Pubdate: Thu, 05 Jun 2014
Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2014 Star Tribune
Contact: http://www.startribunecompany.com/143
Website: http://www.startribune.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/266
Author: Maureen Dowd
Page: A13

A ROCKY HIGH IN COLORADO

The caramel-chocolate-flavored candy bar looked so innocent, like the
Sky Bars I used to love as a child.

Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then,
when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting
on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy
culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible
pot from a local shop.

What could go wrong with a bite or two?

Everything, as it turned out.

Not at first. For an hour, I felt nothing. I figured I'd order dinner
from room service and return to my more mundane drugs of choice -
chardonnay and mediocre-movies-on-demand.

But then I felt a scary shudder go through my body and brain. I barely
made it from the desk to the bed, where I lay curled up in a
hallucinatory state for the next eight hours. I was thirsty but
couldn't move to get water. Or even turn off the lights. I was panting
and paranoid, sure that when the room-service waiter knocked and I
didn't answer, he'd call the police and have me arrested for being
unable to handle my candy.

I strained to remember where I was or even what I was wearing,
touching my green corduroy jeans and staring at the exposed-brick
wall. As my paranoia deepened, I became convinced that I had died and
no one was telling me.

It took all night before it began to wear off, distressingly slowly.
The next day, a medical consultant at an edibles plant where I was
conducting an interview mentioned that candy bars like that are
supposed to be cut into 16 pieces for novices; that recommendation
hadn't been on the label.

I reckoned that the fact that I was not a regular marijuana smoker
made me more vulnerable and that I should have known better. But it
turns out, five months in, that some kinks need to be ironed out with
the intoxicating open bar at the Mile High Club.

Colorado raked in about $12.6 million the first three months after pot
was legalized for adults 21 and older. Pot party planners are dreaming
up classy events: The Colorado Symphony just had its first
"Classically Cannabis" fundraiser with joints and Debussy. But the
state is also coming to grips with the darker side of unleashing a
drug as potent as marijuana on a horde of tourists of all ages and
tolerance levels seeking a mellow buzz.

In March, a 19-year-old Wyoming college student jumped off a Denver
hotel balcony after eating a pot cookie with 65 milligrams of THC. In
April, a Denver man ate pot-infused Karma Kandy and began talking like
it was the end of the world, scaring his wife and three kids. Then he
retrieved a handgun from a safe and killed his wife while she was on
the phone with an emergency dispatcher.

As Jack Healy reported in the New York Times on Sunday, Colorado
hospital officials "are treating growing numbers of children and
adults sickened by potent doses of edible marijuana," and neighboring
states are seeing more stoned drivers.

"We realized there was a problem because we're watching everything
with the urgency of the first people to regulate in this area," said
Andrew Freedman, the state's director of marijuana coordination.
"There are way too many stories of people not understanding how much
they're eating. With liquor, people understand what they're getting
themselves into. But that doesn't exist right now for edibles for new
users in the market. It would behoove the industry to create a more
pleasant experience for people.

"The whole industry was set up for people who smoked frequently. It
needs to learn how to educate new users in the market. We have to
create a culture of responsibility around edibles, so people know what
to expect to feel."

Gov. John Hickenlooper and the Legislature recently created a task
force to come up with packaging that clearly differentiates pot
cookies and candy and gummy bears from normal sweets - with an eye
toward protecting children - and directed the Department of Revenue to
restrict the amount of edibles that can be sold at one time to one
person. The governor also signed legislation mandating that there be a
stamp on edibles, possibly a marijuana leaf. (Or maybe a stoned skull
and bones?)

The state plans to start testing to make sure the weed is spread
evenly throughout the product. The task force is discussing having
budtenders give better warnings to customers and moving toward
demarcating a single-serving size of 10 milligrams. (Industry
representatives objected to the expense of wrapping bites of candy
individually.)

"My kids put rocks and batteries in their mouths," said Bob Eschino,
the owner of Incredibles, which makes candy and serves up chocolate
and strawberry fountains. "If I put a marijuana leaf on a piece of
chocolate, they'll still put it in their mouths."

He argues that since pot goodies leave the dispensary in childproof
packages, it is the parents' responsibility to make sure their kids
don't get hold of it.

"Somebody suggested we just make everything look like a gray square so
it doesn't look appealing," he said. "Why should the whole industry
suffer just because less than 5 percent of people are having problems
with the correct dosing?"

Does he sound a little paranoid?
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MAP posted-by: Matt