Pubdate: Thu, 05 Jun 2014
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2014 Star Advertiser
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154
Author: Maureen Dowd, The New York Times
Page: A11

SCARY POT OVERDOSE POINTS TO NEED FOR PACKAGING RULES

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; but 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 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.

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.

"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: Jay Bergstrom