Colorado allowed hemp-derived THC into market, lawsuit says

Colorado’s regulated marijuana market is riddled with unsafe and unlawful hemp-derived THC, a circulate that regulators are unable or unwilling to cease, a state-licensed hashish firm alleges in a lawsuit.

In a March 10 criticism filed in state court docket in Denver, cultivator and producer Mammoth Farms accused the Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) of permitting Colorado’s distillate market to be “illegally taken over by artificial THC from exterior” the state.

These “failures” to crack down on prison exercise and guarantee shopper security have put the state’s $1.4 billion business in “disaster,” based on Mammoth’s swimsuit, first reported by Law360.

The MED declined to touch upon the lawsuit, based on the Denver Submit.

Go well with alleges ‘connections with drug cartels’

The swimsuit by Mammoth, headquartered within the rural city of Saguache, lists crimes allegedly dedicated by “dangerous actors who typically have connections with drug cartels and different doubtlessly harmful criminals” that MED has did not cease, together with:

Permitting “thousands and thousands of mislabeled and unsafe merchandise” to be “illegally bought in Colorado’s regulated marijuana market every year.”
Failing to cease the circulate of “low-cost and harmful Transformed THC smuggled” into Colorado from out of state that comprises “methylene chloride, a poisonous industrial chemical utilized in paint stripping.”
Permitting “dangerous actors” to thwart the state’s track-and-trace system and thru the usage of pretend “ghost tags.”
Failing to revoke marijuana business workers’ state-issued badges even after felony convictions.

“Merchandise circulate freely out and in of Colorado’s provide chain with out supervision,” the lawsuit reads, partially.

“Consequently, Colorado’s plan for regulated marijuana cultivation has primarily turn out to be a secure harbor that feeds unlawful market actions in different states.”

One consequence, based on the lawsuit, is that “most law-abiding marijuana cultivators and distillers have been pressured out of enterprise.”

Lawsuit follows allegations of lax lab oversight

Colorado regulators have beforehand been accused of lax oversight, together with slowness in issuing product recollects and permitting product makers to thwart lab-testing and shopper security necessities too simply.

State lawmakers are in search of an audit of MED after a hashish firm discovered what it claimed was unsafe and mislabeled marijuana merchandise on retailer cabinets.

Mammoth CEO Justin Trouard stated in an announcement to the Submit that the “MED is conscious of the problems introduced up within the swimsuit in addition to the injury these issues have triggered.”

“It’s surprising to see no effort on their half, ” he continued, “and that’s the reason we consider {that a} change in management on the division is important for the protection of hashish customers and the way forward for our state’s hashish business.”