Colorado Grower Fighting Back Over Product Recall

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Pesticide-related product recalls in Colorado’s cannabis industry have become increasingly common over the past year, but possibly for the first time, a company facing a “massive” recall is decrying the action by the state and claiming it never used the pesticide officials say contaminated its samples.

MGI Inc., which does business as Kindman, is the target of a recall involving possibly dozens of strains grown over a nearly two-year period, according to the Denver Post. The recall was initiated by state officials after samples from Kindman tested positive for imidacloprid, an insecticide not approved for use on cannabis.

But Kindman CEO Ryan Fox said in a statement on Thursday that his company “absolutely has not used this pesticide in production.”

“We are contesting these findings and are attempting to have the hold released,” Fox said in the statement. “We believe the test process is faulty and that the Colorado Department of Agriculture has potentially cross-contaminated our samples during testing.”

A subsequent statement from the company, however, appeared to indicate that Kindman might not have any recourse.

The second statement quoted cannabis attorney Rachel Gillette as saying that Kindman has no way to verify the state’s testing results, although another independent lab tested Kindman samples and came back with different findings.

Which means that other companies may have to simply take the state’s word for it if officials declare that they’ve found cannabis testing positive for banned pesticides.