Curaleaf, one of New York’s medical cannabis operators, has pulled tens of thousands of units of cannabis from dispensary shelves after the company switched to an unauthorized way of labeling potency that led patients to believe the cannabis they purchased was much stronger than usual.
Curaleaf began displaying “dry weight” measurements on its products in July without approval from the Office of Cannabis Management and without alerting customers. While all products in NY show “wet weight” measurement, the “dry weight” method shows significantly higher THC percentages, making cannabis more enticing for buyers looking for the biggest bang for their buck.
For example, the same product could show a THC percentage of 20% using wet weight measurement – but as high as 37% using dry weight testing.
“The higher the potency of the flower, the more sales of that item we see,” said Geoff Brown, a pharmacist at MedMen in Buffalo and co-founder of CannaBuff magazine. The switch to dry weight testing resulted in “a remarkable increase in sales” of Curaleaf’s product at his store, Brown said but left dispensary staff with questions over the significantly higher potency.
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