A short walk from police headquarters in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, a cluster of bustling shops are openly selling packaging and hardware that can be used to produce counterfeit marijuana vapes that have infected California’s cannabis market.
The problem has gotten so pervasive that a major legal brand, Kingpen, is investing millions of dollars to redesign its packaging and product security. In California’s legal marijuana market, the world’s largest, the state requires cannabis oil to be tested before being placed on the shelf for sale. For example, safety checks are made for the presence of 66 pesticides, mercury, lead and other heavy metals, and 21 solvents that could be used in the extraction process with which oil is pulled from cannabis.
In another warning of consumer risk related to vaping, an Associated Press investigation Monday found that some operators were substituting illegal synthetic marijuana in vapes marketed as natural CBD, a chemical in cannabis that doesn’t cause a high and promises mainly unproved health claims.A sophisticated effort
One recent study estimated that consumers were spending roughly $3 in the state’s underground pot economy for every $1 in the legal one. Last week, state regulators raided two unlicensed shops selling bogus marijuana vapes in Southern California, seizing nearly $3 million in products.
Others have gone so far as to hire private investigators to search for illicit suppliers, only to hit a dead end. That has led many in the industry to believe the counterfeit operations are an organized, sophisticated practice.
Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)
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