State recalls West Coast Cure vape months after contamination reports

The Department of Cannabis Control did not immediately disclose how many vapes were left on store shelves, but posted a list online. 169 There are locations throughout the state where the product was sold. The product’s safety certificate came from a lab whose license has since been suspended. That lab, Verity Analytics, Batch reported This included around 5,000 vapes.

It was one of a dozen West Coast Cure batches manufactured in September — including more than 62,000 vapes in assorted flavors — that private lab Infinite Chemical Analysis tested last fall and told state regulators contained traces of pesticides above state limits. All had been certified safe by other labs.

Infinite reported the Orange Cookies batch in a complaint filed with the state in November. In addition to chlorfenapyr, the lab identified two additional chemicals in that batch: paclobutrazol, a growth hormone that is not allowed at any level, and trifloxystrobin, which was found at four times the level considered safe by California.

State regulators did not explain why they did not flag the product for additional chemicals. The state also did not immediately respond to questions about why it took seven months to recall the reported product due to safety concerns.

“This is a symbolic recall,” said Elliot Lewis, owner of the 27-store Catalyst dispensary chain. 23 of his stores had the recalled vape. He said they were sold out several months ago.

Lewis posted the news of his recall on social media, which prompted sharp comments that left him stunned.

“I was really shocked. I remember the first time I went home in the middle of the day with no plans,” he said.

The owner of another large dispensary chain said two products were still in his stores but removed them from stores last week after being involved in the investigation. By The TimesA study conducted in conjunction with industry news magazine WeedWeek found alarming levels of pesticide contamination in cannabis products available to consumers, including some of the most popular brands.

That June 14 report showed 25 of 42 products purchased at licensed stores exceeded either state safety limits or federal tobacco standards. The results reflect 85 contamination complaints filed with California regulators since October by Infiniti and another whistleblower, Enresco Laboratories.

Before Tuesday, regulators had issued pesticide-related recalls for only two products that were the subject of complaints.

West Coast Cure is California’s fourth-best-selling cannabis brand. Its parent company, Shield Management Group, was fined $3.2 million by California regulators this year after a surprise inspection found it failed to safeguard against product tampering, such as storing cannabis products in parking lot containers without video surveillance. The company also couldn’t produce footage required by the state to prove the products hadn’t been tampered with before lab testing or distribution.

West Coast Cure co-founder Logan Wasserman did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the recall.

A statement provided to The Times by a public relations firm on behalf of the company on Tuesday said: “We have passing test results from state-licensed laboratories for every product we introduce to the market. Our dedication to excellence and doing the right thing for our customers and our community is core to our values. We remain steadfast in our mission to provide thoroughly tested, exceptional products and to uphold the trust placed in us.”

Infinite and Enresco in federal court Monday Lawsuit filed against 13 independent laboratories Those who test cannabis products for the weed industry have been accused of manipulating test results to win business, while putting consumer health at risk. The civil lawsuit cites product safety certifications issued by some labs for products later found to be contaminated, as well as Department of Cannabis Control findings cited in disciplinary reports.

Infinite also provided the test behind a proposed class-action lawsuit filed June 14 in Orange County Superior Court against West Coast Cure, seeking redress for 23 vape flavors alleged to be contaminated with pesticides, including the Orange Cookies product recalled Tuesday.

The consumer complaint alleges that “while competition used to be healthy and revolved around quality, timely completion, and customer service, it has now devolved into an open competition in which brands and laboratories jointly agree to overlook ‘safety flaws’ … in an effort to conceal the presence of dangerous chemicals that would otherwise prevent the sale of these contaminated items.”

Both cases were handled by Arkansas class-action attorney David Slade, whose litigation includes cases filed against Apple, Best Buy Stores, Target and Hobby Lobby.

Other weed industry leaders called for action over alleged “persistent testing fraud” by private labs that rely on state-run companies to test for harmful substances in California.

“The state’s continued failure to take action against those who do wrong — both inside and outside the regulated market — has threatened the credibility of the entire adult-use market, and now poses a threat to the very consumers we seek to serve,” the California Cannabis Industry Association said in response to The Times and WeedWeek’s reporting.

Governor Gavin Newsom’s office expressed confidence in his cannabis agency’s performance in dealing with contamination issues, saying it “supports DCC in developing innovative policies and effective implementation that advance and facilitate a well-regulated, legal, and safe marketplace that benefits all Californians.”

California has struggled to establish a state lab to enforce pesticide limits in weed products since the creation of the recreational cannabis market in 2018.

In 2021, the cannabis agency signed an $11 million, five-year contract with UC San Diego’s Cannabis Research Program to build a state lab “to ensure that licensed testing laboratories are accurately and reliably testing cannabis products,” budget filings and contract records show. Those documents describe the lab as being intended to perform testing for regulators, with results available within five days.

After four years and $9 million in payments, the San Diego lab is still not certified to test pesticide levels, its accreditation records show.

With the consolidation of cannabis regulation under a single agency in 2021, the Department of Cannabis Control took control of a cannabis lab in Richmond that had been run by the Department of Public Health. In the ensuing years, that lab has become accredited to test for potency levels and microbial contamination, but is not certified to measure pesticides.

Meanwhile, cannabis regulators are constrained by the limitations of other state labs that sometimes agree to test weed. For example, the Agriculture Department’s lab tests cannabis flower to detect the presence of Pesticides with Chinese label smuggledBut the lab can’t assess the safety of vaping oils, which appear to have the most contamination problems.

Catalyst, one of California’s largest weed retailers, is shutting down its retail store after state safety certifications were questioned. announced the It will launch its own shelf testing program. Its owner Lewis expressed mixed feelings about consumer opinions. He said he is still convinced that products sold in the illegal market are worse, and that a loss of public trust in the legal market will hurt brands that make clean products.

In an email, he said vape sales have dropped since the June 14 article. “I suspect most people no longer see the benefit in purchasing legal products,” he wrote. “The consumer perception is that ‘it’s all dirty.'”

This is not the time to lose faith in the legal market. According to monthly sales reports posted by the Department of Cannabis Control, sales of licensed products in California have been declining since peaking at $5.3 billion in 2021. The most recent data reports sales of $4.9 billion for 2023.

A desire to persuade California residents and tourists to buy cannabis from licensed and taxed shops has driven the state’s marketing and data collection campaigns since 2020, including a $5 million “Real CA Cannabis” campaign launched in February that included social media messages on Facebook, Instagram and Reddit targeting key demographics.

“For public health purposes, the state has an interest in seeing consumer behavior change as quickly as possible in a legal and regulated market,” the cannabis control agency wrote in its 2022 budget request, citing deaths and injuries from two years ago linked to hazardous substances in cannabis and tobacco vaporization products.

In California alone, nearly 250 people were hospitalized and five died after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a rise in lung-related injuries linked to vaping products in 2019, the cannabis agency wrote in its budget request.