Dustin Walsh
This story was republished with permission from Crain’s Detroit and written by Dustin Walsh.
The Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency announced Thursday it permanently revoked the business licenses of Candid Labs near Owosso.
Candid Labs, doing business as Layercake Farms 2, is a medical and adult-use marijuana processor owned by Ramon Hana at 1850 Parmenter Road in Corunna.
The state agency alleges Candid intentionally disabled its 38-camera monitoring system, a state regulatory requirement, at its facility to conceal the fact that it was processing illegally purchased marijuana crude and distillate.
Management of Candid Labs claimed the wires on the camera were chewed through by rats, the CRA alleges in a press release issued Thursday.
During an October visit, regulators found marijuana distillate oil labeled by the business “Hempire State Growers Hudson Valley New York,” a CBD farm co-op in Milton, New York. The product was confirmed by state testing to not be CBD distillate, but THC-marijuana distillate.
It’s also illegal to import marijuana products across state lines.
The regulators also found several jars of distillate with no state identification tags, which the employees said came from biomass of marijuana in the facility. A test conducted by the state found that to be not true.
Candid Labs also operated its medical and adult-use processing operations in the same facility, a violation of state regulations.
Efforts to contact Hana for comment at numbers listed for him were unsuccessful.
It’s unclear what brands Candid Labs products were used to make. The state has said it would recall any product on shelves it deems unsafe. The state originally suspended Candid Labs licenses in February over a total of 28 regulatory violations. The state then sought to permanently suspend those licenses through the courts, which it achieved earlier this month.
Candid Labs’ Hana is also now prohibited from owning any marijuana facility or working for another marijuana firm. He also operates other facilities in Lansing, which he must close when the licenses expire.
“When licensees don’t act within the laws and rules that govern the cannabis industry, we must act swiftly to protect the public,” CRA Executive Director Brian Hanna, said in the press release. “By revoking these state operating licenses, we are holding true to the CRA’s promise that egregious actions jeopardizing public health and safety will be taken seriously and have consequences.”
The state has suspended several operating licenses for marijuana companies, including dispensary Green Culture in Flint and TAS Asset Holdings LLC in Lansing.
