Pubdate: Sun, 26 Jun 2016
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Louise Dickson
Page: D7

EDIBLE POT PRODUCTS COMPLICATE A CONFUSING MARKETPLACE

It's easy to feel like a kid in a candy store at some of Victoria's
marijuana dispensaries. And that's exactly what worries provincial and
regional health authorities.

The enticing psychoactive gummy bears, lollipops, iced sugar cookies,
brownies, Rice Krispies squares and cupcakes in a dozen delicious
hues, tastes and flavours are definitely not for kids.

"They're attractive, they taste good and you wouldn't know you were
consuming [marijuana]," said Dr. Richard Stanwick, Island Health's
chief medical officer of health.

"This has been associated with an increase in child hospitalizations
in states where marijuana has become legal. The poisonings have shot
up as much as sixfold."

Provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall shares Stanwick's concern
about the potential harm to children from marijuana edibles.

"It gets into the wrong hands pretty easily and it really normalizes
it," Kendall said. "And we don't want it to be commercialized,
normalized or attractive and to become part of people's everyday lives."

In Colorado, where marijuana edibles are legal, a lot of children have
turned up in the emergency room after eating edibles carelessly left
around, Kendall said.

"It's not good for kids to have an overdose. And adults can have an
overdose as well."

Both doctors are concerned that there's no way to measure the quality
or potency of the dosage in edibles.

"You can have a brownie. You eat it. You don't get high. You eat
another piece. You don't get high because it takes more than an hour
to come on through the stomach. By the time it does come on, you
realize you've taken way too much," Kendall said.

Consumers have to realize the product is not coming from an approved
source, Stanwick said.

"They are putting their faith in the operators of these
establishments. And it's buyer beware."

According to Stanwick, medicine still has a lot to learn about
cannabis to see how it fits into pain control and appetite
stimulation.

"Wouldn't it be nice to know what is an effective dose instead of
people just taking what they get and maybe or maybe not getting what
they are looking for?"

The dispensaries are not licensed, so they are not
inspected.

"Ironically, if you wanted to open a small cookie shop in Victoria,
you would immediately get a visit from Island Health, literally the
day you opened up, if you hadn't got your certification," noted one
medical-marijuana industry insider.

"Now, if you decide to do the same thing today and put pot in your
cookies, no one will visit you and no one will come and test your
product for safety or make sure it's cooked in an Island Health safe
kitchen. I find it ironic from a food-security and public-health point
of view."

In April 2015, 64 people - about 0.3 per cent - of the participants in
Vancouver's 4/20 rally were admitted to St. Paul's Hospital during the
afternoon and evening with nausea, vomiting and dizziness. Patricia
Daly, the chief medical health officer at Vancouver Coastal Health,
said of those who disclosed what they had taken, 36 consumed edibles,
13 smoked pot and five did both.

The health authority is in favour of legalizing cannabis for medical
and recreational use and getting rid of criminal penalties, Kendall
said.

"But we would like to see a very restrictive regime that doesn't
commercialize it. You need the constraints around advertising,
packaging, warning levels and dosages that tobacco has, but limits
where it can be sold. So it would be a more rigid regime than
currently surrounds the sale of alcoholic products."

Kendall would also like to see age and dosing limitations.
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MAP posted-by: Matt