More than 500 ounces of potentially contaminated marijuana — including some that tested positive for a fungus that can lead to lung infections or death — was quietly returned to store shelves in Michigan late last year, an MLive investigation revealed.

The action was the latest in a chain of events set in motion by a November 2021 recall of nearly 64,000 pounds of marijuana deemed potentially unsafe by the state’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA).

The recall was prompted by a lack of faith in results from Viridis, a Michigan-based laboratory with two locations. Retests following the recall found some of cannabis contained higher than allowable levels of yeast and mold, and in some cases, the potentially dangerous banned pathogenic fungus, aspergillus, which can cause lung infections leading to death.

However, when a state judge reversed parts of the recall, state regulators said they had few options but to release the marijuana that failed retesting for possible sale. In fact, emails obtained by MLive via the Freedom of Information Act, show at least nine growers or retailers pressured the state to release their product from holds, despite the fact that it failed retesting. [Read more at MLive.com]