FILE - In this Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018, file photo, a guest takes a puff of a cannabis vape pen during a marijuana event in downtown Los Angeles. A short walk from police headquarters in the heart of downtown, a cluster of bustling shops are openly selling packaging and hardware that can be used to produce counterfeit, and potentially dangerous, marijuana vapes that have infected California's cannabis market and possibly sickened dozens of people.
The deceptive rip-offs on the street could be linked to an emerging public health crisis. Hundreds of people across the U.S. have been sickened, mainly by vaping cannabis oil. Seven deaths have been reported, the latest on Monday in California’s Tulare County. “The danger presented by counterfeit products is just a natural result of not having the money, the resources or the people power to enforce licensing,” Sopori said. “Someone is buying this packaging, buying these cartridges and filling them with whatever. It’s being sold as our brand.
“My biggest fear of counterfeiting is people are getting an unsafe product, and illegal product, and think it’s coming from our company, a legal company,” says Bryce Berryessa, a board member of the California Cannabis Manufacturers Association whose company, Skunk Feather, produces concentrates and vape cartridges.
One recent study estimated that consumers are 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.
Source: Tech Daily Report (techdailyreport.net)
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