Pubdate: Tue, 18 Nov 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

STALEMATE ON POT EDIBLES

Marijuana Rules Group Adjourns Without a Decision, Passes Job to 
Colorado Legislature.

Colorado's first attempt at better regulating edible marijuana 
products ended in discord Monday when a working group on the issue 
adjourned without reaching a consensus.

Instead, the working group - which had been meeting for months - 
decided to submit more than a dozen different and often conflicting 
ideas for new regulations to the legislature, which will re-argue the 
issue beginning in January.

"It's a wide-open game starting Jan. 7, when we get back in session," 
state Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, said Monday at the conclusion 
of the working group's final meeting.

During this year's legislative session, Singer had been one of the 
sponsors of the bill that prompted the working group. The bill 
requires the Department of Revenue-the state agency overseeing 
marijuana businesses-to come up with rules to limit accidental 
ingestion of marijuana-infused edibles. The rules must be in place by 
2016, and they will apply only to edibles sold in recreational 
marijuana stores. Edibles sold in medical-marijuana dispensaries or 
made at home will not be subject to the rules.

"I wanted to know the difference between a marijuana cookie and a 
Chips Ahoy! cookie just by looking at it," Singer, who sat on the 
working group, said during Monday's meeting.

Ideas for how to do that ranged from better labeling of marijuana 
edibles to requiring all edibles be a certain color or be stamped 
with a certain symbol to an outright ban on almost all forms of 
edible marijuana.

But the working group's meetings typically descended into gridlock, 
with one group member proposing an idea and another group member 
arguing it wouldn't work. Monday's meeting, which saw a half-dozen 
new recommendations added to the pile, followed a similar pattern.

The most prominent suggestion came from the state health department, 
which suggested that Colorado create a commission to approve 
marijuana edibles before they are allowed to be sold in stores.

The commission would ensure that edibles are identifiable out of 
their packaging and not appealing to children, according to the proposal.

"The idea would be to ensure that we're not putting a non-compliant 
product in the market," said the health department's Jeff Lawrence.

But edibles-makers on the working group quickly denounced the idea. 
Noting that the health department had previously proposed the edibles 
ban, members wondered who would sit on the panel and how it would 
decide what's appealing to children.

"It just feels like a veiled way to remove products from the 
marketplace," said Lindsay Topping of Dixie Elixirs.

As it adjourned Monday, the working group took no votes on any of the 
ideas. Instead, the Department of Revenue's Ron Kammerzell said all 
of the group's proposals- as well as all of the group's written 
comments either supporting or opposing those proposals - would be 
included in a report to lawmakers.

"We really want to make sure we have a very thorough and thoughtful 
record of all the issues that have come up here," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom