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 Brandan Flores and Brandie Larrabee allege that distributor and
retailer LivWell has for years applied Eagle 20, a fungicide that
contains the chemical myclobutanil, to its marijuana crop.
The fungicide is approved for certain edible agricultural crops, but
not for smokable products such as tobacco, according to the
complaint filed in Denver District Court.
"As such, persons who smoke cannabis that has been sprayed with
Eagle 20 inhale ... poisonous hydrogen cyanide," the lawsuit said.
Along with the District of Columbia, four states - Colorado
Washington, Oregon and Alaska - allow the possession and use of
marijuana for recreational purposes. Nearly two dozen states have
medical marijuana laws on their books.
The plaintiff's lawyer, Steven Woodrow, said the complaint was the
first product liability action filed against the legal marijuana
industry that he is aware of, and he was seeking class-action status
for the lawsuit.
Flores, a recreational cannabis user, and Larrabee, a brain-tumor
patient who holds a medical marijuana card, are not alleging that
they were sickened by the chemical, but that they would not have
smoked pot they bought from LivWell if they had known it contained
the fungicide.
They are asking for reimbursement of money they spent on a product
they cannot use, and are also demanding that LivWell stop using the
fungicide on its cannabis crop.
According to court documents, LivWell maintains its plants are safe.
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"Testing of our finished product by an independent, state-licensed
lab approved by the City of Denver showed that our products are safe
– as we have always maintained," LivWell's owner, John Lord, said in
a statement.
Neither Lord nor his lawyer immediately responded to requests for
comment.
Earlier this year, Denver health regulators withheld some 60,000 of
LivWell's plants from sale until the levels of the chemical were
tested, the lawsuit said.
The plants were later released for sale after low levels of the
chemical were detected, according to the lawsuit, but that did not
remove the harm the chemical can cause, the complaint alleged.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Victoria Cavaliere and
Richard Pullin)
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