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Aug. 19, 2024 |  By: Rebecca Rivas - Missouri Independent

‘Unprecedented’: Second massive Missouri cannabis recall leaves some companies scrambling

marijuana

By Rebecca Rivas - Missouri Independent

State regulators issued two cannabis recall notices last week involving 135,000 marijuana products — more than double Missouri’s first massive cannabis product recall exactly one year ago.

“I’ve never seen recalls of this magnitude in any other state,” said Nick Rinella, CEO of Hippos Cannabis. “This is kind of unprecedented.”

Since the announcement, Rinella and facility owners around the state have scrambled to quarantine thousands of vapes, edibles and pre-rolled joints in their secure vaults. Now they’ll wait until state regulators tell them what to do with those products.

Problem is, some of them are still holding products from last year’s recall, which centered around Robertsville-based manufacturer Delta Extraction, because that recall is still being challenged. However, others opted to work with the state to destroy those products.

That’s where “the stress comes from,” said Mark Hendren, president of Flora Farms cannabis company. 

If a dispensary or facility has a small vault, he said, “and you have product that you have to quarantine, it makes it difficult space wise for you to bring in other inventory to keep the business moving.”

The first recall notice came on the night of Aug. 6, stating the Division of Cannabis Regulation was working “in partnership” with Marceline-based cultivation facility NGWMO LLC to “alert to patients and consumers about a mandatory product recall.”

The grow facility is run by Nature’s Grace and Wellness, which founded a family-owned farm in Vermont, Ill., in 2014 after the state passed medical marijuana. Tim O’Hern, COO and general counsel of Nature’s Grace, is listed as the designated contact for the facility.

This recall involves 2,650 products and has to do with the products being tested too soon in the process.

“The recalled marijuana products were not compliantly tested prior to being sold to patients and consumers,” the notice states. “The recalled marijuana product was tested at the unprocessed bud/flower stage rather than being tested at the final marijuana product stage…”

The second notice came two days later for the Springfield-based manufacturing facility C&C Manufacturing LLC. Notably, it didn’t include the “in partnership” language. 

It lists about 133,000 products, which regulators said were not properly tracked in the state’s “seed to sale” tracing system called Metrc.

“Therefore,” the notice states, “DCR cannot verify compliance with health and safety requirements.” 

However, the division emphasized that no adverse reactions involving recalled products have been reported.

Matt Cummins, CEO of GOAT Extracts, is listed as the designated contact for the facility and a number of GOAT products are on the list. 

The Independent reached out to both companies for comment and did not receive a response.

Adrienne Scales-Williams, owner of St. Louis dispensary Luxury Leaf, agreed that storage space for the recalled products is challenging. And while there’s uncertainty on how long the products will need to be contained, she said she trusts the state is doing their due diligence to investigate the issue. 

“We’ve been through this before,” Scales-Williams said. “When it’s not your first ride in the rodeo, you just handle it.”

The impact

 

The recall for the Springfield manufacturer is so widespread because the company specializes in making distillate, or THC concentrate that produces a high in edibles and vape pens.

Other manufacturers statewide bought the distillate and used it to make numerous brands of vapes, edibles or pre-rolled joints, including Rove, Zen and Packarillos. 

The recall time frame is also quite wide. It goes back to last year when companies were trying to ramp up for recreational marijuana sales, Rinella said. 

Rinella bought some of C&C’s distillate in October when Hippos’ own supply was low at its grow and manufacturing facilities, he said.

But he emphasized that this recall is not because of lack of testing. Once Rinella and other manufacturers got the distillate and made products with it, those were “properly tested” before they went on the shelves, he said.

“We can feel confident that those products were safe,” he said. “They passed all the tests, and we have some of the most stringent tests in the country.”

The division lists the recalled products in two Excel sheets. One is “product recall list,” which includes the identifiers that the manufacturers use to track products. The division also posted a “consumer recall list” that includes numbers that customers are more likely to see on their products. 

The division advises patients and consumers to stop using the products and return them to the dispensary. “Returned products will not count toward a patient’s purchase limit,” it states.  

Also any adverse reactions should be reported to the division of cannabis by email  or through an online complaint form. 

Delta Extraction

Just like C&C Manufacturing, the state’s first recall on Aug. 2, 2023 centered around a distillate that was sold to numerous other manufacturers.

Also similarly, Delta Extraction’s products were recalled due to the state’s inability to track the ingredients to make the distillate on Metrc, which starts tracking marijuana plants from the moment they’re planted in Missouri.

In that case, Delta was selling a distillate that was mostly made up of hemp-derived THC, using hemp that wasn’t grown in Missouri and couldn’t be tracked. 

Delta mixed it with a small amount of THC from marijuana grown in Missouri. It’s much less expensive to make distillate from out-state hemp than Missouri-grown marijuana, but Delta’s consumers still paid marijuana prices. 

Hemp isn’t a controlled substance and can legally cross state lines, unlike marijuana.

The company appealed both the recall and the revocation of their cannabis business license before the Administrative Hearing Commission, challenging whether or not the state has the authority to regulate hemp products. 

In March, Commissioner Carol Illes heard three days of testimony and evidence and has yet to release her decision. 

Days before the two recent recalls, Gov. Mike Parson signed an executive order banning intoxicating hemp products and threatening penalties to any establishment with a Missouri liquor license or that sells food products for selling them. 

According to the order, licensed cannabis dispensaries can’t sell these products either because the hemp used to make them has to be grown in Missouri and tracked through Metrc. Nearly all of these products currently on the market — and the ones that Delta used — are made from hemp grown in other states.