Idaho Man Sues Curaleaf After Taking Mislabeled CBD

Idaho man Jason Crawforth is suing Curaleaf, the cannabis company behind an Oregon product recall last week, claiming he took Curaleaf’s high-THC Select drops rather than their high-CBD Select drops, which landed him in the emergency room, The Oregonian reports. At least thirteen other people reported taking Curaleaf’s mislabeled Select brand CBD drops, the report says, resulting in at least two other lawsuits filed last week.

According to the suit, Crawforth bought what he thought was a high-CBD tincture around the end of August and later ingested it while camping in Nevada in early September.

“My body started shaking. I couldn’t stop my arms and legs from quivering. And my mind was disappearing.” — Jason Crawforth, via OregonLive

After abandoning his camping trip due to the symptoms, Crawforth took a second dose of the contaminated Curaleaf drops and went back to Idaho. Still unaware of the THC/CBD mix-up, his symptoms returned but this time he was driving his motor home.

“If my friend wasn’t with me, I would have driven that motor home off the road or crashed into a car coming the other way,” he said.

He did not know he had ingested THC until after checking into an emergency room and doctors told him he had THC in his system. After a friend who also took drops from the same bottle went to the ER, Crawforth put two and two together and contacted Oregon regulators, who said Crawforth filed the first report alerting them to the mix-up, according to the report.

The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) said last week that Curaleaf had mixed up their Select CBD drops with a high-THC blend. Curaleaf blames the event on “human error,” saying in a statement that the company is “grateful to the OLCC and individuals who brought this serious matter to our attention.”

“We sincerely apologize to all customers impacted by this mistake,” the company said.

Crawforth says he is still feeling the effects from the un-wanted high, saying he has aged “20 years in three weeks.”

“I’ve never had a product that was mislabeled, and it’s quite scary when you get something that you’re not anticipating,” he said. “I want other people to not have to go through something like this. There should have been better controls in place.”