A10 MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2019 LATIMES.COM
Relations with Iran have
been among the clearest dif-
ferences: Trump pulled the
U.S. out of the deal that lim-
ited Iran’s nuclear program
and has sought to isolate
Tehran. European leaders
and Japan have tried to
maintain ties with Iran and
have sought to keep the nu-
clear pact alive.
At a dinner Saturday eve-
ning, Macron asked for sup-
port from the other leaders
to make overtures on their
behalf to Iran. Trump made
clear Sunday morning that
his support for such negotia-
tions was tepid at best.
“We’ll do our own out-
reach,” he said. “But you
can’t stop people from talk-
ing. If they want to talk, they
can talk.”
Zarif ’s presence was sure
to focus a spotlight on the
disagreements over Iran
policy. The French insisted
the other leaders were in-
formed that the Iranian di-
plomat was heading to Bi-
arritz, but a senior U.S. ad-
ministration official, speak-
ing on the condition of
anonymity, said that wasn’t
the case.
Trump, who has ex-
pressed a willingness to
meet with Iranian leaders
without preconditions but
has sanctioned top officials,
including Zarif, kept any
frustration over the unantic-
ipated guest to himself,
avoiding the subject as he
sent out a number of tweets
from his hotel room before a
dinner with other leaders.
By contrast, he had been
eager to tout the possible
breakthrough with Japan —
an agreement in principle on
a trade deal — announcing
the progress hours after a
morning meeting with Japa-
nese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe.
“We’ve been working on a
deal with Japan for a long
time. And we’ve agreed in
principle,” Trump told
members of the press pool
covering his events, who
were suddenly summoned to
hear from him and Abe.
The Japanese described
the deal more cautiously.
“We still have some re-
maining work that has to be
done at the working level,”
Abe said, but he confirmed
that his country planned to
increase its purchases of
U.S. corn.
Both countries said they
hoped to finalize the trade
agreement by next month’s
United Nations General As-
sembly in New York.
The announcement ap-
peared to have been hurried-
ly put together as adminis-
tration officials tried to
squelch headlines about
Trump’s apparent doubts
over the latest escalation of
his yearlong trade war with
Beijing, which has unsettled
global markets and U.S.
business leaders and caused
discord among key allies.
Asked by reporters Sun-
day morning whether he had
second thoughts about the
trade war, Trump answered
in the affirmative, a surpris-
ing statement from a presi-
dent who has appeared al-
lergic to self-doubt. Report-
ers asked a second time to
ensure that Trump had
heard the question cor-
rectly.
“Yeah, sure, why not?” he
responded. “Might as well.
Might as well. I have second
thoughts about everything.”
Trump went on to say
that he had “no plans” for
now to declare a national
economic emergency that
might allow him to punish
U.S. companies that ignorehis demand that they stop
doing business in China. He
also said he hadn’t ruled out
doing so if the situation dete-
riorated further.
On Friday, in a belliger-
ent series of tweets that
caused the stock market to
nosedive, Trump “ordered”
U.S. companies to start
pulling operations out of
China.
“If I want, I could declare
a national emergency,” he
said Sunday. “I think when
they steal and take out, and
intellectual property theft —
anywhere from $300 billion
to $500 billion a year — and
when we have a total loss of
almost a trillion dollars a
year, for many years this has
been going on. And in many
ways that’s an emergency.”Trump added: “Actually
we’re getting along very well
with China right now. We’re
talking. I think they want to
make a deal much more than
I do.”
White House officials
quickly tried to walk back
Trump’s comment on hav-
ing “second thoughts.” Press
Secretary Stephanie Gr-
isham said in a statement
that Trump’s answer had
been “greatly misinter-
preted.”
“President Trump re-
sponded in the affirmative
— because he regrets not
raising the tariffs higher,”
she said.
Larry Kudlow, a top econ-
omic advisor, offered a dif-
ferent explanation in an in-
terview with CBS News. “Hedidn’t quite hear the ques-
tion this morning,” Kudlow
said, even though the presi-
dent was asked twice.
