A lawsuit charges that a company overcharged for weed that would supposedly ‘transport you to Mars faster than Elon Musk.’
Talk about a pain in the joints.
Since time immemorial people have found a use for cannabis. Whether it be recreational, medicinal or spiritual, humanity has always had a need for weed.
The Hindu deity Shiva is said to have used marijuana to relax and meditate better.
But you not going to get a bang out your bhang if it’s not strong enough.
That is the issue behind a lawsuit filed in California by two consumers who alleged their doobies didn’t do what they’re supposed to do.
Jasper Centeno of Long Beach and Blake Wilson of Fresno charged that DreamFields Brands and Med for America sold them cannabis products with inaccurate Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, content labels.
THC is the principal psychedelic constituent of cannabis and the lawsuit charges that companies’ Jeeter products substantially overstate the amount of actual THC in the product, sometimes by “70-100%.”
‘Overcharging Consumers’
The companies have claimed they sold “the one Joint that will transport you to Mars faster than Elon Musk,” a reference to Tesla (TSLA) – Get Tesla Inc. Report CEO Elon Musk and his dream to fly to the Red Planet.
“Consumers are willing to pay more for cannabis products with higher THC content, and expect to pay less for cannabis products with lower THC content,” Christin Cho, a partner with the law firm Dovel & Luner, said in a statement.
“The Complaint alleges that by labeling its products with inflated THC numbers, defendants are overcharging consumers,” she added. “Plaintiffs brought this to protect California consumers to protect cannabis consumers from being overcharged.”
The complaint said that THC content declared on the cannabis products “are typically very high.”
However, the lawsuit said, these declarations are false. Testing by independent labs found the THC content “to be materially less than the amount listed on the label.”
“Moreover, the difference is far greater than the 10% margin of error allowed that (the California Department of Cannabis Control) regulations permit,” the lawsuit said.
‘Baseless and Ridiculous’
The complaint said that the demand for high-THC products “has unfortunately led to ‘THC inflation’–the practice of intentionally listing false high THC contents on labels.”
“THC-content fraud is rampant in California,” the lawsuit said, adding that the plaintiffs are seeking, among other things, damages and restitution.
The complaint filed in the Superior Court of the State of California County of Los Angeles, charges violation of consumer protection laws, including statues against unfair competition and false advertising among others.
“Let us get straight to the point,” Jeeter said in a statement. “The allegations regarding our THC levels are false.”
Jeeter added that “we take pride in our compliance and commitment to state mandated testing procedures, including independent, third-party testing.”
“We built this company with a foundation of morals, values and culture, and our love for cannabis,” the statement said. “However baseless and ridiculous these claims are, we take them very seriously and look forward to the truth coming to light.”
More to Come
Brad Poulos, consultant and professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at Ryerson University in Toronto, said that the complainants in the lawsuit seem to be “going after the advertised potency of somewhere above 30% to as much as 46%, and claiming that this is simply untrue.”
“This is a relatively straightforward thing to prove or disprove and I’ve never seen 46% THC from the plant itself,” he said. “Perhaps they’re adding some higher potency kief or otherwise adulterating the flower–illegal in Canada.”
“Otherwise,” he added, “they’re lying. It seems so since the independent tests came in around mid to high 20’s, which is a much more believable figure.”
Poulos said we can definitely expect to see more of these lawsuits, “especially in the more litigious USA.”
“One of the ways this can be avoided is strictly regulating testing around potency,” he said. “In Canada we require all legal cannabis products to be tested for several things including pesticides, biological contaminants, heavy metal presence, and potency levels for CBD and THC.”
