Colorado regulators allowed hemp-derived THC into market, lawsuit says
- Mammoth Farms, a state-licensed cannabis company in Colorado, has filed a lawsuit alleging that the Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) is allowing the regulated marijuana market to be flooded with unsafe and illegal hemp-derived THC.
- The lawsuit claims that the MED's failures to crack down on criminal activity and ensure consumer safety have led to a crisis in Colorado's $1.4 billion cannabis industry.
- Mammoth Farms accuses "bad actors" with connections to drug cartels of taking over the distillate market in the state with synthetic THC, leading to a situation where illegal products flow freely in and out of Colorado's supply chain.
- Mammoth's CEO has called for a change in leadership at the MED to address the issues raised in the lawsuit and ensure the safety of cannabis consumers and the future of the state's cannabis industry.
Colorado’s regulated marijuana market is riddled with unsafe and illegal hemp-derived THC, a flow that regulators are unable or unwilling to stop, a state-licensed cannabis company alleges in a lawsuit.
In a March 10 complaint filed in state court in Denver, cultivator and manufacturer Mammoth Farms accused the Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) of allowing Colorado’s distillate market to be “illegally taken over by synthetic THC from outside” the state.
These “failures” to crack down on criminal activity and ensure consumer safety have put the state’s $1.4 billion industry in “crisis,” according to Mammoth’s suit, first reported by Law360.
The MED declined to comment on the lawsuit, according to the Denver Post.
The suit by Mammoth, headquartered in the rural town of Saguache, lists crimes allegedly committed by “bad actors who often have connections with drug cartels and other potentially dangerous criminals” that MED has failed to stop, including:
“Products flow freely in and out of Colorado’s supply chain without supervision,” the lawsuit reads, in part.
“As a result, Colorado’s plan for regulated marijuana cultivation has essentially become a safe harbor that feeds illegal market activities in other states.”
One consequence, according to the lawsuit, is that “most law-abiding marijuana cultivators and distillers have been forced out of business.”
Colorado regulators have previously been accused of lax oversight, including slowness in issuing product recalls and allowing product makers to thwart lab-testing and consumer safety requirements too easily.
State lawmakers are seeking an audit of MED after a cannabis company found what it claimed was unsafe and mislabeled marijuana products on store shelves.
Mammoth CEO Justin Trouard said in a statement to the Post that the “MED is aware of the issues brought up in the suit as well as the damage these problems have caused.”
“It is shocking to see no effort on their part, ” he continued, “and that is why we believe that a change in leadership at the department is necessary for the safety of cannabis consumers and the future of our state’s cannabis industry.”
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