DENVER — Amid cries for tighter regulations on marijuana edibles after a rash of incidents, the Colorado Department of Revenue recommended limiting marijuana edibles.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has recommend retail marijuana edibles like brownies, cookies and most candies be banned.
Under the department’s recommendation lozenges and tinctures would remain legal. Tinctures are liquid extracts made from herbs that one drinks.
The ultimate decision on the matter of marijuana edibles will be made by the Department of Revenue, which on Monday, held what may be be its final work group meeting on identifiable markers for edible marijuana products.
This is described as just one of many recommendations, and is the viewpoint of one public agency. It is not being introduced as law.
Several retail marijuana business associations attended Monday’s meeting, objecting to the Department of Public Health and Environment’s proposal, and instead calling for better safeguards on packaging.
Packaging was one issue the Department of Revenue, which regulates the state’s retail marijuana industry, attempted to address in issuing a set of more specific rules for marijuana edibles in September — rules that are scheduled to go into affect for the state’s retail marijuana industry in February 2015.
Under those new rules, the state has officially set the serving size of active THC in each edible marijuana item at 10 milligrams, and has also set the maximum serving size of an individual edible marijuana product at 100 milligrams of THC.
RELATED: Department of Revenue’s new pot edible rules in their entirety
The new regulations will also have an impact on edible marijuana packaging, labeling and required portioning. However, state lawmakers also want edible marijuana products to have a distinct look when they are out of the packaging.
The Department of Public Health and Environment’s recommendation would effectively cut down on the need for such labeling and portioning discussions, as marijuana-infused lozenges and tinctures would seemingly be easier to identify and control from a portion standpoint.
Among the most tragic of incidents involving marijuana edibles in Colorado this year were the deaths of a mother, who was allegedly killed by a husband under the influence of marijuana edibles, and a student, who allegedly plunged to his death off a roof after consuming an edible during a spring break trip.
Three others filed a lawsuit after they said they unknowingly ingested a marijuana candy bar at the Denver County Fair and ended up in the hospital in August.
Marijuana edibles also got some bad publicity from New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, whose reported “bad trip” after eating a pot-laced candy inspired a billboard panning edibles in west Denver.
In spite of the risks, marijuana edibles remain a popular part of Colorado’s legal marijuana industry.
A marijuana edibles machine made its debut in Denver last month, and a new marijuana school in New York offers classes aimed at teaching responsible ways to produce edibles.
Colorado health officials seeking marijuana edibles ban
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