Colorado regulators took 15 months to warn about marijuana sleep product linked to liver injuries
ProPublica and The Denver Gazette found delays and weaknesses in Colorado’s warnings, testing and recall systems after reports involving 1906 Midnight Drops.
Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division took nearly 15 months to publicly warn consumers about 1906 Midnight Drops, a cannabis-based sleep product linked in reports to acute liver injury, an investigation by ProPublica and The Denver Gazette found.
By May 2024, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment had received 52 reports of harm involving the product, including at least 20 cases requiring medical care. A doctor told regulators in December 2022 that he had seen four patients with elevated liver enzymes in two months and believed Midnight Drops was responsible. The available material does not establish that the product caused every reported injury.
Midnight Drops initially contained corydalis, an extract containing a compound associated by researchers with severe liver injury. After complaints emerged, the manufacturer, Sima Sciences, reformulated the product, but regulators later concluded the replacement had the same chemical makeup as the compound linked to liver risks.
Sima Sciences stopped production in June 2023. However, a Colorado attorney general’s investigation found that the companies continued marketing the product for several months and did not adequately warn dispensaries to stop selling it. Sima Sciences and Peter Barsoom later agreed to pay $400,000 and not sell cannabis products in Colorado until at least 2027, while denying violations of consumer-protection laws.
The investigation also identified wider delays in Colorado’s marijuana safety system. Of 83 safety advisories issued over five years, the news organisations could establish complaint or investigation dates for 23; those warnings took an average of more than seven months. The Marijuana Enforcement Division withheld broader timing data and investigative files, limiting independent assessment of the delays.
Colorado has historically relied heavily on complaints, allows manufacturers to select testing samples and laboratories, and permits retesting after failed contamination tests. The state has limited compulsory recall powers and only recently launched a pilot random-sampling programme. The division disputes the news organisations’ characterisation of its processes and progress, saying consumer safety remains a priority.
