Photo by Zach Bauman
So far in 2025, the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) Division of Cannabis Regulation (DCR) has announced four separate recalls of cannabis products in the Missouri industry. These recalls come from companies Honey Green LLC, 1914 Carrollton Manufacturing LLC., Nodaway Holdings LLC, and Bootheel CannaCare Columbia LLC.
Earlier this month, DCR announced proposed rule changes to how the department administers recalls, changes to the microbusiness program, and individuals obtaining future licenses after being connected to previously non-compliant licenses. The department has been open to public feedback before finalizing the rules, which is set to conclude today, Thursday, Aug. 21. Feedback can be submitted through the department’s website.
Specifically looking at product recalls in the state, DCR currently has a few ways of spreading the news. The main facets that the department currently uses to update the public on product recalls are newsletters, press releases, website posts, and the department’s podcast. The department also has a notification system where individuals can opt in to receive information on particular subject matters.
But DCR Executive Director Amy Moore says that the organization is always looking at ways to improve how they get this information out. One supplementary way they are going about notifying consumers is through direct calls.
“We are looking at some additional technologies, and we’ve just started to implement them here, where we can do essentially outbound calls, and so that’s something we’re looking at,” Moore says. “If that would be something that we could do for a whole group, either by opting in or, for instance, we might be able to do that for the group of all patients in the state.”
Missouri Cannabis Trade Association (MoCannTrade) Spokesperson Jack Cardetti says that he believes much of the information gathered by the public on product recalls stems from media coverage.
“When a press release goes out about this, you see it covered quite a bit in the local news,” he says.
For the most part, it seems that, other than the Missouri Independent’s consistent coverage of the industry, most news organizations around the state conduct one-off reporting for recalls. And, at the end of the day, it should not be the duty of the media to get this information to consumers. DCR oversees the entire industry and should ensure that consumers receive this information in the most efficient way possible, especially considering that lives could be at risk.
The issue here revolves around timeliness. By the time the average consumer is notified that a product that they purchased has been recalled, it is pretty safe to assume that they have already consumed the product, due to lagging announcements along with the fact that the average cannabis user is unlikely to be signed up for DCR press releases, newsletters, or consistently checking the department’s website, podcast, or local news organizations for these updates.
There are differences between how states notify individuals of cannabis recalls. Looking into how Illinois and New Jersey inform consumers about product recalls, dispensaries are mandated to directly notify their affected customers if contact information is available.
With consumer contact information on hand, dispensaries in these two states are able to personally communicate possible recalls as soon as they become aware of the situation. This streamlines the process of getting this information into the hands of the public without the state’s regulatory departments having to create press releases and make the announcement through emails and on its website.
Now, with an uptick in recalls in the past couple of years, it raises the question: Why aren’t Missouri dispensaries directly reporting this information to their customers? It gets a little tricky here. Due to the way that Article 14 was written in the Missouri Constitution, DCR is prohibited from requiring dispensaries to gather information about consumers. As a result, there is no way for the department to enforce that dispensaries notify consumers when products have been recalled.
“It is an interesting idea and just a little problematic with the way the law is written, which I’m sure there are many good reasons for that, but it does make it difficult for us to put that requirement on them when we can’t also require them to gather the information they would need to accomplish the thing that we’re requiring them to do,” Moore says.
“When Missouri voters voted for marijuana legalization, they did want some level of privacy for customers,” Cardetti says. “And so, who purchased what at a particular dispensary is not necessarily public information.”
However, Moore says that some dispensaries in the state have assumed the responsibility of alerting consumers by choice.
“I do know that some licensed dispensaries have voluntarily taken on the task of trying to reach consumers or patients who have purchased a particular product,” she says.
Recently, the department announced that it will be conducting additional unannounced testing for cannabis products in the state. Moore says that the heightened number of recalls within the market has played a role in this practice by the department.
“That is part of it,” she says. “I wouldn’t say it was directly related to trying to catch issues ahead of time, though. It will be one of a bundle of things that will be helpful. I think a lot of how we’re improving is putting together processes for reviewing facilities, whether in person or through the statewide track and trace system, so trying to identify known red flags for non-compliance earlier on by particular types of inspections that we’re instituting and by that online review of data in the track and trace system.”
Ensuring that the track and trace system is consistent with products grown in Missouri seems to be a priority, considering that the Delta Extraction recall case revolved around the company infusing out-of-state hemp-derived THC within its products sold in the state.
Product recalls within the cannabis industry can stem from something as little as mislabeling an ingredient on the packaging. Cardetti says that MoCannTrade has been satisfied with the DCR being more informative on what instigated the recall process and ensuring Missourians that there have been no reports of adverse reactions.
“On recall issues in general, we think DCR has been moving in the right direction,” Cardetti says. “I think the frustrations early on were when they would announce a recall, there really wasn’t enough pertinent information included in that public announcement. If you go back and look at some of the first recalls they did versus the last few, there’s a lot more information about why the product is recalled. We think that’s vital.”
Moore says that the department is working diligently to identify when products must be recalled earlier. The randomized testing of facilities should help make that process more efficient.
“The goal would be to find as many of the issues as possible before the product even gets to a dispensary, much less than is sold to consumers,” she says. “Thankfully, here in Missouri, we haven’t had a lot of issues with consumers or patients having an adverse reaction, and having that be the first thing that we hear about that would initiate a recall. Instead, what we have found is non-compliance earlier on that has caused recalls. What we are trying to do is put additional oversight, additional procedures that will allow us to identify that non-compliance earlier, before the product spreads out across the state, and ideally, before it ever leaves the door of a dispensary.”
Due to the way that Article 14 is structured, the law would have to be revisited in order for the department to require dispensaries to directly contact consumers, similar to how Illinois and New Jersey operate. And while DCR is making efforts to be more efficient and transparent with product recalls, it should be clear for anyone familiar with product recalls that there cannot be a more effective way to alert consumers than a direct pipeline to contact them, and reassessing Article 14 to make this change is something industry leaders should consider.