Northwest Arkansas man believes he’s a victim of CBD mislabeling

HARRISON, Ark. (KY3) - An Arkansas man raised concern about the mislabeling of CBD products.

The man believes the products may contain Delta-8 THC, which causes physiological effects. CBD is a chemical found in marijuana. CBD doesn’t contain tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient found in marijuana that produces a high. The usual

CBD formulation is oil, but CBD is also sold as an extract, a vaporized liquid, and an oil-based capsule.

One Arkansas resident recently purchased products from the vapor store Vapor Maven in Harrison labeled as strictly CBD, only to later find out that wasn’t the case.

“I had a therapist that recommended some CBD and went to a shop and bought what was labeled as CBD, and it wasn’t,” said the man. “I’m sitting there in the middle of work, and all of a sudden, I’m stoned, I’m high. It’s like, this is not right. What’s going on here?”

This Arkansas resident says he was trying CBD products to help with stress and PTSD. After a severe reaction to the product, a drug test only confirmed that he had THC in his system.

The victim followed up with the store, which forwarded him to the Springdale-based distributor, where he found no answers. We tried to reach them Wednesday and were unsuccessful.

Vapor Maven in Harrison says it has taken action since being notified of the issue.

“When the customer brought it to our attention, we brought them off the shelf. We’ve kept them off the shelf,” said associate Shawna Moreland. “We’re trying to vendor return them and trying to figure out what happened.”

Vapor Maven says the product is labeled as an “in-house blend” from the distributor, which ensures it’s THC free. But it’s not taking chances.

“We want to make sure we’re getting them the right product that is going to help them as opposed to getting them in trouble like this situation,” said Moreland.

The state medical marijuana commission says they do not regulate CBD and Delta-8.

“It’s, I don’t want to say it’s the wild west when it comes to CBD,” said Scott Hardin, with the commission. “But really, when it comes to packaging, there really aren’t any clear standards for CBD packaging in the state, and that raises a lot of concerns in itself.”

Hardin says the state medical marijuana commission can only oversee the 38 dispensaries and the 90,000-plus consumers with medicinal cards.

“From the state level, we’ve received quite a few calls from across the state who have had similar incidents,” said Hardin. “They’ll ask, ‘what do we do and we refer them to local law enforcement. I think the bottom line is it’s not to say there aren’t valuable CBD products out there. Arkansans need to be very careful when looking to purchase these products and where they get them from.”

As for the victim, he’s just fearful of any consequences.

“I would just like to find out who the manufacturer is. I mean, if I were to lose my job, I would like someone to be responsible for that,” he said. “Because clearly it was mislabeled packaging, that much was admitted to.”

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