Author: Chris Osher
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Regulators knew this marijuana product was harming people. It stayed on shelves for more than a year
Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division can take months or even years to issue formal safety warnings about marijuana products even when it receives reports that the products are harming people’s health, The Denver Gazette and ProPublica found. This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. In March 2022, Colorado public health officials started…
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Regulators knew this marijuana product was harming people. It stayed on shelves for more than a year
Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division can take months or even years to issue formal safety warnings about marijuana products even when it receives reports that the products are harming people’s health, The Denver Gazette and ProPublica found. This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. In March 2022, Colorado public health officials started…
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Regulators knew this marijuana product was harming people. It stayed on shelves for more than a year
Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division can take months or even years to issue formal safety warnings about marijuana products even when it receives reports that the products are harming people’s health, The Denver Gazette and ProPublica found. This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. In March 2022, Colorado public health officials started…
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Colorado man at center of push to delay federal hemp ban
A Colorado man whose companies agreed to pay $125,000 to resolve consumer protection investigations is at the forefront of efforts to delay a federal ban on hemp and associates contended in litigation documents that he has claimed his ties to Trump’s chief of staff give him influence over White House policy. Bret Worley, 30, of…
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Marijuana cultivator files class-action lawsuit over state ‘distortions’ in excise tax collections
Plaintiff says state owes over $100 million in refunds The regulators of Colorado’s first-in-the-nation recreational marijuana market have allowed so many sham transactions in the industry to proliferate that honest cultivators and manufacturers shoulder an unfair excise tax burden, claims a lawsuit filed on Thursday that seeks class-action status. The lawsuit, filed by a large-scale…
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In private meeting, Colorado marijuana regulators acknowledge extent of illegal hemp sales
One regulator said the extent of the suspicious transactions would ‘explode your minds.’ This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. A top regulator for Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division acknowledged in a private meeting with industry representatives that the amount of chemically converted hemp being illegally sold as marijuana is far greater…
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Colorado marijuana regulators pledge crackdown on intoxicating hemp
Citing potential tax avoidance, ‘serious risk to public safety,’ Marijuana Enforcement Division warns companies about swapping illegal chemically converted hemp for marijuana This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with The Denver Gazette. Colorado regulators announced on Monday that they plan to crack down on companies that illegally substitute cheaper and…
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Colorado marijuana regulators consider major changes to how labs test for contaminants
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with The Denver Gazette. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week. Colorado marijuana manufacturers would no longer be allowed to choose which product samples they send for mandatory lab testing under a new regulatory proposal discussed at a…
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Smoke and mirrors: How intoxicating hemp seeped into the first recreational marijuana market in the country
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with The Gazette. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week. The owner of a marijuana testing lab called a top regulator in Colorado on his cellphone in April 2024 with an urgent situation. “We’ve got something that’s kind…
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We tested vapes in Colorado for signs of hemp. This is what we found.
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with The Gazette. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week. Leaders in the Colorado marijuana industry have complained in recent years that intoxicating products derived from hemp are endangering consumers and creating unfair competition, threatening to upend the…