It Finally Happened

After 7 months, and $50,000 in revenue, it finally happened. An underage person bought a drink from me. Then they went to the hospital. Then they had a myocardial infarction. And then I got served.

It was great learning how to run a business, and learning chemistry in depth. But this is the end for me. My lawyer is telling me I can’t win this one, I can just reduce the penalty and hopefully it’ll be dissolution of the company and not every medical bill they incurred (wishful thinking).

Take aways for the people reading ; If you get big enough, even with all the liability in the world you can and will get sued eventually.

YOU NEED to structure your business correctly, I am not getting sued but the company is, it still sucks, but it could be much much worse.

Once you get big enough stop selling to people individually. Your vendors can take a lot of liability away from you with a well written contract.

Finally, lower your potency. The directions on my bottle were my only saving grace, they didn’t follow the rules. Even then, a 150mg bottle of delta8 lemonade is far too potent. Half of that is all that most need.

This community has been great to me thank you all so much. This isn’t goodbye , just see you later ;(

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Wait, you got nailed for a delta 8 drink?

Even when delta 8 doesn’t require 21+ you just simply applied your own personal guidance?

This is a drink. Not a vape. Lemonade. Hemp.

Fire your lawyer. Any lawyer tells you you’re screwed. Stop payments. That’s not how this works. You don’t just give up when some little kid makes a dumbass mistake.

Rookie af lawyer telling you you’re fucked. Clearly doesn’t want your case or business.

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Damn 150mg of d8 put a person in the hospital. I wonder how old the underage kid was??

I’m wondering if it was on purpose or accident! Either way, I don’t see how 150mg of d8 is enough thc to hospitalize someone unless they are looking for a payday.

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Very unfortunate to hear but I know of someone that this has happened to and they are also being forced to dissolve business

Was the drink made using nanoemulsion with the addition of a lipid?

This is why I’m looking at biopolymer micelles instead of lipid nanoparticles

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Fire. The lawyer.

Maybe the fda will make this more difficult, because it was in a beverage. I just don’t see the give up and don’t try mentality.

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Did you sell it online through a website or directly to consumers? Having a couple LLCs and a age verification system on a website would most likely prevent this from happening and protect you if it did, lastly and probably most important do you or whoever’s making your drinks have a food safe handling certification?

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Bro, please stop. His lawyer isn’t shit. Finding one to defend you and your product at this point would be extremely hard and expensive. Product Liability insurance would have been the first big saving grace. I’m surprised he has a lawyer and couldn’t get underwritten for product liability.

Anyone in the weed game shouldn’t own anything. A Holding company, and a Trust cost a total of $300 to form, and a bunch of paper work.

Wishing the OP the best. I would take it to a trial. Was their drink remaining? Make sure that there is blood work from the hospital. Look for other things. If this person drank d8 maybe there is something else in the blood work like alcohol or other perception medications.

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Bro please stop. You know as much as everyone else reading. Which is vague and open to a lot of interpretation. If the lawyer suggests he can’t help, might I recommend without being chastised for my opinion, that he get a better attorney. Difficulties of getting one aside, that’d be the first thing I look to better immediately after being told that.

Because they would hit all those questions you just stated.

I too would take to trial and not give in based on the very little known. Sounds like ambulance chasing almost. Tracking it down to the receipt / moment of purchase. Then remembering it isn’t required to be 21+ (unless his specific state applied a rule)

Definitely wish the best and hope resolutions are found.

White label product / other companies product. Definitely room for a lot of questions unanswered

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This would be a good thread.

Helping people understand corporate entities and even assisting in the formation of llcs/ trusts

I was put onto the llc thing a few years back by my lawyer. In mass it’s 500$ to form it then 500 every year to file so first year is 1000. Mass is not a good place to do this. CT I believe is 300 and RI similar

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I believe Delaware be the infamous one.
But yes shell/ businesses that don’t do directly high risk work are valuable.

Inc in Delaware I believe is the big play many do as a state tax shelter.

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I guess it came out wrong. He should secure a new layer before firing his old one. Cause finding a new one now is gonna be tough

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I didn’t totally understand, and agree. All gravy.

Idk how the community would feel about it but I’d throw you $25 for the cause if you set up a gofundme. I got out of delta 8 because this is exactly my luck. Had I still been a business this would have been a valuable lesson. You seem like you are pretty down to earth and you’re taking this on full force, and that makes me feel bad for your situation.

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Lots of responses and I can’t reply to everyone. I can’t go into into much details obviously as it’s an ongoing case but i’ll give a few reasons why my guy ( huge team, he’s trying his best, he’s helped me from the beginning and they don’t want to throw away a case.)

My state is 21+. the person was 17, I didn’t verify age, the bottle says 21+.

The FDA has been cracking down heavily on drinks food/drink specifically recently. This doesn’t help me at all.

The urinalysis only popped for THC, another bad mark.

The kid showed up in the same hospital I work at. Taking it to trial would be REALLY bad for my future, if I lose this job, take it to trial, or lose this bad enough to the point where my name is plastered all over the news… I can throw my future career away.

I had some liability set up through my LLC. I wasn’t the president/owner it wasn’t my address, nothing really connecting me to it, didn’t even pay myself from the company account. I couldn’t get insurance because I wasn’t working out of a properly zoned building.

I’m not giving up, but this shit is really expensive, it’s mentally taxing, and it’s damn hard to win cases like this, especially when two affluent parents are affected.

The reality is that the person could have died. That would have not happened if it weren’t for my drink and there’s no arguing that. It’s been eating me up but I took on this risk so this is the consequences I have to deal with.

Thanks for the offer of money but truly, I put myself here, this community is way too awesome for me to ask for donations because of my mistakes.

edit: i feel like I need to also add that i’m not even 21 till june haha. Combo breaker on that one for sure

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Terrible to hear a 17 year old heart attack

I can’t help but wonder if lipid nanos are a root cause over the THC

Terrible to hear regardless

Best of luck friend

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Getting too high can cause seizures. Man I ate 2000mg once I’m pretty sure I had a seizure but I’m not sure I was so fucked up I cant tell if it was real but it felt real at the time

The only reason I didn’t go to the hospital is because I was stuck in a dark room paralyzed

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At least you’re addressing your conscience with responsibility. Being so young (hustler God damn!) You definitely can take the time to focus on the real consequences of being people’s plug. Even if it’s d8.

I’ve had 2 heart attacks, and would hardly attribute them to consumption. I’m sure anxiety can trigger one from a panic attack for a new consumer / light weight and that’s probably what happened. First timer got wrecked.

Hope they recover and you definitely slow roll your next consumable endeavors.

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Bankruptcy is a good option for young people. 7 years goes by quickly.

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wut? drinking lipids causes heart attacks?

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I know people who can barely handle 5mg, no tolerance, not regular smokers. THC is a hell of a drug if you don’t have a tolerance. I think most regulars forget this. 100mg edible edoes about nothing to a daily smoker, the same dose on a twice a month smoker is gonna cause a panic attack (possibly temporary heart problems). 150mg gobbled down all at once by a person who never consumed before… That’ll put you in the hospital.

Honestly this is why edibles have dose limits. D8thc or D9, it does not matter. Shit is a psychotropic drug and needs to be dosed responsibly. I hate to see this happen because cases like this put a huge black mark on cannabis legalization. We were supposed to be progressing towards full legalization for moral reasons not greedy hemp hype bullshit, you sombitches

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