“Regarding risks to the public, the department recalled these products for the same reason it issued the original, related recall: It identified a potential threat to health and safety.”
By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent
In Missouri’s massive marijuana recall two years ago, regulators pulled 62,000 products off the shelves that contained a THC concentrate the state deemed a “potential threat to health and safety.”
Last week, the Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation added another 6,000 products to that list that should have been pulled in 2023 because they were all made with an ingredient produced by the company at the heart of the recall, Robertsville-based Delta Extraction.
The new “threats” were found after the division was ordered in February by the state’s administrative hearing commission to release any Midwest Magic brand products from its 2023 recall list. During that review, the division discovered additional marijuana products containing a THC oil that Delta Extraction made using “unregulated cannabis,” the division stated in a Thursday press release.
“Regarding risks to the public, the department recalled these products for the same reason it issued the original, related recall: It identified a potential threat to health and safety,” said Amy Moore, the divisions director, in an email to The Independent.
However, there have been no adverse reactions reported for any of the product in the original or updated recall, she said.
“The initial recall was a large and complex endeavor requiring expert application of system functionality and program processes,”she said. “The department has made improvements in both areas since that time and continues to improve in ways that ensure future recalls can better identify all relevant product at initial issuance.”
Delta Extraction is a licensed cannabis manufacturing facility that specializes in making THC distillate, a highly potent and pure form of THC used for things like vape pens, infused pre-rolled joints and edibles. About 100 other manufacturers bought the distillate in question in spring 2023 and went on to make thousands of products.
In August 2023, the division suspended Delta Extraction’s license after finding the company’s distillate was made with untested “marijuana or converted hemp from outside of a Missouri licensed cultivation facility.”
The state also issued the product recall.
A few months later, the state rolled back its recall of nearly 15,000 Midwest Magic products and allowed them to return to the dispensary shelves. Though part owner of the Delta facility, Midwest Magic owners successfully argued that the brand didn’t use the distillate in its products.
A company called A Joint Operation owns the other 50 percent of Delta Extraction.
In February, Delta Extraction lost its appeal of its license suspension, but it was awarded a renewed search for Midwest Magic products on the recall list. The Thursday update released about 120 Midwest Magic products from dispensaries and manufacturing facilities. The update also allowed testing labs to release samples of several hundred recalled products so they can be destroyed.
Ted Maritz, co-owner of Midwest Magic, said the company had already written off the released items as a loss.
“I’m not going to ask any stores for payment or anything,” Maritz said. “Everyone’s gone through hell for this.”
While the ordered search had a small impact on Midwest Magic, it is having a big impact on some dispensaries and manufacturers carrying the 6,200 products.
The recall list actually represents product tags used by the state’s tracing system called Metrc. Each tag in dispensaries typically represents a case of 10 to 12 units. And Metrc tags for manufacturing facilities represent ingredients that could make thousands or millions of units.
One Kansas City manufacturer had almost 700 ingredients recalled Thursday.
Josh Corson, co-owner of A Joint Operation, said he had not yet heard about the updated recall, in a text message Friday to The Independent, and could not immediately comment.
Over the last two years, several companies have opted to destroy the products to make more room in their storage areas.
Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the division, said there was a slight increase for destruction requests since February through April, following the commission’s decision and totaling about 200 requests. However the division is “unable to identify whether these requests are specific to the February decision,” she said.
The units remaining on hold for the Delta Extraction recall, which have not been destroyed, total nearly 157,000 items. That includes 4,000 THC concentrate items that equal 378,000 grams of oil, along with about 13,000 grams of marijuana flower. It also includes 18,000 infused edibles, more than 40,000 pre-rolled joints and 90,000 vape cartridges.
In Delta’s appeal, the company argued the process it used to make the distillate was safe and legal.
Delta Extraction admitted to importing a large amount of THC-A—a non-psychoactive compound of the cannabis plant that becomes intoxicating when heated—purportedly extracted from hemp plants. The company’s contractor would mix it with a smaller amount of THC-A extracted from Missouri-regulated marijuana.
Delta argued the hemp-derived THC-A should fall under the same rules as added ingredients, like flavors or the non-intoxicating cannabis compound CBD, because hemp is not a federally controlled substance like marijuana. It was taken off the federal controlled substance list in the 2018 farm bill.
But Carole Iles of Missouri’s administrative hearing commission wrote in her 137-page ruling that THC-A becomes intoxicating through the exact same process no matter if it’s extracted from hemp or marijuana, so the state is correct in regulating the THC the same as marijuana.
That means it must be grown and manufactured in licensed Missouri facilities, Iles concluded, and tracked from the time the seed goes into the soil in the Metrc system.
“THC originating from other sources,” she wrote, “is prohibited.”
Chuck Hatfield, former attorney for Delta Extraction, said licensed facilities have the ability to challenge these new recalls of the products on their shelves.
“They probably should,” Hatfield said. “Because DCR has had such difficulty figuring out which products should be recalled, no licensee can be sure which products it can sell.”
This story was first published by Missouri Independent.
Photo courtesy of Kimzy Nanney.
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