New York quarantines $10 million worth of select cannabis products

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New York regulators have suspended the sale of several popular cannabis brands in the state pending an investigation into possible illegal “inversion.”

The state Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) on April 23 quarantined about $10 million worth of vaporizers, pre-rolls and other products sold by local brands as well as national operators mfused and Stiiizy, according to The New York Times.

The situation is the latest example of regulators investigating licensed marijuana businesses for potential use of the inversion practice – entering cannabis grown outside the state into regulated retail channels.

The quarantine order – which remained in effect as of Monday, an OCM spokesperson told MJBizDaily – also applied to products from local brands Animal, Bodega Boyz, Muha Meds, Smoke and To The Moon as well as some pre-rolls from Adonis Cannabis, according to the Times.

In a statement to the newspaper, Seattle-based mfused said it stands by its products.

Los Angeles-headquartered Stiiizy told the Times it believed no proof of inversion will turn up.

Most of the products in question are connected to a Long Island-based processor called Omnium Health, which does business as Omnium Canna, the newspaper reported.

State regulators are investigating the source of cannabis oil extracted by the company and whether it originated from outside legal channels, according to the Times.

The quarantine is disrupting retail activity in New York’s $1 billion regulated marijuana market, though some of the affected products were already sold to consumers during the 4/20 sales rush, the Times reported.

In a statement to the newspaper, Omnium claimed that regulators have already confirmed that “all extraction occurred at an approved location.”

The OCM did not immediately verify that claim on Monday.

The products will be released for sale or ordered destroyed via a recall depending on the outcome of the OCM’s investigation.

As MJBizDaily has reported, New York lacks a functioning track-and-trace system, leaving regulators mostly in the dark as to where products are sourced and where they eventually are sold.

However, operators from states with track-and-trace systems have claimed that such controls can be bypassed.