Marijuana Edibles at Risk of Being Pulled From Market

The Colorado recreational marijuana retail industry is suffering a blow soon, just 10 months after the law took effect earlier this year. Health Officials are calling for a ban on most edible products that are being sold at dispensaries, citing packaging that does not accurately represent the product and doses that are far too strong.

Edible products will only be sold as hard candy lozenges and tinctures to be added to food later, instead of buying a brownie from the dispensary. The news comes amidst fears that the marijuana industry is marketing to children with products such as brownies and sour gummy bears. There were two high profile cases that have potential links to marijuana edibles.

Labeling of product appears to be central to the argument, as well as the potency of the products. Some fear that the labeling does not clearly display the potential effects of the products, which come with potencies as high as 20mg. Colorado health officials would like these to be decreased to about 10mg and would like tinctures to have doses such as 5mg per drop. The former limit was 100mg for edibles, which are designed to be broken down into smaller doses.

Much of the real problem does not come from marketing, since I know many adults who enjoy gummy bears just as much as children in candy shops, but instead from accidental ingestion of the products. This implies that there is a lack of control over the space, but no one wants to eliminate the sector entirely.

The law will cost jobs however, since the diversity of edibles represents a variety of businesses exploring niches in the market. Hopefully they will get high on some of their cookies or lollypops and figure out a creative solution to their new financial issues. It is a shame to see such scare tactics being employed, but getting proper labeling and dosages standardized will go a long way for movements in other states as well.

Parents need to properly secure the substance, the way they would with alcohol will limit the child’s access to the products. Leaving a few gummy bears in a purse of glove compartment might end up in your kids pocket on the school bus. It is easy for these substances to end up in the hands of our children, just consider how often they snoop after Christmas presents. That does not mean that products should be pulled from the market, but users should be more responsible