Pubdate: Sun, 23 Nov 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122

EDIBLES SHOULD BE RECOGNIZABLE

After months of futile meetings, a state task force that was supposed 
to make recommendations regarding the appearance of edible marijuana 
products has failed. But this effort should by no means be over. 
Lawmakers need to step up and act when they convene in January.

The legislature must draft rules for marijuana edibles to make them 
easily identifiable when outside their packaging - a necessary step 
to protect people, especially children, from unintended exposure.

If a recognizable industry stamp or sprayed-on color doesn't 
differentiate the items from non-marijuana products, then they 
shouldn't be sold.

This goes not just for recreational pot, but for medical marijuana as well.

It is disappointing that a working group of regulators, law 
enforcement officials, parents and edible-pot manufacturers who had 
been meeting for months to devise recommendations couldn't get the 
job done. But the panel's gridlock isn't surprising, considering its makeup.

The industry that has been manufacturing these products has a vested 
interest in keeping the status quo. And critics have the difficult 
job of putting the cork back in the bottle.

That's why the legislature should step in and scale back the 
everything-goes edible market- a market in which at least one 
manufacturer is actually buying familiar candies in bulk, infusing 
them with hash oil and then repackaging them for sale. Current 
legislation says only the retail market needs stricter standards. But 
the large medical market needs them, too.

There is no constitutional provision that says edible marijuana must 
be available as granola, soda pop or candy bars that look like what 
children eat without any way to distinguish the difference.

Last month, Children's Hospital Colorado reported 14 children, most 
younger than 10, had been admitted to its emergency room in 2014 for 
accidental edible exposure. And other high-profile incidents, 
including a student's death in March after eating edibles, also have 
led to a call for change.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has 
recommended all edibles other than lozenges and tinctures (also known 
as liquid drops) be banned, but that proposal went too far. Still, 
the legislature must put up guardrails on the edibles market

Naturally, law makers will likely face heavy lobbying from a now rich 
marijuana industry. The fact is edible marijuana should be easily 
recognizable to anyone for what it is: a drug.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom