Recreational pot industry slammed with first wrongful death lawsuit

May 12, 2016

A new lawsuit claims two marijuana businesses are responsible for the death of a Denver mother who was shot and killed by her husband after he ate marijuana candy and reportedly started hallucinating.

The case is the first wrongful death case against the billion-dollar recreational marijuana industry. Kristine Kirk's sons claim the edible should have carried a warning label that included dosage instructions and side effects - including hallucination, paranoia and psychosis.

"Edible marijuana is coming upon you slower and slower so you take something the size of a Tootsie Roll - which he did - you take a bite, you don't get high, so you keep eating and you were supposed to only have that one little bite..." CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman told "CBS This Morning," explaining how Richard Kirk may have consumed dangerous levels of THC, leading to his violent, erratic behavior.

Colorado has regulations that restrict edibles to a serving size of 10-milligrams of THC, require child-resistant packaging and warning statements on side effects. But these were enforced in 2015, a year after Kirk's death.

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tags: drug use, drug abuse