sacramento —
California marijuana regulators on Tuesday issued the state’s first recall of pesticide-contaminated weed products, following a Los Angeles Times investigation that revealed dangerous contamination in the state’s legal marijuana supply.
The product removed from the shelves this time is the “Orange Cookies” flavored West Coast Cure e-cigarette cartridge produced in September. The state recall said the e-cigarettes exceeded safety limits for a single chemical, the insecticide chlorfenabine.
![這些是對合法大麻和所有電子煙產品進行農藥測試的結果，除非另有說明。 農藥含量是根據加州大麻或聯邦菸草限制給出的。 <br /> An “X” test result indicates that levels exceed these limits, ⚠ indicates a lower level of pesticide was detected, and ☑ indicates no pesticide was detected. </p>
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<p>The Department of Marijuana Control did not immediately disclose how many e-cigarettes were still on store shelves, but posted online a list of 169 locations across the state that sell the product. The product’s safety certificate comes from a laboratory whose license has been revoked. The lab, Verity Analytics, reported that the batch contained nearly 5,000 e-cigarettes. </p>
<p>It was one of a dozen West Coast Cure batches made in September, including more than 62,000 e-cigarettes in various flavors, that private lab Infinite Chemical Analysis tested last fall and reported to state regulators for their pesticide content State limits exceeded. All have been proven safe by other laboratories.</p>
<p>Infinite reported the batch of orange cookies in a complaint filed with the state in November. In addition to bromiprene, the lab found two other chemicals in the batch: paclobutrazol, a growth hormone that is not allowed at any level, and trifloxystrobin, which is present at levels deemed safe by the state of California. four times).</p>
<p>State regulators would not say why they did not label the products as containing other chemicals. The state also did not immediately respond to questions about why it took seven months to recall products with reported safety issues.</p>
<p>“This is a symbolic recall,” said Elliot Lewis, owner of the 27-store Catalyst pharmacy chain. Twenty-three of his stores sell recalled e-cigarettes. They sold out months ago, he said.</p>
<p>Lewis posted about the recall on social media, prompting heated comments that left him flustered.</p>
<p>“It was hit hard,” he said. “I remember the first time I went home without a plan [in the] noon.</p>
<p>The owner of another major pharmacy chain said its stores still had two products in stock but pulled them from shelves last week after an investigation by The Times and industry newsletter WeedWeek found that The level of pesticide contamination in products is alarming. </p>
<p>The June 14 report showed that 25 of 42 products purchased from licensed stores exceeded state safety limits or federal tobacco standards. The results reflect 85 contamination complaints filed by Infinite and another whistleblower Anresco Laboratories with California regulators since October. </p>
<p>Before Tuesday, regulators had issued pesticide-related recalls for only two of the products complained of. </p>
<p>West Coast Cure is the fourth best-selling cannabis brand in California. Its parent company, Shield Management Group, was fined $3.2 million by California regulators this year after a raid found the company failed to prevent product tampering, such as storing marijuana products in parking lot containers without video surveillance. The company also couldn’t produce the footage the state requires to prove the product hasn’t been tampered with before lab testing or distribution.</p>
<p>West Coast Cure co-founder Logan Wasserman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the recall.</p>
<p>A public relations firm issued a statement to The Times on Tuesday on behalf of the company: “Every product we put on the market passes the test results of a state-licensed laboratory. We are committed to excellence and doing the right thing for our customers and communities.” , which is at the core of our values. We remain steadfast in our mission to deliver superior, thoroughly tested products and maintain the trust people place in us.</p>
<p>Infinite and Anresco filed a lawsuit in federal court on Monday against 13 independent labs that test cannabis products for the weed industry, accusing them of manipulating test results to win business while putting consumers’ health at risk. The civil lawsuit cites product safety certificates issued by some labs for products later found to be contaminated, as well as Cannabis Control Division findings cited in disciplinary reports.</p>
<p>Infinite also provided test results from a class-action lawsuit filed June 14 in Orange County Superior Court against West Coast Cure, seeking damages for 23 e-cigarette flavors allegedly contaminated with pesticides, including Orange Cookies products that were recalled Tuesday. </p>
