collected by out-of-state petitioners.
This comes after another court upheld a previous decision to strike with around 200,000 signatures, which the state said were invalid because the petition did not contain the full text of the proposed initiative. The campaign challenged the legal interpretation, but declined to appeal the decision, confident it had collected enough signatures to settle the dispute.
Now, about a month away from submitting 880,062 valid signatures by the Feb. 1 deadline, Smart & Safe Florida points out that additional cancellations could jeopardize their chances of getting on the ballot. Currently, the state has validated 675,307 signatures.
“Time is of the essence,” the new lawsuit says. according to Florida News Service. “Florida’s Secretary of State has issued two illegal directives that, unless stopped, will invalidate citizen initiative petitions signed by more than 70,000 registered voters.”
As for “inactive” voters, the term refers to those who are registered but marked as undeliverable, resulting in their addresses being considered unconfirmed. This group can remain unregistered if they do not vote in two consecutive general elections.
“The absurd result of the Secretary’s directive is that ‘active’ voters can vote for the proposed amendment, but cannot count their petitions to vote to place the proposed amendment on the ballot,” the lawsuit states.
The out-of-state petitioner lawsuit, on the other hand, is about enforcement of a law passed earlier this year that prohibits the collection of signatures by non-Florida residents. Among the legal challenges, a federal court ordered its enforcement blocked for about two months before another judge lifted that order.
Smart & Safe Florida is arguing that the signatures collected during the mandate window should not be invalidated because they were obtained legally while the law was not in effect.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, Florida’s attorney general asked the state Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of the legalization initiative. The court granted the request and set a schedule for state officials and the cannabis campaign to file briefs next month.
The campaign said last month it had collected more than a million signatures to put the cannabis measure on the ballot, but it’s not. He has sued state Supreme Court officials for delaying the certification processarguing that the review of ballot content and summary should have gone ahead several months ago when the initial signature threshold was reached. The state then he agreed to proceed with the processing.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) campaigned hard against an earlier version of the proposed legislation, which won a majority of voters last year but fell short of the 60 percent threshold needed to pass a constitutional amendment. Former Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) unsuccessfully challenged the earlier initiative in court.
In March, two Democratic members of Congress representing Florida asked the federal government to investigate What they described as an “illegal diversion” of millions in state Medicaid funds through a group with ties to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). The money was used to fight a popular ballot initiative the governor vehemently opposed that would have legalized adult marijuana.
The lawmakers’ letter alleges that a $10 million donation from a state legislative settlement was misappropriated to the Hope Florida Foundation, which later sent the money to two political nonprofits, and sent $8.5 million to the anti-Amendment 3 campaign.
The governor said this in February The latest measure to legalize marijuana is in “big trouble” with the state Supreme CourtHe announced that it will be blocked from going before the voters next year.
“There are a lot of different views on marijuana,” DeSantis said. “It shouldn’t be in our Constitution. If you feel strongly about it, you have a legislative election. Bring back the candidates you think will be able to deliver what you think about it.”
“But when you put these things in the Constitution, and I think, I mean, the way they were written, there’s all kinds of things going on here. I think it’s going to have a lot of trouble getting passed by the Florida Supreme Court,” he said.
the last the initiative It was introduced to the secretary of state just months after initial versions failed in the November 2024 election, despite President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
The revised version of Smart & Safe Florida is expected to be successful in 2026. The campaign — which received tens of millions of dollars from cannabis industry players in the last election cycle, notably from multi-state operator Trulieve — introduced some changes in the new version that address criticisms of opponents of the 2024 push.
For example, it now specifically states that “smoking and vaping marijuana in any public place is prohibited.” Another section states that the legislature should adopt rules governing the “time, place and public manner of consuming marijuana.”
Last year, the governor accurately predicted this The campaign’s 2024 cannabis measure would survive a legal challenge From the state attorney general. It’s not entirely clear why he thinks this version will face a different outcome.
Although there is uncertainty about how the state’s highest court will navigate the measure, a poll released in February It showed the overwhelming support of a bipartisan voter for reform— 67% of Florida voters support legalization, including 82% of Democrats, 66% of independents and 55% of Republicans.
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In hindsight, a recent survey by a Trump-linked research firm found that Nearly 9 in 10 Florida voters say they should have the right to decide whether to legalize marijuana in the state
Meanwhile, a pro-legalization GOP state lawmaker has just introduced a bill to change state law code that the public use of marijuana is prohibited.
Rep. Alex Andrade (R), the sponsor, said earlier this year Passing cannabis reform is a way for the Republican Party to get more votes from young people
Separately, there are medical marijuana officials in Florida actively expunging the records of patients and caregivers with drug-related criminal records. The policy is part of the sweeping budget legislation that DeSantis signed into law earlier this year. The aforementioned provisions address the State Department of Health (DOH). void the records of medical marijuana patients and caregivers if convicted of drug offenses, or pleaded guilty or no contest.
Mike Latimer’s photo.
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Next publication on January 5, 2026
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