We’ve been hearing a lot of news lately about Cura Cannabis Solutions, and it seems their troubles have multiplied. Recently a couple in Portland Oregon have issued a class action lawsuit against the company for alleged false labeling of products.
The class action claims that Cura Cannabis mislabeled their products
In Multnomah County Circuit Court, Portland, Oregon, on January 31st, attorneys filed suit on behalf of Tom and Elena Powers, who claim they purchased Select brand vape products (made by Cura Cannabis) which were labeled to contain only cannabis oil, but allegedly were diluted with botanical terpenes from other sources.
Cura Cannabis has already been charged by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) with a $110K fine for their allegedly mislabeled product. The attorney filing this class action claims the judgement could come out to $37 million including statutory damages.
We’ve reviewed Select cartridges and gave them high marks
If the name “Select” rings a bell for some readers, it’s because we’ve reviewed Select Elites here and had almost nothing but good things to say about them. We reviewed them previously in 2018, and recommended them at that point as well. We also reviewed their disposable and gave it a passing grade. With all the space we’ve devoted to talking about Select, it’s very disconcerting to hear that the pure oil as advertised might not have been the real McCoy.
It is worth noting that the Portland Business Journal claims to have intercepted emails between Cura Cannabis and the OLCC explain that the mislabeling was simply a matter of “an internal communication problem and not an attempt to deceive.” The OLCC seems to concur, where one manager of marijuana technical operations summed up Cura Cannabis’ actions as “the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing.”
So maybe our faith isn’t so misplaced after all.
Claims of damages could be questionable
Mislabeling is still a problem, in view of the massive vape illness epidemic. The seriousness of this risk combined with how little we still understand about it means we could justifiably call for a zero-tolerance policy over misrepresentation of a vape cartridge’s ingredients.
However, there appears to be no associated health risks reported at this time with Cura Cannabis’ actions. The alleged additives would be botanical terpenes, which are well-documented as coming from many plant sources and not just cannabis. As long as the extraction process rendered pure terpenes, there should be no difference in health effects of a terpene from cannabis and a terpene from another plant source.
Cura Cannabis’ value has plummeted just before its sale to Curaleaf
The Massachusetts-based company Curaleaf has been in the process of purchasing Cura Cannabis for the better part of a business year. Cura Cannabis has had a tough time in the media with scandalous stories surrounding it. None of which seem to be ultimately the company’s fault, as far as anyone can observe so far. Meanwhile, Curaleaf itself has also been slapped with a class action as well, claiming securities fraud. This was well before the present activity with Cura Cannabis Solutions.
We are in the pioneer days of the cannabis industry, with barely a few years’ worth of experience doing business this way. It is perhaps inevitable that a few of the companies in this budding business sector will have a rocky start.
Readers, you can share your weigh-in on this latest development in the Cura Cannabis saga, here in the comments or in our forum.