<p>“While competition used to be healthy, centered around quality, turnaround times and customer service, it has now devolved into a free-for-all, with brands and labs agreeing to ignore ‘safety failures’… Consumer complaints say they Efforts are made to conceal the presence of hazardous chemicals that would otherwise prevent the sale of these contaminated goods.</p>
<p>Both cases are being handled by Arkansas class action attorney David Slade, whose cases include lawsuits against Apple, Best Buy stores, Target and Hobby Lobby.</p>
<p>Other weed industry leaders are calling for a crackdown on what they call “continuous testing fraud” at private labs in California that are relied upon to screen marijuana for harmful substances.</p>
<p>“The State’s continued failure to take action against those who do not comply – whether within or outside the regulated market – puts the credibility of the entire adult products market at risk and now threatens the very products we aim to serve. Consumers,” California Cannabis Industry Association. said in response to reports from The Times and WeedWeek. </p>
<p>Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office expressed confidence in his cannabis agency’s ability to deal with contamination issues, saying it “supports the DCC in developing innovative policies and effective implementation to advance and promote a well-regulated state that benefits all Californians.” , legal and safe market.</p>
<p>Since the creation of the recreational marijuana market in 2018, California has been working to establish a national laboratory to enforce restrictions on pesticides in weed products. </p>
<p>In 2021, the cannabis agency signed an $11 million, five-year contract with the University of California, San Diego’s Cannabis Research Program to create a state laboratory “to confirm that licensed testing labs can accurately Reliably test cannabis products,” budget filings and contract records show. The documents describe the lab’s intention to conduct tests for regulators and produce results within five days. </p>
<p>After four years and $9 million in payments, the San Diego lab is not certified to check for pesticides, its certification records show.</p>
<p>As cannabis-related regulations are consolidated under one agency in 2021, the Department of Cannabis Control has taken over a cannabis laboratory in Richmond run by the Department of Public Health. Over the next few years, the lab became certified to test potency levels and microbial contamination, but not to measure pesticides. </p>
<p>During this time, cannabis regulators were constrained by other national laboratories that sometimes agreed to test cannabis. For example, Department of Agriculture laboratories test hemp flowers to determine the presence of smuggled Chinese-labeled pesticides. But labs are unable to assess the safety of e-cigarette liquids, of which contamination appears to be the most serious problem. </p>
<p>Catalyst, one of California’s largest weed retailers, has announced it will launch its own shelf-testing program amid questions about state safety certification. Owner Lewis expressed mixed feelings about how consumers feel about it. He said he remained convinced that products sold on the illegal market were worse and that declining public confidence in the legal market would harm brands that produce cleaning products.</p>
<p>He said in an email that e-cigarette sales have declined since the June 14 article. “I suspect more people now see no benefit in buying legal products,” he wrote. “The customer’s thought is, ‘It’s all dirty.'”</p>
<p>Now is not a good time to lose faith in the legal market. Sales of California-licensed products have been declining since peaking at $5.3 billion in 2021, according to a monthly sales report released by the Department of Cannabis Control. The latest figures show sales of $4.9 billion in 2023.</p>
<p>Since 2020, the desire to convince California residents and visitors to purchase marijuana at licensed and tax-paying stores has driven state marketing and data collection efforts, including the launch of a $5 million “Real California Cannabis” campaign in February. It features social media posts on Facebook, Instagram and Reddit targeting key demographics. </p>
<p>“[F]For public health purposes, the state is interested in seeing consumer behavior shift more quickly toward legal and regulated markets, the cannabis regulatory agency wrote in its 2022 budget request, citing two years ago that found that dangerous substances in marijuana and tobacco caused of deaths and injuries from e-cigarette products. </p>
<p>In California alone, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked a rise in lung-related injuries to vaping products in 2019, about 250 people were hospitalized and five died, the marijuana agency wrote in its budget request.</p>
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