Denver’s Regulatory Lag: Why Hazardous Cannabis Products Linger on Store Shelves
Colorado regulators averaged over seven months to post health advisories following consumer safety complaints.
For many years now, cannabis brands have looked beyond classic THC and CBD formulations. To stand on crowded dispensary shelves, manufacturers have, among other things, embraced “botanical blends.” These products tend to fuse cannabis extracts with traditional herbal supplements, and have targeted outcomes such as improved energy, focus and sleep.
An investigative report co-published by The Denver Gazette and ProPublica has exposed that one such product went unchecked for months, exposing systemic flaws in how state regulators protect consumers when certain formulations prove hazardous.
At the epicenter of the controversy is Sima Sciences, the manufacturer behind the popular 1906 brand of cannabis tablets. Their flagship sleep aid, 1906 Midnight Drops, combined active cannabinoids with Corydalis yanhusuo, a traditional Chinese botanical long prized for its sedative and pain-relieving qualities.
What received less attention in early promotional materials was that Corydalis contains active plant alkaloids that clinical literature has also have linked to rare cases of liver strain or toxicity.
Health Complaints and Initial Responses
According to the story published by The Denver Gazette and ProPublica, Colorado public health officials received their first formal report of a severe liver damage linked to the sleep drops in March 2022. One of the most serious cases concerns Jenifer Chatting, a surgical assistant who began taking the drops for insomnia.
Six months after starting the product, Chatting reportedly developed debilitating full-body cramps and severe internal distress. By the time her dispensary stopped stocking the drops, medical records confirmed she had suffered catastrophic liver damage, with her physician noting she would ultimately require an organ transplant.
Court records and state documentation uncovered by reporters showed that Sima Sciences had actually begun receiving consumer complaints regarding liver illness shortly after launching the line, and nearly two years before public health officials were brought into the loop. Yet, because the product contained legal herbal supplements rather than banned chemical contaminants, the mechanism for pulling it off dispensary shelves proved painfully slow.
Systemic Delays in Consumer Safety
The joint investigation laid bare a troubling timeline in Colorado’s regulatory response. Despite receiving initial injury reports in early 2022, the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division waited four months to issue any public notice.
When it finally did, the agency posted a neutrally worded “informational notification” stating that no regulatory violations had been found, rather than an explicit health and safety warning instructing consumers to stop taking the product. It took until June 2023, or nearly 15 months after the first received complaint, for state regulators to issue a formal Health and Safety Advisory acknowledging the risk of acute liver injury and announcing that production had ceased.
This long delay was far from an anomaly. An analysis of state records by The Denver Gazette and ProPublica further revealed that Colorado regulators took an average of more than seven months to warn the public after receiving a complaint or opening an investigation into a hazardous product. Industry experts pointed out that federal food safety regulators, by contrast, face intense public criticism if they take more than two months to orchestrate a recall for contaminated food items.
Lessons for Future Regulatory Frameworks
Several structural loopholes allow this lag to persist. Colorado relies heavily on public website bulletins and media releases rather than exercising swift recall authority. Furthermore, under current rules, cannabis manufacturers are permitted to challenge state findings or adjust their formulas while continuing to sell existing inventory, allowing potentially dangerous batches to remain available to unsuspecting buyers.
The Midnight Drops case is not an indictment of botanical blends, which can offer genuine therapeutic value when formulated responsibly. Rather, it underscores the vital need for standardized extracts, rigorous safety testing, and clear labeling when combining active plant alkaloids with cannabinoids.
Above all, the case illustrates that legal cannabis frameworks must continually evolve alongside market innovation. Maintaining public confidence in regulated cannabis products depends on swift agency action and total manufacturer transparency whenever safety concerns arise, ensuring the legal market remains a safe space that always puts consumer health in the first place.
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Stephen Andrews
