A Colorado manufacturer of a popular brand of marijuana vapes warned dispensaries last week that it is recalling products due to contamination by methylene chloride, a chemical the Environmental Protection Agency has sought to ban for most uses because it can cause cancer.
The recall comes amid a protracted delay in state implementation of expanded testing procedures that would have detected methylene chloride and other solvents that pose health risks.
The manufacturer, StayCon, voluntarily flagged 49 of its products, some of which first went up on dispensary shelves more than a year and a half ago. The recalled items include vapes that go by the brand name Maui Wowie and Grape Gorilla. The recall notice said a “botanically-derived” flavoring compound used in its marijuana vapes contained methylene chloride.
The owner of the third-party lab that detected the toxic solvent, which can be used to strip paint, said that he notified the company and the state six weeks before StayCon issued its recall. The state has yet to issue its own alert to consumers. Kyle Boyd, a spokesperson for the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division, told The Denver Gazette and ProPublica that the agency “does not comment on investigations” in response to a question about why it hasn’t made the recall public.
The Denver Gazette and ProPublica reported this month that regulatory loopholes in Colorado have allowed contaminated marijuana products that pose health risks to continue being sold to consumers for months, sometimes even years. Regulators have been slow to provide public warnings even after they’ve received reports of consumer harm. Earlier this year, the publications also reported on the dangers of methylene chloride as part of an investigation into Colorado’s failure to adopt many regulations used by other states to keep intoxicating hemp products off marijuana shelves.
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Methylene chloride can be used to cheaply synthesize hemp into THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana that makes people high. That chemically converted hemp is then falsely labeled and sold as marijuana-based products. State law bans the chemical conversion process and prohibits marijuana manufacturers from using methylene chloride, which the EPA banned for most uses in 2024. This month the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit struck down the EPA ban and sent the matter back to the agency for further review.
The still-unimplemented testing rule for methylene chloride and 30 other solvents was meant to align Colorado’s standards with requirements that are already in place in 24 of the 43 states with regulated marijuana markets. The new testing was supposed to be implemented in July — nearly three months before StayCon told dispensaries it was recalling products. A spokesperson for the Marijuana Enforcement Division said the state public health department, which reviews labs and recommends their certification, told his agency it needed more time.
Implementation, he said, will begin at the end of this month.
Denver-based Bona Fides Laboratory in August detected the methylene chloride that prompted Friday’s recall notice during routine testing for other contaminants such as pesticides and mold. Lab owner David Mathis said he immediately notified the state and StayCon. He criticized state regulators for delaying implementation of the new testing rules, saying his company had been ready to conduct expanded screening since the start of July.
“How many samples were not tested but have contaminants in them and were passed to the public?” Mathis said.
StayCon, a Pueblo County-based company doing business as Craft, did not respond to questions from The Denver Gazette and ProPublica about its recall.
Even as the new testing protocols are set to go into effect, the state has backed away from plans to close a related and longstanding regulatory loophole: Manufacturers still get to choose the samples that labs test and the labs that do the testing.
Regulators in January said they were considering overhauling sampling rules to require lab personnel to collect samples, but they backed down after top manufacturers said it would be too expensive.
