A Portland marijuana production mix-up sickened more than a dozen users. Oregon regulators recalled Select THC and CBD drops last September after discovering the manufacturer, Curaleaf, confused those containing psychoactive ingredients with those that did not. The Massachusetts-based Curaleaf, one of the nation’s largest recreational marijuana companies, now faces a 70-day suspension from Oregon regulators and a record, $200,000 fine. Curaleaf plans to contest the penalties before an administrative law judge.
In 2016, the same company agreed to pay a $110,000 “dishonest conduct” penalty to Oregon regulators for falsely claiming that more than 186,000 Select-brand vapes contained 100% marijuana. Shortly after that, Curaleaf closed a $400 million, all-stock deal to buy Cura and the Select brand. The report doesn’t say whether anyone supervised Drain’s work or checked it once it was complete. It doesn’t say whether Curaleaf did any testing of its bottles to ensure they contained ingredients identified on the labels.
The current issue took place last June 1 in Portland, according to the report, but it didn’t come to regulators’ attention until September. That’s after an Idaho man ingested Select drops labeled as CBD, which he had purchased in Oregon. He reported alarming symptoms while driving home from a camping trip, nearly wrecking his motor home. The man spent hours in an emergency room before learning he had THC in his system and deducing the source of his ailment.
It took nearly two weeks before regulators obtained a sample of the drops from an Idaho man. They found that they did indeed contain THC. Regulators issued the recall the same day they received and tested the sample, Sept. 21.
The cannabis commission refused to release Curaleaf’s account of what went wrong, citing a broad exception to public records law written into Oregon’s marijuana statutes.
According to the state report, the mix-up at a Portland marijuana bottling plant originated with a single employee who confused two similar buckets with nearly identical identification numbers.
Information sent out states that at least five customers reported going to the emergency room after taking the mislabeled drops. A couple of the partakers said they were driving when they felt the high. This is the first big test of how the Oregon Liquor & Cannabis Commission handles consumer safety and how it applies its regulatory standards.
