Jacqueline Collins
Audio By Carbonatix
The Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division has issued a second health and safety advisory for potentially unsafe weed in less than one week, with the latest recall stretching back a year and affecting almost twenty dispensaries.
Six harvest batches of marijuana, shake and trim from Boulder growing operation Range Street LLC, which does business as Qualis Cultivation, tested positive for banned forms of mold and yeast, including aspergillus, according to a February 21 health advisory from the MED. Another 104 harvests are considered “potentially contaminated” by the MED because they were produced at the same time of the recalled marijuana but were not tested.
The recalled marijuana was sold between January 7, 2023, and January 4 of this year at nineteen dispensaries across Colorado, though most of the stores were located in Denver. Several of the dispensaries offered medical sales of Qualis marijuana as well, according to the MED notice, which lists nineteen stores that sold the recalled marijuana.
Strain names of the 110 recalled harvest batches were not listed, but all marijuana grown by Qualis has this growing license number: 403R-01183.
“Individuals who possess this affected product should destroy it or return it to the store from which it was purchased for proper disposal. Individuals who experience adverse health effects after consuming the affected product should seek medical attention immediately and report the event to the MED by submitting a MED Reporting Form,” the MED says in the recall.
Qualis did not respond to our request for comment.
This was the second marijuana recall issued by the MED in 2024, and it came just six days after another recall from wholesale grower Melody Genetics. That recall, also issued over mold, yeast and aspergillus concerns and improper testing procedures, affected 28 dispensaries.
Colorado Marijuana Mold Recalls
There were eighteen recalls issued by the MED in 2023, all of them connected to improper testing procedures or improper levels of mold, yeast or aspergillus. A common mold found indoors, outdoors and in marijuana samples, aspergillus can be inhaled through smoke and, in rare cases, can lead to the lung infection aspergillosis.
Over two dozen cases of aspergillosis associated with marijuana use have been reported across the country, two of which were fatal (neither death was in Colorado). The MED recently came out in defense of its aspergillus testing protocols, which look for four specific strains of aspergillus, but marijuana industry representatives and at least two lawmakers view the aspergillus requirement as unnecessary and burdensome.
Senate Bill 24-076, introduced by state Senator Kevin Van Winkle, would remove aspergillus from the MED’s list of tested contaminants, among a handful of other significant changes to Colorado marijuana regulations. That bill is still in its early stages, however, and hasn’t yet had a committee hearing.
