California company hit with $128 million fine over pot gummies
CaliforniaMarijuana Industry News December 9, 2022 MJ Shareholders 0
A California pot company has been hit with a $128 million fine for illegally producing millions of cannabis gummies.
On Monday, a Los Angeles judge ruled that the makers of the popular Kushy Punch gummies were guilty of illegally producing cannabis products at an unlicensed Los Angeles facility. The illicit goods were worth millions of dollars, according to state investigators. The judge ordered the company and its executives to pay a $128 million penalty to the state.
The fine may be the largest cannabis penalty in state history.
A spokesperson for the Department of Cannabis Control said the agency is unaware of any fine larger than Monday’s ruling. Jennifer Fisher, a San Francisco attorney who specializes in cannabis, said the $128 million is probably the biggest cannabis fine in state history.
“I would be surprised if there was a judgment bigger than this — I’ve never seen it in my practice,” Fisher told SFGATE.
The fine stems from a 2019 investigation in which the state found that Vertical Bliss, the company formerly behind the Kushy Punch brand, had illegally produced 3.3 million cannabis gummies worth a combined $64 million. Vertical Bliss had a state license to produce cannabis products at a facility in the Los Angeles County town of Chatsworth, but an anonymous tip led investigators to a second facility in the nearby town of Canoga Park, according to court documents. [Read More at SF Gate]
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