Chris Casacchia
February 5, 2025
California’s chief cannabis regulator on Wednesday morning released
information about enforcement and consumer-safety efforts the agency
initiated in 2024, a year marked by widespread accounts of pesticides
and other contaminants found in commercial marijuana products
statewide.
The Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) issued 481 embargoes last
year, resulting in hundreds of thousands of marijuana products and raw
materials removed from the supply chain until internal investigations
deemed them safe or mandated their destruction, according to a news
release.
“DCC is using every resource at its disposal to ensure cannabis products
meet safety standards before they reach the marketplace, ” the agency’s director, Nicole Elliott, said in a statement. “We are constantly learning and refining our investigative and reca
processes to make California’s market stronger and safer while building
upon a compliance model that consumers can trust.”
This is the first time the agency has released embargo figures, MJBizD
confirmed Recalls up amid pesticide outbreak
The DCC’s product investigations team in 2024 issued 63 recall notices
that included 259 products, and nearly 25,000 individual units.
MJBizDaily in early June highlighted the department’s efforts in ramping
up cannabis product recalls and health warnings to consumers,
prompted primarily at the time by the presence of aspergillus, a fungus
that can grow on cannabis plants.
Later that month, a report by the Los Angeles Times and WeedWeek
highlighted the presence of pesticides in several regulated products.
That report was an important catalyst that led to more recalls, according
to a source with direct knowledge of the agency’s structure and
enforcement mechanisms.
The source said other factors that prompted more recalls included:
● Routine DCC visits to marijuana businesses.
● Abnormalities in the state’s product tracking system, Metrc.
● Internal investigations carried out by the agency’s environmental compliance and
manufacturing safety branch.
The DCC issued only three product recalls per year in 2022 and 2023,
according to MJBizDaily research.
Closing the gap
Recalls and other enforcement actions go through a cumbersome,
painstaking process before they are issued, ensuring the orders can
withstand regulatory scrutiny and potential legal challenges, the source
told MJBizDaily.
Most industry recalls are issued several weeks to months after products
hit the shelves or are purchased, according to an MJBizDaily analysis of
recalls last year in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan and
New York.
The DCC, according to the source, is prioritizing closing that gap through
timely lab testing confirmations, the launch of Metrc’s Retail ID a
other stress testers, including analyzing timelines and delays.
The regulator issued 366 disciplinary actions against licensees in 2024,
including 230 license suspensions and 73 permit denials or revocations.
Testing labs, which allegedly played a role in THC potency inflatio
questionable methodology and inaccurate or altered results, were
involved in 21 disciplinary actions, including four license revocations
and/or denials, and three permit suspensions.
At any given time, more than 30,000 cannabis products and 100 million
units are in the supply chain in California, the world’s largest regulated
market.
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