Colorado cannabis safety regs limit edible shapes, enlarge potency labels
Out with the gummy bears, in with the squares and circles, and triangles and diamonds.
On Oct. 1, Colorado no longer will allow marijuana edibles shaped like humans, animals, fruits or cartoons forms that could be confused with candy and the state also will require more prominently displayed potency information on the labels of cannabis products.
The new rules, which are more than a year in the making, are part of the ongoing evolution of Colorados pioneering foray into legalizing and regulating the sale of marijuana for medical and recreational purposes.
Weve seen areas where its important for us to focus, said Michael Hartman, executive director of the Colorado Department of Revenue, which regulates the states marijuana industry.
The tenets of ensuring public health and public safety include keeping marijuana out of the hands of children, minors and illegal operations, and providing safeguards against the potential harms to consumers.
Edibles have come under some of the greatest scrutiny in Colorados efforts to regulate the brand new industry.
Shortly after legal adult-use sales began in 2014, edibles surged in popularity catching regulators and industry officials off-guard. It also didnt take long for red flags to be raised about some public health concerns with edibles such as overconsumption, accidental ingestion, pesticide residues and consistency concerns with the THC content of products some were found to have widely varying amounts of the psychoactive ingredient that didnt match the product labeling.
State regulators reacted, implementing new measures such as requiring more robust testing, child-proof packaging, potency and dosing-size restrictions of 10 milligrams THC per serving, and education about delayed effects of edibles. They also required a universal THC symbol stamped on each 10-milligram standard serving, the inclusion of potency and contamination testing information, and the barring of words such as candy or candies.
This latest step follows suit, ensuring that marijuana doesnt look like kids candy, said Andrew Freedman, Colorados former director of marijuana coordination in the early years of legalization. Freedman now serves as a marijuana regulation consultant to municipalities and states.
Obviously, it was a tone we should have struck from Day One, he said, noting an initial rise in marijuana-related hospitalization, accidental ingestion and poison control calls.
Additionally, the images of candy-like marijuana edibles in transparent packaging werent good optics for Colorado as the nation watched the states attempt to be a responsible manager of marijuana regulations, he said.
That was not a good image to be in our national newspapers, Freedman said.
Although Colorado is subject to some lingering negative perceptions, Freedman said he believes Colorados regulations now represent some commonsense guardrails for other states and nations to follow. He also lauded the ability of industry members to adapt to shifting regulations.
I was heartened in the edibles arena about how quickly industry understood that it was in the long-term interest of everybody that they got commonsense edibles regulations in place, Freedman said.
The latest regulations are positive developments in efforts to protect public health, said Henny Lasley, executive director of Smart Colorado, a nonprofit focused on childrens safety and parental education in relation to marijuana policy matters. Smart Colorado has advocated against the candy-like shapes of edibles, noting they could be enticing to children.
We do think that these are steps in the right direction that showed collaboration between industry and public health and safety to try to prevent some of the unintended consequences that we saw first occur when we went recreational, Lasley said.
Smart Colorado officials continue their involvement in the ongoing rulemaking process, which includes further tweaks to information on cannabis labels. The potency regulations taking effect Sunday requiring that potency for medical and recreational marijuana be listed in a bigger font size, circled or highlighted with a bright color are a first step in developing a broader conversation that not all marijuana is the same and helping consumers better understand what is in different products, she said.
We understand that this is a process, she said. Its not a sprint, its a marathon, and were all learning together to ensure a safe, regulated (industry).
Most manufacturers have kept well ahead of the curve in adopting the latest edibles regulations, said Jim Bent, operations manager at Emerald Fields ...
