Key points:
- Several dozen plaintiffs from 12 states filed a class-action lawsuit against three major cannabis companies.
- The lawsuit alleges the cannabis firms marketed adult-use cannabis products using deceptive claims of medical benefits.
- The plaintiffs are represented by an Illinois attorney who’s used similar tactics in the past.
An Illinois attorney with a longstanding grudge against the U.S. cannabis industry filed a federal class-action lawsuit on Monday against three major cannabis multistate operators, alleging the MSOs used “deceptive marketing” to mislead consumers about the drug’s health benefits, court records show.
Illinois-based MSOs Cresco Labs. Green Thumb Industries and Verano Holding Corp. portrayed “cannabis products to recreational users as safe and appropriate for widespread use despite scientific evidence to the contrary,” according to a lawsuit filed by several dozen plaintiffs represented by Patrick Kenneally, a former Illinois county prosecutor now in private practice.
If Kenneally’s gambit is successful, the lawsuit could force an enormous settlement akin to the $206 billion payouts tobacco giants doled out in the late 1990s.
And it could drastically rewrite cannabis companies’ marketing playbooks.
Why are cannabis companies being sued over medical claims?
According to the suit, the plaintiffs “suffered economic injury as a direct and proximate result” of purchasing cannabis.
The plaintiffs, who the lawsuit says “purchased one or more cannabis products” in one of 12 states with adult-use markets, are seeking unspecified damages as well as a judge’s order that would halt the cannabis companies from making claims “regarding the medicinal, health or therapeutic benefits” of “marijuana sold through a recreational or adult-use” retailer, the lawsuit claims.
In a statement to The Free Press, Kenneally said the suit is meant to force marijuana businesses to “warn consumers about the well-known, obvious, and scientifically validated dangers of cannabis.”
In a statement to MJBizDaily, a spokesperson for Verano called Kenneally’s suit “part of a broader litigation campaign that plaintiffs’ counsel has brought against several multistate cannabis operators.”
The spokesperson also said the suit “mirrors claims that have been rejected by courts in similar legal actions against multistate operators in the industry earlier this year.”
Who is suing marijuana companies over medical claims?
Kenneally is affiliated with Smart Approaches to Marijuana, the country’s leading anti-marijuana legalization group. Kevin Sabet, a former staffer in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy who is the group’s executive director, frequently compares marijuana companies to Big Tobacco.
It’s at least the second time in recent weeks that Kenneally has gone to the courts to oppose cannabis broadly. Kenneally is the attorney of record in the March lawsuit filed against the Trump administration that seeks to halt a nascent reimbursement program for CBD treatments.
It’s also the latest in a series of lawsuits brought against cannabis companies by members of the public who allege cannabis firms misled them about products’ “safety and legality,” court records show.
One such lawsuit brought against Verano was dismissed in March, according to records.
It’s not immediately clear why Kenneally and his clients picked the three Illinois MSOs as targets in the suit.
The lawsuit cites various marketing materials that promote “best marijuana strains for depression” or describe the potential effect of cannabinoids or terpenes as examples of false or deceptive marketing.
Notably, the lawsuit does not claim damages regarding “purchases of cannabis pursuant to a physician’s prescription or order.”
Medical cannabis is now a Schedule 3 drug in the United States, a classification that recognizes medical benefits, after the Trump administration took formal action late last month.
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Should cannabis companies be forced to warn consumers of health risks?
This is also at least the second time Kenneally has taken legal action against Green Thumb specifically.
And the last time, cannabis firms were forced to pay for an advertising campaign that connected the drug to suicide and poor career outcomes.
As state’s attorney in rural McHenry County, Illinois, in 2023, Kenneally threatened to sue the companies that operated the four licensed cannabis retailers in that county.
As part of a settlement, those cannabis stores became the “first in the country to be required to warn customers through in-store signage of the mental health dangers of cannabis and abstain from marketing their products as medicine,” Kenneally wrote in a blog post.
The companies also paid Kenneally’s office $100,000 to fund billboards that warned of cannabis’ links to severe mental health problems including schizophrenia and suicide.
“Cannabis is not medicine, but a noxious substance that causes or exacerbates the mental health disorders it purportedly treats,” Kenneally wrote.
Chris Roberts can be reached at chris.roberts@mjbizdaily.com.