Trump’s remarks about
“second-guessing” his trade
war with China came during
a breakfast meeting with
British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson, their first since
Johnson’s election in July.
Trump praised the pro-
Brexit leader as “the right
man for the job” of finally en-
gineering the U.K.’s separa-
tion from the European
Union.
“I’ve been saying that for
a long time,” Trump said of
Johnson, before a dig at for-
mer Prime Minster Theresa
May. “Didn’t make your
predecessor very happy, but
I’ve been saying that for a
long time.”
The two men also ex-
pressed confidence about a
U.S.-U.K. trade deal in the
near future. But in a sign
that Trump’s policies have
rattled even his closest allies
on the world stage, Johnson
gently expressed concerns
about rising tariffs.
“Just to register the
sheep-like note of our view
on the trade war: We’re in fa-
vor of trade peace on the
whole,” Johnson said. “We
think that, on the whole, the
U.K. has profited massively
in the last 200 years from free
trade, and that’s what we
want to see. So, that’s what
we’re keen to see. We don’t
like tariffs on the whole.”
Another disagreement
got attention later in the day
when Trump and Abe
showed they were out of sync
on North Korea’s continuing
missile tests, their words
about the matter undermin-
ing the president’s claim
that the two would always“be on the same page.”
Abe called the recent
tests a clear violation of U.N.
resolutions, but Trump
wouldn’t go as far despite
saying he was “not happy.”
“I can understand how
the prime minister of Japan
feels,” he said of short-range
missiles that can’t reach the
United States but threaten
Japan. North Korean leader
Kim Jong Un had made a
“personal” commitment to
him not to test long-range
missiles that potentially
could hit the U.S. but hadn’t
said anything about short-
range, Trump said.
“A lot of people are test-
ing those missiles, not just
him,” Trump said. “A lot of
people are testing those mis-
siles. We’re in the world of
missiles, folks, whether you
like it or not.”
Trump has also pushed
to readmit Russia into the
annual summit, turning the
G-7 back into the G-8. Rus-
sia was kicked out in 2014 af-
ter its military took over
Crimea, which was part of
Ukraine.
“We have a number of
people who would like to see
Russia back,” he said during
the meeting with Abe. “I
think it would be advanta-
geous to many things in the
world, I think it would be a
positive. Other people agree
with me, and it’s something
that we’re discussing.”
Trump, however, seemed
to inch away from his origi-
nal push — “maybe we’ll just
leave it the way it is,” he said
— and he declined to say
which other leaders agreed
with him.
Several European lead-
ers have publicly opposed
the idea, and none has publi-
cly supported it.
“I could, but I don’t think
it’s necessary,” he told re-
porters.
In Trump’s eyes, howev-
er, the media were to blame
for focusing on tensions with
other world leaders.
“Such False and Inaccu-
rate reporting thus far on
the G-7,” he tweeted early in
the day. “The Fake News
knows this but they can’t
help themselves!”
As the day wound toward
a close, Trump returned to
that theme, tweeting, im-
plausibly, that other world
leaders had commiserated
with him over the tone of his
press coverage.
“The question I was
asked most today by fellow
World Leaders, who think
the USA is doing so well and
is stronger than ever before,
happens to be, ‘Mr. Presi-
dent, why does the Ameri-
can media hate your Coun-
try so much? Why are they
rooting for it to fail?’ ” he
wrote.Stokols reported from
Biarritz and Megerian from
Washington.Trump expresses doubt on trade war
BRITAIN’S Boris Johnson and President Trump spoke of a trade deal. Johnson also voiced a dislike of tariffs.Erin SchaffAFP/Getty Images[Summit,from A1]
FRANCE’SEmmanuel Macron and Germany’s Angela Merkel. Trump spoke
kindly of Macron but aides grumbled about his focus on issues like climate change.Ian LangsdonAssociated Presscounterfeit items are not
tested for pesticides and
other contaminants, leaving
some concerned the items
could pose health risks.
