Michigan revokes marijuana company’s license after inspectors find illicit, untagged cannabis
The Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency ordered an already suspended marijuana business in Shiawassee County’s Corunna to destroy all of its marijuana products, and then revoked its license.
The CRA in a statement issued Thursday said inspectors discovered suspected illicit and unlicensed marijuana, in addition to other rules violations, during an Oct. 6 site visit to discuss the business’s inoperable camera system.
The business, Candid Labs, which also operates under the name Layercake Farms 2 at 1850 Parmenter in Corunna, is located about 30 miles west of Flint. It had its licenses suspended in February and destroyed its marijuana inventory the week of May 28, the CRA said.
“When licensees don’t act within the laws and rules that govern the cannabis industry, we must act swiftly to protect the public,” CRA Director Brian Hanna said. “By revoking these state operating licenses, we are holding true to the CRA’s promise that egregious actions jeopardizing public health and safety will be taken seriously and have consequences.”
MLive was unable to reach Candid Labs representatives for comment. The CRA hasn’t responded to MLive questions regarding how much marijuana the business destroyed.
The business processes marijuana products, including making THC concentrates, and has at least eight active medical marijuana grow licenses that allow for up to 12,000 marijuana plants.
It’s the company’s grow facility that initially caught the CRA’s attention. The business notified the CRA that its required video surveillance system was “malfunctioning during its harvest,” the CRA complaint said.
CRA personnel found 38 cameras were “inoperable and showing black screens,” a statement issued by the CRA said. An employee told inspectors the problem was caused by rats that chewed through the wires, and portions of available footage “cut to a black screen numerous times for long periods of times,” the CRA said.
While on site, inspectors looked into the processing facility that is located at the same address, the CRA said.
“CRA staff observed five tall, cylindrical glass jars with green lids each labeled with ‘Labyrinth Xtracts Ultra Fine Distillate Oil’ and a ‘Hempire State Growers Hudson Valley New York’ sticker inside” a storage trailer, the agency said. Inspectors “observed that the tall cylindrical jars were filled to the top with what appeared to be marijuana distillate and were without Metrc tags.”
Metrc is a tracking system that allows the CRA to monitor marijuana products from seeds until they reach customers as finished products. Marijuana and resulting products must be accompanied by Mertc tags intended to ensure the products come from a licensed source and is properly tested.
CRA inspectors found another nine jars and four pots containing forms of suspected THC oil extracted from cannabis plants. Certain THC oils are created using what is called biomass, trimmings and less marketable portions of the cannabis plant. Oil can be turned into products like vaping cartridges and edibles.
“Candid Labs’ employees maintained that the (untagged) products were made from biomass kept on the licensed premises,” the CRA said. Inspectors sent samples of the oil testing and determined the samples could not have come from the onsite biomass.
Michigan inspectors also found fresh, untagged frozen flower in refrigerated trailer, up to 10 mature untagged cannabis plants inside a white van, “at least four large black trash bags filled to the top with (untagged) marijuana,” and untagged plants in a field and in greenhouses.
Complaints filed against the business’s medical and recreational processing licenses contained a combined total of 28 license violations, the CRA said.
