Cannabis Brand Faces $100K Fine Over Mislabeled Packaging

An Oregon cannabis company must pay a $100,000 fine over a labeling error following a two-year battle with the state Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC), Willamette Week reports. Luminous Botanicals maintains that the error was an honest mistake and plans to petition for a judicial review of the fine – which is the maximum penalty – when allowed to do so.

Filing the appeal would send the case to the Oregon Court of Appeals.

Kevin Jacoby, the attorney representing Sally Alworth, the owner of Luminous Botanicals, told Willamette Week that the “six-figure penalty for what amounts to an unintentional mistake only serves to discourage people in the illegal industry from going legal.”

“If you can be ruined by an honest mistake, why go legal at all?” – Jacoby to Willamette Week

The violation stems from the company’s labels not being properly wrapped around the vials, which contained a THC tonic. The company distributed 35,000 vials to dispensaries and customers and the OLCC imposed a $400 per day fine violation for each vial. The OLCC said the labels were attached in a way that they could be easily removed, which rendered them dangerous, especially to consumers who did not understand proper dosing.

The OLCC defended the $100,000 fine, arguing that it is “that it is a ‘measured and reasoned application of the authorizing legislation and applicable rule,’ which takes into account matters of deterrence and the ‘significant but largely unmeasurable risk’ posed by improperly labeled (and potentially completely unlabeled) marijuana products to consumers, children, and the public at large.”

In April, the OLCC imposed a $10,000 fine to Cura Partners after it knowingly mislabeled 186,000 vape cartridges, the report says.