“We expect to resume shipment of these products shortly"

The new year is off to a rocky start for Aphria Inc.

The Ontario-based medical marijuana and cannabis oil company has issued a voluntary recall of its new line of vape pens because some of its cartridges have a leaking issue.

“Out of an abundance of caution we asked provincial customers to return certain initially shipped ‘510 cartridges’ that did not meet our intended consumer experience,” said Tamara Macgregor, chief corporate affairs officer for Aphria, told The GrowthOp. “We expect to resume shipment of these products shortly.”

The recall throws a wrench into the company’s foray into legalization 2.0 as vapes are the only new product format Aphria currently has in its portfolio, Smart Money Gains reported in January. The issue was reportedly first detected in New Brunswick and appears to be confined to vaporizers falling under the company’s The Good Supply and Solei brands, although it is currently unclear where fault for the defect lies.

The issue does not seem to have affected Aphria’s disposable RIFF vape pens.

Aphria, the third-largest cannabis producer in Canada, has had a tough few years, but had succeeded in turning things around before the curtain closed on 2019.

In November, the company picked up a combined total of seven awards — for its brands Aphria, Solei, RIFF, Good Supply, and Broken Coast — at the 2019 Canadian Cannabis Awards, including Top Master Grower and Innovation of the Year.

“When Aphria went through some challenges, many suggested that we change our name,” said Irwin Simon, the company’s CEO. “But then Tylenol never changed its name when it went through its issues… Basically, you’ve got to build out your name, and build awareness to it.”

They may have a little more work to do.

Note: An earlier version of this story erroneously said Greentank Technologies provided the hardware for some of Aphria’s vape pens. Greentank has never supplied Aphria with its 510 cartridges.

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