Licensed cannabis culti-
vators and businesses can’t
distribute their wares to un-
licensed dispensaries and
delivery services without
risking punishment from
regulatory agencies, mean-
ing any brand-name item
that customers find in an il-
legal shop is almost cer-
tainly counterfeit.
“Any of those black mar-
ket shops that you go into
and have brands, that’s just
like you going to the flea
market on the weekend and
getting your Prada shirt for
$5,” said Ryan Jennemann,
founder of THC Design, a
Los Angeles cultivator that
has also been a victim of
counterfeiting. “That ain’t a
Prada shirt.”
Although those in the
cannabis industry differ on
the severity of the problem,
most agree counterfeit
items are providing a boost
to unlicensed dispensaries,
which can sell marijuana at
much lower prices than their
legal counterparts by skirt-
ing state and local taxes.
Earlier this year, a Times
report found at least 220 il-
legal cannabis dispensaries
in Los Angeles, more than
the number of licensed op-
erators in California’s larg-
est marijuana market.
Though the state’s above-
board weed businesses are
on track to record more than
$3 billion in sales this year, a
rebound after 2018 revenues
fell well below projections,
that figure still lags far be-
hind the $8.7 billion expected
to be spent on unregulated
cannabis in California in
2 019.
The extent of counterfeit-
ing remains unclear and has
not been treated as a priority
by regulatory and law en-
forcement agencies, many in
the cannabis industry say.
Alex Traverso, a spokes-
man for the Bureau of Can-
nabis Control, said the
agency was trying to dis-
courage customers from
shopping at unlicensed dis-
pensaries and warn people
about counterfeit products
through a public awareness
campaign this summer.
The BCC has received 38
complaints about counter-
feit products through its on-
line reporting portal since
December 2017, Traverso
said. The California Depart-
ment of Public Health said it
had received 21 similar re-
ports since May of this year.
It is highly unlikely that
either figure captures the
breadth of the problem. Cor-
ral said he had filed dozens
of complaints about fake
Kingpen products with state
agencies in the last two years
alone. A spokesman for the
parent company of Stiiizy,
another popular vape pen in
California, said he had found
hundreds of instances of
knockoff versions of its prod-
ucts being sold online.
In recent weeks, a Times
reporter visited several unli-
censed cannabis dispensa-
ries in Wilmington, Korea-
town, Hollywood and the
San Fernando Valley, find-
ing knockoff versions of vape
pens and edibles produced
by popular brands including
Kushy Punch, Korova, Stii-
izy and Kurvana.
One of the counterfeititems, a marijuana brownie
bearing Korova’s logo,
claimed to contain 1,
milligrams of THC. It is il-
legal to sell an edible that
contains more than 100 milli-
grams of THC in California.
A representative for Ko-
rova said it had received a
complaint about the same
fake product being sold in
Southern California before,
and asked where The Times
had found the product so the
company could investigate
further. Multiple emails and
calls seeking comment from
Kushy Punch and Kurvana
were not returned.
Daniel Yi, a spokesman
for Stiiizy, said the company
had done its best to educate
customers about how to
spot fraudulent merchan-
dise and issued a number of
cease-and-desist letters.
But, Yi warned, dealing with
counterfeiters is like a game
of “whack-a-mole.”
“The fakes keep getting
better and better,” he said.
Law enforcement and
regulatory agencies tasked
with combating the state’s
illicit cannabis market could
not provide information
about how popular brands
in California are counter-
feited. But those in the can-
nabis industry who have
seen their wares faked say
the process usually involves
local black market growers
placing their own products
inside packaging manufac-
tured outside the country.
Wesley Hein, head of
compliance and government
affairs for Mammoth Distri-
bution in Woodland Hills,
says vape pens that hold
pre-filled disposable car-
tridges are the most com-
monly counterfeited item.Locals often will produce
their own THC oil and then
buy large quantities of pack-
aging mimicking a popular
brand from a foreign web-
site. Alibaba, the massive
online commerce hub based
in China, is a haven for
knockoff packaging, Corral
said.
