Pubdate: Tue, 21 Oct 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Ingold

EDIBLES BAN PROPOSED THEN QUICKLY SHELVED

Hearing Shows Disagreement on How to Best Manage Marijuana in State

Colorado's health department proposed an industry-spinning ban on the 
sales of nearly all forms of edible marijuana at recreational pot 
shops Monday but then quickly backed away from the plan amid an 
industry outcry and questions over legality.

After a heated, four-hour hearing, the public policy Tilt-A-Whirl 
ride ended where it began: with lawmakers, regulators and 
stakeholders still in disagreement - now more than 10 months after 
the start of recreational pot sales - on the best way to manage 
marijuana in Colorado.

"This is by far the simplest recommendation," state Rep. Jonathan 
Singer, D-Longmont, said of the health department's proposal. "But I 
don't know if it gets us to where we want to be."

The aim of the state advisory group that met Monday to consider the 
health department's proposal and several others is to prevent people 
- - mostly kids - from accidentally eating marijuana-infused products. 
Such accidental ingestions have sent children to the hospital, caused 
an increase in calls to poison-control hotlines and become one of the 
key measures lawmakers use in discussing whether legal marijuana 
sales can fit harmoniously in society.

Sales of infused edibles make up about 45 percent of the legal 
marijuana marketplace, said Dan Anglin, the chairman of the Colorado 
Cannabis Chamber of Commerce.

The health department's recommendation was one of 11 proposals the 
group considered Monday. Most suggested the state create clearer 
labels for marijuana-infused products or require producers to make 
edible marijuana items in a unique shape or dyed a unique color.

Many of those proposals, though, quickly met with a familiar 
back-and-forth. One side would offer the suggestion; the other side 
would bat it down.

Stamp a symbol onto edibles denoting the products contain marijuana? 
Too easily rubbed off, edibles producers said.

Improve labeling and require edibles to stay with their packages? Too 
easily ignored to spread unmarked edibles, groups concerned about 
marijuana said.

Require producers to dye their products a specific color or airbrush 
on a symbol?

"You can't force a company to use an ingredient they don't want to," 
said advisory group member Julie Dooley, an owner of Julie & Kate 
Baked Goods, an edibles producer.

In the debate, there was talk of Sour Patch Kids and 
marijuana-infused sodas, discussion of the cost of chocolate molds, 
and these words: "I think soft candy is such a broad category."

Amid this atmosphere, Colorado health department official Jeff 
Lawrence presented the department's proposed ban on the sales of all 
edibles except hard candies and tinctures. Lawrence said the 
disagreement over more-nuanced regulations pushed the department to 
propose something more sweeping.

"If it couldn't be achieved," he said, "we were looking at something 
that could be achieved."

But the proposal - word of which spread in an Associated Press report 
before the meeting - quickly met a buzz saw.

Industry advocates questioned whether edibles could be banned under 
Amendment 64, Colorado's marijuana-legalization measure. Singer 
worried a ban would create a "marijuana Whac-A-Mole situation" where 
edibles production moved into the black market. Andrew Freedman, the 
state's marijuana policy coordinator, said the governor's office did 
not support a ban.

The health department later in the day put out a news release 
acknowledging that the department did not consider the proposal's 
constitutionality or ask the governor's office to review it. Instead, 
the proposal was put forward to generate discussion.

"Considering only the public health perspective, however, edibles 
pose a definite risk to children, and that's why we recommended 
limiting marijuana-infused products to tinctures and lozenges," Larry 
Wolk, the executive director of the department, said in a statement.

The discussion seemed mostly over by the end of Monday's meeting, as 
talk returned to more incremental forms of edibles regulation. Any 
final proposals from the advisory group will be presented in a report 
to the legislature next year. The Department of Revenue, which 
regulates marijuana businesses, must adopt final rules on the topic by 2016.

"Inevitably," said Revenue official Ron Kammerzell, near the end of 
Monday's meeting, "we're going to have to have another working group meeting."

That meeting is planned for mid-November.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom