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The State New York has appropriate the sale of millions of dollars to best -selling cannabisvapes and pre -rolled joints, amid a study into whether they were made with legally approved ingredients produced in the state, according to documents obtained by the New York Times.
In a series of orders issued on April 23, the Office of Cannabis Management, which supervises companies that grow and sell cannabis in the state, sent pharmacies to remove from their shelves, usually vapes and pre -second joints of the companies that, among others, Stiiizy and MFUS.
The orders offered a window to the investigation of the cannabis agency of companies accused of pumping weed from growers without a permit in recognized pharmacies that are illegal. The Times obtained two of the documents through a public archive request and another order from two people with whom they were shared.
The strategy of the use of non -licensed growers, known as ‘inversion’, undermines that legalization offers consumers a safe stock of cannabis products that can be traced back to local farms. It is a federal crime to transport marijuana about state lines, so legal weed must be grown and sold in the same condition through recognized companies.
According to orders, researchers doubted the origin of cannabis oil that was used to fill the vapen and the accuracy of laboratory tests that all MFUSED varieties as safe certified. Stiiizy, located in Los Angeles, and MfUUSED, located in Seattle, are two of the largest cannabis brands in America.
Their Vapen belonged to the 10 bestsellers in New York in April, according to Headset, a data company that creaks the sales figures of the cannabis. The quarantine products, which are held in factory warehouses and pharmacies, have a retail value of more than $ 10 million, according to batch records and retail prices.
If researchers find proof of inversion, the products can be confiscated and destroyed in a recall. In the most serious case, supervisors can withdraw the license from the processing company that the Vapes has made and forbid the brands from New York. If the investigation does not find misconduct, the products can be released for sale.
In a statement, MFUSED said it was with the integrity of his products, while Stiiizy said it was convinced that the investigation would not find any proof of inversion on his part. Kaycha Labs, a laboratory labeled by the state that did MFUSED, did not respond to an e-mail to ask for comments.
The brands have any contracts with Omnium Health, a state -licensed processing company that makes their Vapen in New York. Omnium records assessed by inspectors at the Office of Cannabis Management of OCM, in connection with an audit on 7 April indicated that the vapen was filled with oil that was extracted on a site associated with Omnium that was not approved for processing the oil, the order said. Officials forbidden to use the oil until it could prove that it was legally extracted.
An order on another processor, Adonis Distribution in Gloversville, NY, also froze the sale of a few pre -rolled joints steeped in terpenes, the connections that give cannabis his odor and taste that were not properly recorded.
In a statement, Omnium said that the situation amounted to an administrative error.
“The confusion arose from the address stated on the document, the company address of Omnium is instead of the actual site of extraction,” the company said. “It was confirmed that all extraction took place at an approved location, which was inspected by the OCM and verified to have the correct extraction equipment on location.”
The OCM said in a statement that the investigation was still active, and added that Omnium had submitted a plan to correct the problems described in the orders. The quarantine remained in force on Thursday.
Thousands of Vapen have already been sold to consumers, in particular around April 20, the date of the unofficial annual celebration of cannabis that is usually the largest sales day for retailers.
In an e -mail to retailers on April 23, Omnium said that the quarantine order also applied to products under the brands Animal, Bodega Boyz, Muha Medices, Rook and to the Moon.
The quarantine has left the licensed pharmacies of the state in a swing.
Brandon Carter, co-owner of trends in Long Island City, Queens, said that pharmacies places bigger orders before April 20, in the expectation to sell more on the day and as it warms up again. The quarantine has forced them to hold weed that they cannot sell to customers who are looking for it, he said.
“That is a lot of extra inventory that people should be on which we cannot earn money,” he said.
On the flowery on the upper west side of Manhattan, part of the shelf space with the product display of MFUUSED was empty last Sunday. The brand had been a bestseller. Lenox Hill Cannabis at the Upper East Side said that the quarantine influenced about 15 percent of the store’s inventory.
Wei Hu, a co-owner of Lenox Hill Cannabis, said that his store has placed a large order for Stiiizy’s Vapes and pre-rolled joints after they were released in New York in February. He said he expected the brand to sell well because it was already popular on the west coast and on the street market. Half of the order was sold by the time that the quarantine came into force, he said, but the other half was stored in a safe.
Customers “ask for Stiiizy,” he said. “They wonder why it is not on the menu.”
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