In the cases we reviewed, Colorado marijuana regulators took over seven months, on average, to warn the public after receiving a complaint or starting an investigation.
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regulators → review → investigation
Colorado lacks measures adopted in many other marijuana markets to improve testing procedures that prevent contaminated marijuana from going to stores.
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that → lack → stores
Even when the state discovers problems with a product that’s in dispensaries, manufacturers say they often continue selling the product while challenging the findings.
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they → discover → findings
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
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who → write → story
In March 2022, Colorado public health officials started getting startling reports of liver damage tied to a new marijuana-based sleep aid that had quickly become a top seller in the state.
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that → start → state
But it wasn’t until June 2023, nearly 15 months later, that the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division would warn consumers that the danger had become so serious that the manufacturer had halted production of the sleep pills, called 1906 Midnight Drops, after more reports of “acute liver injury.”
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manufacturer → warn → injury
The delay highlights a slew of weaknesses in the system for protecting consumers from hazardous products in the nation’s first regulated recreational marijuana market.
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delay → highlight → market
The health complaints had prompted the division to investigate, but the agency decided it didn’t have the power to pull the drops from the stores in this situation.
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it → prompt → situation
If the agency had dug deeper, it might have found what the state attorney general’s office later discovered: The manufacturer, Sima Sciences, began receiving complaints of harm shortly after it launched 1906 Midnight Drops and two years before health officials ever did.
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officials → dig → Drops
Instead, the enforcement division took four months after the first report of liver damage to the state to post a notice on its website.
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division → take → website
But the agency didn’t call it a health and safety warning, which would have advised people not to consume the product.
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which → call → product
It released a more neutrally named “informational notification.”
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It → release → notification
While there had been reports of “adverse health events,” the notice said, regulators didn’t find any violations.
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regulators → say → violations
The manufacturer had reformulated the product, the notice added, and no additional issues had surfaced.
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issues → reformulate → product
Jenifer Chatting didn’t even see it.
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Chatting → see → it
A surgical assistant at an oral surgeon’s office, Chatting wanted a safe, natural alternative to pharmaceuticals to treat her insomnia.
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Chatting → want → insomnia
So she was relieved when a local marijuana dispensary suggested a sugar-free option made of cannabis and herbal extracts that the manufacturer touted as the “the best sleep aid on the market.
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manufacturer → relieve → market
She began taking the Midnight Drops nightly the same month that the state health department received its first complaint.
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department → begin → complaint
Unaware of the enforcement division’s notification, she didn’t worry when she started having full-body cramps and became lactose intolerant in September 2022, about six months after she started taking the drops.
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she → worry → drops
She thought she just needed to drink more water.
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she → think → water
She continued taking the drops for nine more months until her dispensary stopped stocking them.
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dispensary → continue → them
Now, despite never having liver problems before, according to her medical records, she has liver damage at age 53; her doctor says she will ultimately need a transplant.
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she → have → transplant
Colorado’s failure to get Midnight Drops off the market or to warn consumers to stop taking it despite repeated reports of harm was not an anomaly, The Denver Gazette and ProPublica found.
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Gazette → get → harm
The division has limited authority to force companies to recall products.
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division → have → products
The agency instead relies on posting health and safety advisories on its website to warn the public, and on sending news releases to local media outlets.
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agency → rely → outlets
Yet, in the cases for which the news organizations were able to identify the date of a complaint or the start of an investigation, it took regulators an average of more than seven months to issue a warning.
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it → identify → warning
That’s an incomplete snapshot because the division refused to release data on when investigations began.
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investigations → ’ → data
Complaint dates were private, it said, because the probes were ongoing — even years after the warnings were issued and some companies had surrendered their licenses.
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companies → say → licenses
Still, The Denver Gazette and ProPublica were able to identify initial complaint or investigative start dates for 23 of the 83 advisories the agency issued over the past five years by reviewing other licensing violation records.
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agency → identify → records
Seven months is a long time for products that are typically smoked or ingested within days of purchase, industry insiders and consumer safety experts said.
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insiders → smoke → purchase
In comparison, federal investigators have criticized the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for taking an average of two months after learning of a potential hazard to not just warn consumers but to get companies to recall contaminated food.
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companies → criticize → food
Kimberly Anzarut, a former Denver marijuana regulator and now an industry consultant, said the delays mean Colorado consumers aren’t getting vital warnings while products are still on shelves.
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products → say → shelves
“When you take a really long time to get a bulletin out to tell people about these issues, a lot of time, people have already consumed the product,” she said.
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she → take → product
Lab directors said it generally takes only three days to return test results identifying contaminants, and if there’s an emergency, they can do so in a day.
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they → say → day
But MED spokesperson Heather Draper said in a statement that it’s more complicated than just getting test results and that it takes time to build a case that leads to a health and safety advisory.
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that → say → advisory
“This most often requires investigative resources to evaluate the scope of concerns, gather evidence of potential product safety concerns, and receive test results that indicate a contaminated product has been sold to consumers,” she said.
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she → require → consumers
Thuy Vu, Denver’s former head of marijuana inspections and enforcement, said regulators should act more quickly and that “time is of the essence,” because the safety problems reported to regulators are almost always a fraction of the harm a product is causing.
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product → say → harm
“Seven months, eight months, that’s ridiculous,” she said.
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she → ’ → ?
The delays mean contaminated marijuana products often remain on sale for a long time, with no public warning.
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products → mean → warning
In addition to complaint dates, The Denver Gazette and ProPublica were able to get sales start dates for nearly all the health and safety advisories and found that Colorado regulators also take, on average, more than seven months from the first sale of a contaminated marijuana product to warn the public.
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regulators → get → public
…and 108 more, not listed.
