Blowing smoke? Lawsuit accuses popular cannabis brand of overstating THC content in its joints | News
(Reuters) – A Canadian medical marijuana company, which has filed for bankruptcy protection, has taken the unusual step of suing the company it was about to acquire, alleging it overstated the THC content of its dried-flower bud, according to a legal filing.
Aurora Cannabis Inc, which is now a part of Canopy Growth Corp, has filed a lawsuit in British Columbia, Canada, according to a court filing that did not identify the plaintiffs in the case. That filing was posted on the U.S. bankruptcy court’s website on Saturday.
Aurora and Canopy said in the legal documents that they are each suing the other over allegations the other failed to give adequate warnings about the potency of the cannabis they were acquiring.
“Canopy failed to offer a reasonable estimate of the cannabinoid content of its product, when it knew that such an estimate would have been likely to induce Plaintiffs into paying a higher price for its product and therefore would harm Plaintiffs’ financial condition,” the lawsuit says.
Canopy Growth said on Monday that it was informed by Aurora that the company was pursuing legal action and said Aurora was the “first to suggest doing so.”
The cannabis industry was rocked last month when Aurora Cannabis pleaded guilty to two counts of felony drug conspiracy, admitting that it had illegally sold cannabis to two British Columbia patients in order to boost sales.
The company, based in Northern California, acknowledged that it had sold marijuana oil to a British Columbia woman suffering from chronic kidney disease. It sold a batch of dried cannabis flower to a woman suffering from spastic colon to treat the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome.
Aurora had said the sold cannabis was part of a medical research project that had been approved by Health Canada, but that it had violated Canadian law because it had been grown and packaged before getting the green light.
On July 23, Canadian federal and provincial authorities executed search warrants on the homes and offices of executives of Aurora, Canopy and two other companies, all of which were part of Aurora’s massive acquisition spree,