Mislabeled cannabis products have resulted in hospitalizations and lawsuits in Oregon after customers thought they were ingesting CBD wellness drops that actually contained THC.
The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) issued a recall Sept. 21 for a product produced by Cura CS, LLC and sold under the company’s Select brand. The product was labeled as a hemp-derived CBD tincture but contained “undisclosed levels of THC,” according to an OLCC press release.
The OLCC then expanded the recall Sept. 24 to include a Select tincture that was labeled as containing 1,000 mg of THC because the drops do not actually contain any detectable THC.
Curaleaf, which acquired Cura in 2019, has acknowledged that the company somehow confused the two tinctures and mislabeled them, according to The Chronicle.
The OLCC told the news outlet that 13 people reported ingesting the mislabeled drops. At least three visited emergency rooms and at least one was hospitalized, according to The Chronicle, and the incidents have resulted in four lawsuits against Curaleaf.
Curaleaf has cited “human error” as the cause of the mislabeling debacle, The Chronicle reported, and the company said it has changed its manufacturing process to avoid similar incidents in the future.
The THC drops contained 17.25 mg per serving, The Chronicle reported, and Oregon’s recommended dose for new users is 2.5 mg to 5 mg.
The OLCC told The Chronicle that none of the mislabeled products were sold outside of Oregon, and the agency is allowing Curaleaf to continue its operations while regulators investigate the blunder further.
OLCC spokesman Mark Pettinger told The Chronicle that product testing is completed before finished products are packaged, which may explain how the lab overlooked the mistake. Final product testing is “something that the commission might contemplate going forward,” Pettinger told the news outlet.
