Nine lawsuits were recently filed against Curaleaf Holdings over a mix-up “involving CBD and THC products sold in Oregon.” Now, a tenth lawsuit is being prepped. According to Michael Fuller, a Portland attorney representing the claimants, the “clients experienced confusion, dizziness, fear of death, and psychosis after they consumed a product that was mislabeled as a CBD-only tincture.” Unfortunately, what they ate was actually a “significant amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.” 

Legal gavel; image courtesy of succo via Pixabay, www.pixabay.com

When commenting about his clients’ experiences, he said one man, Earl Jacobe, 78, “exhibited symptoms that doctors thought were consistent with a stroke after he and his wife consumed the mislabeled products in August.” Over the next few weeks, Jacobe had to be rushed to a hospital twice. Eventually, Jacobe’s mental and physical health began to weaken “to the point where he was essentially comatose and then succumbed to an unrelated COVID-19 disease several weeks later.”Another man, Michael Lopez, 79, “experienced stroke-like symptoms.” His family said he was rushed to an emergency room via ambulance. While there, he “experienced unnecessary surgery, fear of death and psychosis.” Fuller said:“We’re going to have individual trials for each person because each person’s experience and injuries are a little bit different…We’re going to try to settle as many as we can. See, a lot of my clients are elderly, in their late 70s; they have no interest in prolonged litigation.”Earlier this year, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission “recalled hundreds of select-brand CBD tinctures produced by Cura Cannabis Solutions because they contained undisclosed levels of THC.” The agency also eventually recalled “hundreds of select-brand THC drops for not having any THC in them.”In 2020, Cura Cannabis CS of Portland, Oregon was acquired by Curaleaf Holdings, “the world’s largest cannabis company by revenue.” When asked about the lawsuits, a representative with Curaleaf Holdings said:“A team member confused two containers during the filling and packaging process, one containing CBD and one containing THC…This resulted in a single batch of CDB tincture being labeled as THC Drops and vice versa. The amount of THC was within the regulatory limit for a normal batch for our THC drops, but we understand that some customers may have consumed multiple doses.”The representative also noted that the company “implemented new controls to ensure such a mix-up doesn’t happen again, including increased training and camera monitoring.” They added, “We have also added a new Quality Technician position to Oregon, and have removed the individual responsible for the error during the filling and packaging process.”

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