Other cultivators say
those who run unlicensed
marijuana grows will buy
branded packaging online,
then place their own flower
inside and try to sell it to li-
censed dispensaries. In one
instance, Jennemann said, a
counterfeiter went to THC
Designs’ website, down-
loaded the information
there that showed how the
cultivator’s marijuana had
fared on state certification
tests, and stuck the lab re-
sults on the side of the fake
packaging to try to prove the
authenticity of the product.
“The only way we found
out about that was they sold
it to a dispensary here in L.A.
that we’re friends with,” he
said.
Det. Vito Ceccia, who in-
vestigates illegal cannabis
activity for the Los Angeles
Police Department, said the
department was more fo-
cused on shutting down il-
legal dispensaries than ad-
dressing counterfeit wares.
“This is uncharted terri-
tory for us,” he said. “Most of
our field investigators don’t
know the difference between
a legitimate vaping pen and
a knockoff pen.”
The department has had
success in closing illegal dis-
pensaries in the city, which
limits the number of places
counterfeit items can be
sold. Ceccia said there were
now fewer than 200 illegaldispensaries operating in
Los Angeles, compared with
nearly 300 at the beginning
of the year.
But the LAPD’s ap-
proach focuses largely on
cutting power and water to
the properties where illegal
activity takes place, rather
than serving search war-
rants, which would lead to
the seizure of counterfeit
items. If the items aren’t
seized, many of the fake
products could wind up in
circulation elsewhere.
Some cultivators have
expressed concern that the
counterfeit items are not
only a threat to legitimate
businesses, but also pose a
risk to customer safety.
“You’re losing money and
then you’re losing the trust
of your customer base be-
cause, most likely, the stuff
that’s in there is nowhere
near the quality” of your
product, said Brian Vecchio,
a former cultivator who now
works with a number of
popular cannabis brands,
including Chong’s Choice.
“All these people have been
smoking these vape pens
that are super, super cheap.
Chinese vape pens that have
the heavy metals in them.
Oils that have pesticides in
them.”
Reports of people getting
sick after consuming un-
regulated marijuana prod-
ucts in the state have been
sporadic. Eight patients
were diagnosed with acute
respiratory distress syn-
drome in Northern Califor-
nia this summer after smok-
ing marijuana from unli-
censed “pop-up” dispensa-
ries, said Nancy Gerking,
assistant director of the
Kings County Public HealthDepartment.
In April, Los Angeles city
officials also took action
against an unlicensed
dispensary in South L.A.
that was allegedly selling
pesticide-laced marijuana.
Gerking provided pic-
tures of the vape pens linked
to the reported sicknesses,
but they did not appear to be
counterfeit versions of any
popular brands.
Some distributors be-
lieve issues with counterfeit
products will fade away as
California’s cannabis mar-
ket matures and customers
become better informed of
the perils of shopping at un-
licensed vendors.
“I think we’re past peak
counterfeits. Somebody gets
a vape cart that’s fake, so it
leaks, doesn’t taste right,
and what’s one of the first
things they do? They go onto
social media, and they post,
and that warns other peo-
ple,” Hein said.
Others are out of pa-
tience with state and local
authorities. Corral said that
Loudpack was once again
rebranding its Kingpen vape
in the hope of rendering
counterfeiters obsolete, this
time adding a code to the
packaging that customers
can scan on their phones to
guarantee the product’s
authenticity.
But the longer unli-
censed operators and coun-
terfeiters stay in business,
Corral said, the harder it will
be for legal shops to keep
their doors open.
“There’s definitely a high
level of frustration,” he said.
“We see partners that are
working really hard to stay li-
censed and to keep their
lights on.”Counterfeit cannabis products boost black market sales
[Pot,from A1]