The Oregonian | By Mike Rogoway | February 28, 2022
An Oregon court settlement is preparing to begin paying out up to $200 to people who bought vapes that were improperly labeled as 100% marijuana.
Portland-based Cura Cannabis agreed to pay a $110,000 “dishonest conduct” penalty in a January 2020 settlement with Oregon marijuana regulators. The company’s former owners then agreed last year to a separate, $500,000 class-action settlement to people who bought the Select brand marijuana vapes.
The case administrators said Sunday they are ready to begin taking claims at oregonclassactionsettlement.com. Claim forms are also available by writing to Cura Settlement, c/o CPT Group, Inc, 50 Corporate Park, Irvine, CA 92606; or by emailing oregonclassactionsettlement@cptgroup.com.
Claimants must have purchased Select Elite, Select Pax or Select Dabbables vapes between Aug. 15, 2018 and Nov. 22, 2019. The packaging on the eligible products did not note that ingredients included botanical terpenes.
The deadline for filing a claim or opting out of the settlement is April 29.
Portland attorney Michael Fuller, who led the case for plaintiffs, said claimants will receive their settlement by check, direct bank deposit or through PayPal or Venmo. He said he modeled the settlement after a 2014 Oregon class-action against BP, ensuring that claimants receive cash rather than coupons or some other form of diminished compensation.
Up to 186,000 Oregonians bought the mislabeled vapes, but the settlement forecast that fewer than 1% will actually file claims because Oregon marijuana sales are cash only and because buyers bought the vapes through third-party retailers.
The settlement pays out $200 per claim, unless the number of claims exceeds the funds available. Any unclaimed funds will be split evenly between the Oregon State Bar and a consumer advocacy nonprofit, the Oregon Consumer League.
Attorneys in the case are seeking a quarter of the $500,000 settlement, which amounts to $125,000.
Cura is now owned by a Massachusetts company called Curaleaf, which is facing a separate investigation by Oregon regulators for inadvertently including THC – the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana – in CBD wellness drops sold in Oregon last year.
At least four people reported going to emergency rooms after unwittingly consuming the tainted wellness drops. Curaleaf has settled 10 individual lawsuits in that case. At least one suit is still pending.
