About 400 tubes of lip balm containing trace amounts of THC mistakenly distributed to service members throughout Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska are being recalled, the base said in an email to all base personnel Wednesday night.
The email, which was posted on the Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page, said that the THC-infused lip balm was distributed by the base's sexual assault response coordinator office as a promotional item. One of the ingredients in the lip balm is hemp seed oil, which contains tetrohydrocannibinol, the active ingredient in marijuana that gets people stoned.
JBER said in the email that the "SAPR Lip Balm" did not contain enough THC to register on a drug test, let alone get anyone high, and provided a report on THC and hemp oil cosmetics from the group Leson Environmental Consulting that reached those conclusions. But Air Force and Army guidelines bar the use of all hemp seed products, JBER said.
The SARC office has stopped handing out the lip balm, the email said, and has asked any service member who has a tube to throw it away.
In an email statement Thursday, JBER spokesman 1st Lt. Michael Harrington said that, "We have identified mistakes in the purchasing process and have established safeguards to ensure that future purchases consider the possibility of such ingredients in ingestible products."
"We believe in taking the route of utmost caution with our service members and their families' health, and this case is no exception," Harrington said.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
