You should have left the ending inventory off your income statement in 2017, and it would have shown as a deduction in that year. You can amend your return to accomplish that.
If you didn't know until 2018 that the inventory was worthless, you can complete a business schedule in TurboTax like you normally do, and just show the ending inventory as -0-, and that will result in the beginning inventory showing as purchases in the current year, thus resulting in a loss in 2018. However, that may attract attention from the IRS since you will have expenses without any revenue in the current year.
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