Yet Another California Lawsuit Alleges That a Cannabis Company Exaggerated THC Levels of Products
Two California-based cannabis companies have been accused of inflating the THC levels of their products.
In a class action lawsuit filed on December 6, seen by Analytical Cannabis, a plaintiff alleges that pre-rolls sold by the companies Ironworks Collective Inc. and Stizzy LLC – which are branded under the name STIIIZY – contain less THC than advertised.
The lawsuit follows two others, both filed recently by the same law firm, that claimed other companies in California had exaggerated the levels of THC on the packaging of their pre-rolls.
Into the lawsuit
Stizzy pre-roll products claim to have high levels of THC. Many products mentioned in the lawsuit purported to contain more than 40% THC.
Yet, according to the lawsuit, independent lab testing revealed very different results. One pre-roll, the Stizzy 40s Strawnana 2G Pre-roll, was labeled as having 50.57% THC. Lab testing showed it contained between 33 and 34% THC.
This difference is substantially outside the 10% margin of error allowed under Californian regulations.
The plaintiff in the suit is said to have purchased a few Stizzy products between April and July this year.
“She read and relied on the accuracy of the THC content of each of these products. If she had known the truth, she would not have purchased the products, or would have paid less for them”, the lawsuit writes.
The plaintiff seeks damages, equitable relief, attorney’s fees, and an injunction.
Analytical Cannabis has reached out to Ironworks Collective Inc. and Stizzy LLC for comment.
The suit was filed by Christin Cho and Simon Franzini of Dovel & Luner, LLP, the same law firm that filed the other recent lawsuits against Californian cannabis companies.
The problem of THC inflation
As the 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.”
