The department issued this recall for the same reasons it had previously given the related original recall. It was able to identify a possible threat to public health and safety.
By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent
In Missouri’s mass marijuana recall of two years past, regulators removed 62,000 products from the shelves because they contained THC concentrations that the state considered a “potential danger to health and security.”
Last week the Missouri Division of Marijuana Regulation added another 6,00 products to this list. They should all have been recalled by 2023 as they are made from an ingredient manufactured by Robertsville-based Delta Extraction.
After the administrative hearing commission of the state ordered the division to recall any Midwest Magic product from the 2023 list in February, new “threats’ were discovered. In a press release issued on Thursday, the division said that it discovered that Delta Extraction produced additional marijuana products that contained a THC-oil using “unregulated” cannabis.
Amy Moore (Director of Divisions) told The Independent that “regarding the risks to the general public, this department has recalled the product for the same reasons it issued its original recall, which was related: They identified a possible threat to safety and health.”
According to her, no adverse reactions have yet been reported with any of the products in the recall’s original or revised version.
She said that the initial recall required expert knowledge of program functionality and system functions. Since then, the department has continued to make improvements and continue improving in these two areas. Future recalls will be better able to identify products that are relevant at first issuance.
Delta Extraction, which is licensed to manufacture cannabis, makes THC distillate. This form of THC, which is highly pure and potent, can be used in vape pens and edibles. Around 100 other manufacturers purchased the distillate at issue in spring 2023, and have gone on to produce thousands of products.
Delta Extraction was suspended in August of 2023 by the Division after it found that its distillate contained untested marijuana or converted hemp grown outside Missouri’s licensed cultivation facilities.
The product was also recalled by the state.
A few months after the recall, the state reversed its decision and permitted the return of almost 15,000 Midwest Magic product to the shelves. Midwest Magic’s owners, who are part-owners of the Delta facility in California, successfully argued the brand did not use distillate to make its products.
A Joint Operation, a company, owns 50 percent of Delta Extraction.
Delta Extraction, which lost an appeal against its license suspension in February, was given a new search to find Midwest Magic products that were on the list of recalls. In the Thursday update, about 120 Midwest Magic items were released from manufacturing and dispensary facilities. Updates also allow testing labs the release of samples for several hundred recalled product so they can destroyed.
Ted Maritz is the co-owner and CEO of Midwest Magic. He said his company has already written the products released off as a lost.
Maritz declared, “I won’t ask anyone for money or anything.” “Everyone has gone through hell to get this.”
Midwest Magic was not affected by the search order, but some manufacturers and dispensaries that carry 6,200 different products are.
The product recall list is actually the tags that are used to track products by Metrc, the tracing software of New York State. Each tag at dispensaries represents an average of 10 to12 units. Metrc tags are used in manufacturing facilities to represent raw materials that can be made into thousands or even millions of products.
On Thursday, a Kansas City company recalled nearly 700 of its ingredients.
Josh Corson said that he was unaware of the recall update in a Friday text message to The Independent. He could not comment immediately.
In the past two years, many companies chose to dispose of their products in order to create more space for storage.
Lisa Cox is the spokeswoman of the Division. She said the total number of requests for destruction has increased slightly since the February decision. She said that the division “cannot identify if these requests are specifically related to the decision of February”.
The Delta Extraction units that haven’t been destroyed yet, but are still on hold, amount to nearly 157,000 pieces. It includes THC items, which equals 378,000 grams (oil), along with approximately 13,000 grams (flower) of marijuana. The amount also includes 18000 infused edibles and more than 40,000 joints.
Delta argued in its appeal that the method it used to produce the distillate is safe and legal.
Delta Extraction admitted to importing a large amount of THC-A—a non-psychoactive compound of the cannabis plant that becomes intoxicating when heated—purportedly extracted from hemp plants. A contractor for the company would then mix this with THC A from Missouri-regulated cannabis.
Delta said that the THC-A derived from hemp should follow the same guidelines as ingredients such as flavors and the non-intoxicating CBD compound, since hemp isn’t a controlled substance under federal law like marijuana. In the 2018 Farm bill, it was removed from the federal list of controlled substances.
Carole Iles, of Missouri’s Administrative Hearing Commission wrote in her ruling in 137 pages that THC becomes intoxicating in the exact same way whether it is extracted from marijuana or hemp. Therefore the state has the right to regulate the THC in the same manner as marijuana.
Iles concluded the system must track the movement of the seed from the moment it is planted into the soil.
She wrote that “THC from other sources is prohibited.”
Chuck Hatfield, a former lawyer for Delta Extraction said that licensed facilities can challenge the new recalls on the products they have in their stores.
Hatfield replied, “They should probably.” No licensee knows which products they can sell because DCR is having such a difficult time determining which products need to be recalled.
First published in Missouri Independent.
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Kimzy Nanney is the photographer.