Retesting Requirements if Impacted by the Michigan Cannabis Recall

On November 17, 2021, the Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA) issued a recall of cannabis products that were tested at Viridis Laboratories, LLC and Viridis North, LLC between August 10, 2021, and November 16, 2021. The full impact at this point is still unknown. On November 23, 2021, Viridis Laboratories, LLC and Viridis North, LLC commenced a lawsuit against the MRA and some of its officials to challenge the MRA’s recall. The suit alleges that the scope of the recall covers nearly 65,000 pounds of cannabis flower worth nearly $230M.

With relatively little guidance from the MRA with respect to the recalled products, provisioning centers, retailers, growers, and processors are likely confused on what to do to comply with the recall and how to clear product from administrative hold so that it can be returned into the marketplace.

Products that were affected will need to be retested. Retesting requires two consecutive passing tests. In order to retest, you have three options according to the MRA:

1. The licensee from which the product originated is permitted to take all of the product back to its physical location, combine the child packages together for re-sampling, and then re-test accordingly.
2. The sales location may send the packages out for testing. These locations have been granted the ability to create test samples. On site, the laboratory should still sample 0.5% of the present batch.
3. If the licensee from which the product originated still has product on site, the laboratory may go to the source and obtain a sample that is representative of 0.5% of the original harvest batch weight. Once test results are entered, these results will trickle down to all sales locations.

There are a lot of questions surrounding the guidance here. Dykema can help you navigate the rules and provide you with next steps. We will also keep you updated on the status of Viridis’s lawsuit against the MRA, which seeks to overturn MRA’s recall. Feel free to contact John Fraser from our cannabis team to get answers to your questions.