California Lawsuit Alleges Cannabis Company Exaggerated THC Levels of Products
A California-based cannabis company has been accused of inflating the THC levels of its products.
In a class action lawsuit filed on Thursday, October 20, two plaintiffs allege that the companies DreamFields Brands and Med for America exaggerated the levels of THC on the packaging of their Jeeter pre-rolls.
Jeeter and the lawsuit
According to the lawsuit, the Jeeter products first came under suspicion last month following an independent lab test of several California pre-roll brands.
The test results – which were requested and reported by Weed Week last month – found that the true THC content of the Jeeter products was “materially less than the amount listed on the label” and was beyond the 10% margin of error permitted by California’s Department of Cannabis Control (DCC).
The Baby Jeeter Fire OG Diamond Infused 5-Pack Pre-roll, for instance, was advertised as containing 46% THC. But the independent lab tests found that the THC levels were actually between 23 and 27%.
The two plaintiffs in the lawsuit are said to have purchased some of these “mislabeled” products between August and September. As such, they were “deceived by Defendants’ false and misleading labels”, according to the lawsuit.
The suit, which was filed by Christin Cho and Simon Franzini of Dovel & Luner, LLP, alleges that DreamFields Brands and Med for America understand the consumer demand for high THC products and, to capitalize on the demand, either intentionally misled customers or were “willfully blind” to the true contents of their products.
“Defendants know, or reasonably should know, that they are misleading consumers,” the lawsuit reads. “Defendants know that THC content is highly material to consumers, and have a direct financial incentive to overstate the THC content of their product.”
The plaintiffs are seeking punitive damages and an injunction against DreamFields Brands and Med for America.
Analytical Cannabis has reached out to DreamFields Brands for comment.
The problem of THC inflation
As the recent lawsuit notes, THC inflation is a common issue within the legal cannabis sector. Given the demand for high-THC products, many cannabis companies are known to “shop” their products around different cannabis labs until they find one that reports high enough THC levels. Any lab that reports the true, lower amount of THC doesn’t get the contract.
The practice is called lab shopping, and it’s a blight on the cannabis testing sector.
“We still see this today with lab shopping – customers, in some cases, seeking results to be guaranteed,” Jeff Journey, CEO of SC Labs, told Analytical Cannabis in July.
“And there are ramifications for that in the long term. At least for SC labs, we will always comply with our methods that are approved; we will not bow to market pressures to compromise at all. And that might hurt us in the short term. It does; we lose business. I think that’s just the reality of our market today.”
“But I think, in the long term, our belief is that the good guys will win, those that are ethical, those that can be trusted with results, that are consistent with the methods that they have approved.”
