JEFFERSON CITY – Cannabis regulators in Missouri have closed three marijuana facilities in the state due to “potential product safety concerns.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Senior Services, regulators of Missouri’s medical and recreational marijuana programs, said the agency had “suspended operations for three facilities to investigate potential product safety concerns” last week.
Health department spokeswoman Sami Jo Freeman said “all products related to these investigations will be placed on administrative hold until the product is deemed safe, remediated or destroyed.”
Freeman didn’t immediately provide additional information, including which facilities were suspended.
“Investigations are ongoing, so we cannot comment further at this time,” Freeman said.
The Missouri cannabis industry publication Greenway Magazine reported Thursday hundreds of products had been placed on hold.
Holds initially began Wednesday, the outlet reported.
Missouri as of late July had 67 licensed cultivators, 89 manufacturers and 215 dispensaries, according to state records.
Missouri cannabis regulations don’t allow cannabis flower to be delivered to dispensaries until it passes mandatory testing, outlined in state regulations.
The testing is conducted by companies licensed by health department’s Division of Cannabis Regulation.
Testing licensees aren’t allowed to be owned by an “entity or entities under substantially common control, ownership, or management” as a cultivator, manufacturer or dispensary, according to the regulations.
It’s not the first time the state has investigated product safety concerns.
Regulators in 2020 investigated a complaint of moldy medical marijuana sold at a St. Louis dispensary, the Springfield News-Leader reported at the time.
The grower that was subject to the complaint, Perryville-based Archimedes, told the News-Leader the product “passed all state-mandated testing” and that the company conducted further testing after a consumer complaint.
Archimedes, along with two other license-holders, in 2022 signed an agreement with the state forcing the owners to surrender their licenses and destroy their product, the Post-Dispatch reported last year.
