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Cannabis


CALIF. AGENCY WARNS SOME LEGAL CANNABIS PRODUCTS COULD BE 'ADULTERATED'

By Lester BlackUpdated Nov 27, 2023 10:43 a.m.




FILE: A scientist surveys a legal cannabis product.

xylem

California’s cannabis regulator has issued an embargo on several cannabis
products, claiming that three batches of legal weed products may have been
“adulterated,” according to a Nov. 9 warning letter obtained by SFGATE and sent
to companies whose products are affected.

A spokesperson for the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) confirmed
the embargo to SFGATE, saying the products are suspected of being dangerous to
consume. The Nov. 9 letter references a California legal code, which explains
products that are suspected of being “adulterated” may contain “poisonous or
deleterious” substances. The DCC declined to provide any more information
regarding the embargo.

“DCC is currently investigating the facts and circumstances related to these
products to determine the appropriate next steps, including whether a recall is
necessary,” said David Hafner, a spokesperson for the agency, in an email to
SFGATE.

State law requires that legal cannabis products pass safety tests before they're
sold to the public. The required tests include screening for pesticides, mold
and heavy metals. These tests are conducted by third-party labs licensed by the
DCC.

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— Full SFGATE cannabis coverage



The Nov. 9 warning was issued for products that were already being sold to the
public. In order for products to hit shelves, they must pass state-required
safety testing. The DCC letter states that the embargoed products “are suspected
of being adulterated,” which implies the state may have information showing that
the original safety tests were not accurate, or that the products were altered
somehow after being tested.

A product “embargo” issued by the DCC requires cannabis businesses to stop
selling any affected products and put them aside; embargoed products may “not be
removed or disposed of.” The DCC could decide to proceed with a full recall of
these products in the future. 

Though the DCC names the products in its warning letters to companies, it does
not list embargoed products publicly. However, SFGATE has decided to publish the
names of the affected products as well as their batch ID numbers (unique
identifiers printed on all legal cannabis products referred to as “METRC Batch
No.”) in the interest of public safety:

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 * “SHARK BITE – PACIFIC CHEMISTRY” Pre-Rolls from METRC Batch No.
   1A406030000465D000001314;
 * “WEST COAST CURE – BISCOTTI” Disposable Vape Pens from METRC Batch No.
   1A4060300009222000010348;
 * “CRU CANNABIS – MAI TAI” Disposable Vape Pens from METRC Batch No.
   1A40603000020EC000009978.

SFGATE contacted the three companies that appear to have made the products but
did not receive a comment by publication time.

The DCC’s Nov. 9 letter directs all companies in possession of these three
products to immediately stop selling the items and retain them for
investigation. Despite this ban on sales, at least one legal store is still
selling the affected products as of Friday afternoon. SFGATE was able to
purchase a “CRU CANNABIS – MAI TAI” vape cartridge at Bloomerang Cannabis in San
Francisco that had the same state identification number listed on the embargo.

The DCC and the Bloomerang Cannabis store did not respond to a request for
comment regarding why the products are still being sold more than a week after
the state moved to embargo them.

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FILE: Cannabis leaves being studied by a scientist.

xylem

Hafner said in an email that the DCC has issued 79 embargoes since the its
creation in 2021. The DCC has only issued one mandatory recall, according to its
website.

Jason Cooley, the chief science officer at SQRD LAB, a DCC-licensed lab in Los
Angeles, said in an email to SFGATE that the Nov. 9 embargo was the first
embargo he was aware of that had been placed on products after they had passed
safety tests. Cooley questioned why the state hadn’t made these embargoes
public.

“Of course, there is no bulletin on their site regarding these products so it
may be that this has happened before and [they] have not publicized it, which
seems counterintuitive to public safety,” Cooley wrote in an email Friday to
SFGATE.

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Zachary Eisenberg, a vice president at San Francisco’s Anresco Labs, which is
also DCC licensed to test cannabis, said the state should “absolutely” be making
these embargo notices public.

“They should really be making it public to everybody, so if someone had already
purchased these products they would know not to consume them,” Eisenberg told
SFGATE.

Cannabis labs across the country have been accused of falsifying safety tests
for years. California’s labs have specifically been called out for inflating
potency results and not accurately conducting safety tests.

Eisenberg blamed the DCC for not effectively enforcing testing rules. He said it
was “concerning” that the state has not issued more product recalls, despite
rampant allegations of fraud in the state’s safety testing.

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“We’ve had [cannabis companies] where we … would advise that we found a failing
pesticide, and they say, ‘We’re just going to have this batch tested at another
lab where we know it will pass,’” Eisenberg said. “It’s not a question of if it
happens, it's a question of how much it happens.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 11 am, Nov. 27, to correct the name of
Bloomerang, a cannabis retailer in San Francisco.

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Nov 17, 2023|Updated Nov 27, 2023 10:43 a.m.
By Lester Black


Lester Black is SFGATE's contributing cannabis editor. He was born in Torrance,
raised in Seattle, and has written for FiveThirtyEight.com, High Country News,
The Guardian, The Albuquerque Journal, The Tennessean, and many other
publications. He was previously the cannabis columnist for The Stranger.


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