Recently a reader wrote in to our dab Connection forums to inquire about a cartridge brand they’d picked up. We encourage readers to do this, by the way! Since regulation of this industry is so hit-and-miss, it’s up to us consumers to look out for ourselves. For now, we’ll dive into Innocent carts and see if we can discover their origin.
Innocent Extracts is a tough brand name to track down
We see this a lot with black market cartridge brands. Many of them will have a brand name so generic (like “lit” or “smart”) that finding their source on the Internet is next to impossible. Let’s first examine the packaging:
We have white lettering on a black box, with little to distinguish it beyond the stylized “o” with a cannabis leaf in the middle. The cartridge itself has a giant “CA” triangle which is the state of California’s universal symbol and appears on all black market vape cart packaging even if it’s never been near California. This particular photo comes from a Reddit thread where the user picked the cartridge up in Atlanta, now the heart of cannabis prohibition country.
Innocent Extracts packaging imitates Rove
We also see the wood tip, which is also common in black market packaging from China. So far, this looks very typical for generic fake vapes. You will notice the box also imitates the well-known and widely ripped off Rove brand. The notched holes in the boxes are identical!
One last red flag: a “1.1G” cartridge. Many black market carts put this on the packaging to make you think you’re getting a better deal. The QR code on the box goes to a Confident Cannabis test page without being marked as a California Compliance test or an R&D / QA test, so it’s not worth the pixels it’s printed on. Every fake brand in the world has a QR code going to a fake lab test page; we don’t even bother to check them all anymore.
We also tried going to the Instagram account listed on the box. No such account! Either it’s taken down or never existed. We find almost no activity on Innocent Extracts on Instagram for a change, which is very weird, since real brands have social media exposure and fake brands have a million plugs all trying to claim they’re the real McCoy.
False starts: These brands are not the Innocent you’re looking for
Ingrown farms has a line of products called “Innocent” but note the different logo.
We find an Instagram account for “Innocent,” a brand of “membrane” cartridge. It took us a while there to figure out that the tattoo industry uses a kind of cartridge too, and this brand has nothing to do with cannabis extract.
Here’s their booth at a show. With so many cartridge brands sold in stacks of boxes on tables at an underground sesh, it’s easy to mistake them if it weren’t for the tattoo gun. So be advised, it’s not the one with the nuns.
One thing we don’t find for sure is any company claiming to be this brand of Innocent cartridges online!
Lots of people asking about Innocent carts
A final red flag: If you go looking for a company and all you find is other people asking the same thing!
- 11 months ago: Innocent extracts Bruce Banner cart
- 1 year ago: Video showing the box and Instagram account – which does not exist!
- 5 months ago: Somebody speculates that these are from a sole provider – plausible
- 5 months ago: A user from Ohio, box looks beat-up
- 1 year ago: The classic “mystery plug from Cali”
- 1 year ago: Accompanies by TKO carts, which are faker than fake
- 6 months ago: User says they got it for $25
The Verdict: Innocent Extracts have been proven guilty!
They will be sentenced to the fake carts list and we shall advise all readers to stay clear of them!
Compelling evidence:
- No website
- No INSTAGRAM???
- Copied Rove box (Did they have some blank Rove cardboard forms sitting around?)
- CA logo while distributing in non-CA states (not convicting, because some brands are multi-state)
- QR code on box goes to fake lab test
- Somebody else also asked about Innocent Extracts earlier this month, reporting the same sketchy details
So, not so Innocent after all.
Fake carts like Innocent Extracts may contain anything
There is a deadly epidemic of lung illness tied to black market cart usage. Vaping-associated pulmonary injury has so far claimed 64 lives and hospitalized more than 2700 users – since then the CDC has stopped tracking these in the wake of COVID. Fake cart lung injury was the main health story in the news in 2019 before COVID-19 cases pushed it off the front page, but people are still getting sick off boof street carts. Unregulated vape carts could contain heavy metals like lead, pesticides, cut such as Honey Cut, or simply bunk. Or they could be fire if you’re lucky. But there’s a lot of people in the hospital right now who weren’t lucky.
Readers, thank you for your vigilance in bringing these to our attention! Who knows, we might be saving a life or two around here. Share more info about Innocent Extracts in the comments below and report suspicious carts to our forum.
