Regulators Knew This Marijuana Product Was Harming People. It Stayed on Shelves for More Than a Year.

Jenifer Chatting and her husband, Luke, at home. Jenifer was diagnosed with liver damage after taking marijuana-based sleep pills. Stephen Swofford/The Denver Gazette In March 2022, Colorado public health officials started getting startling reports of liver damage tied to a new marijuana-based sleep aid that had quickly become a top seller in the state. But it wasn’t until June 2023, nearly 15 months later, that the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division would warn consumers that the danger had become so serious that the manufacturer had halted production of the sleep pills, called 1906 Midnight Drops, after more reports of “acute liver injury.” The delay highlights a slew of weaknesses in the system for protecting consumers from hazardous products in the nation’s first regulated recreational marijuana market.