On September 25, 2026, the Colorado Department of Revenue and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) issued a health and safety advisory for vaporizer delivery devices produced by Staycon LLC, which does business as Craft. The state found that 87 production batches across 11 product lines were made with an ingredient that contained methylene chloride, an industrial solvent that Colorado does not allow in marijuana manufacturing. The affected product was sold at 405 stores between March 27 and September 25.

Three days later, on September 28, Colorado’s expanded residual solvent testing took effect, adding methylene chloride to the required panel. Together, the two events say a lot about where contamination risk comes from and who is responsible for catching it.

How the contamination got in

According to Craft’s September 18 voluntary recall notice, the source was a botanically derived alpha-pinene, a terpene used to flavor some of its vapes. A Denver lab found the solvent in August while running routine pesticide and mold tests, and it notified both the company and the state. The recall followed about six weeks later, and the state advisory came a week after that.

That sequence matters. The contaminant came in through a purchased ingredient, and it was caught almost by accident, because the tests that would have flagged it weren’t required yet. Methylene chloride is also linked to the chemical conversion of hemp into THC, which Colorado bans, so regulators treat any detection as a serious finding no matter how it got there.

What changes with expanded solvent testing

The Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) first scheduled its expanded solvent panel for July 1, but delayed it because no labs had been certified to run the new tests yet. As of September 28, labs screen concentrates for 17 more solvents, and many of them, including methylene chloride, must come back non-detectable for a product to pass. One more solvent, triethylamine, will be enforced later, after MED gives businesses at least 72 hours of notice.

If your products passed under the old panel, don’t assume they’ll pass under the new one. A trace of a newly listed solvent in any ingredient can now fail an entire batch.

Lessons for manufacturers

• Qualify every ingredient, not just your concentrate. Terpenes, flavorings, and other additives often come from suppliers outside the regulated market. Ask each supplier for a certificate of analysis that covers the new solvent list, and consider having incoming lots independently tested before they go into production. 
• Trace ingredient lots to Production Batches. The advisory lists batches, not ingredients. If one terpene lot turns out to be contaminated, you need to know within hours which batches it went into. Otherwise, you may end up recalling everything you made over several months.
• Have your recall plan ready. Under Rule 3-336, a manufacturer running a recall must notify the stores that received affected product, give them disposition instructions, and confirm that each one followed through. A process written in advance moves much faster than one built the day you need it.

Lessons for retailers

• Check your inventory now. Look for manufacturer licenses 404R-00170 and 404-00489, and match Production Batch numbers against the advisory list. Pull any matches from saleable inventory and stop selling them right away.
• Follow the recall instructions. Don’t destroy the affected product at this time. Wait for disposition instructions from the manufacturer or direction from MED, then destroy the product under Rule 3-230 and record it in Metrc.
• Plan for consumer returns. The advisory tells consumers to bring affected product back to the store where they bought it. Make sure your staff know how to accept, log, and hold returned units with the rest of the recalled product.
• Keep the paperwork. Rule 3-905 requires stores to keep recall records. Save the advisory, the recall notice, and every related email and call log.

How Simplifya can help

The audit module in Simplifya Protect turns Colorado MED regulations into plain-language questions your team can answer, each one tied to the citation and paired with a specific corrective action when the answer is no. When Colorado’s laws change – which is happening on November 1st, 2026 due to annual rulemaking – our content updates accordingly so you can verify your compliance with current requirements.

The Smart Cabinet module handles the other half of the problem. It gives you one place to store the records that prove compliance, including supplier certificates of analysis, recall notices, and destruction logs, so they’re ready the day an investigator asks for them.

And if your written procedures haven’t kept up, our SOPs give you a head start. They’re built around your license type and the state’s current rules, so you can put a recall plan and an incoming ingredient review process in writing before the next advisory hits, not after.

Want to see what a Colorado audit looks like? Request a demo and we’ll walk you through it!