A NEW HOPE

This month’s edition of CULTURE is our special cannabis edible issue. If you are driving and stopped by law enforcement and the officer smells cannabis, you are most likely going to get arrested. Thankfully, there is at least one way to not smell like cannabis, and that’s to use edibles or tinctures instead. There is no smell and or smoke. Edibles are a wonderful delivery system for cannabis, and regulations have been updated to insure their safety in Colorado.

New labeling and packaging rules and regulations have been promulgated by the Colorado Department of Revenue, Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) and the first of them take effect on October 1, 2016. The regulations are extensive and have been adopted for both retail cannabis and medical cannabis products, which this column will cover.

Rule R 1005.5 was promulgated to institute new labeling and packaging rules to primarily protect children from being enticed or gaining access to cannabis products. So any product now which is not already in a Child-Resistant container must be placed in an Exit-Package that is Child-Resistant before the product may be sold.

“So any product now which is not already in a Child-Resistant container must be placed in an Exit-Package that is Child-Resistant before the product may be sold.”

A retail cannabis store must affix all of the information required below to every container in which the cannabis is placed prior to sale to a consumer.

1. License number of the facility where the cannabis was grown;
2. License number of the store that sold the cannabis to the customer;
3. Harvest batch number assigned to the cannabis within the container;
4. Date of sale to the consumer;
5. Net weight in grams to at least the tenth of a gram of the cannabis prior to being placed in the container;
6. Universal symbol indicating the container holds cannabis (size requirements apply);
7. The identity statement and standardized graphic symbol of the retail marijuana products facility that manufactured the product.
8. The following warning statements:
9. “There may be health risks associated with the consumption of this product.”
10. This product contains marijuana and its potency was tested with an allowable plus or minus of 15 percent variance pursuant to 12-43.4-202(3)(a)(IV)(E), C.R.S.”
11. “This product was produced without regulatory oversight for health, safety, or efficacy.”
12. “The intoxicating effects of this product may be delayed by two or more hours.”
13. “There may be additional health risks associated with the consumption of this product for women who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or planning becoming pregnant.”
14. “Do no drive a motor vehicle or operate heavy machinery with using marijuana.”
15. A complete list of all nonorganic pesticides, fungicides and herbicides used during the cultivation of the retail marijuana used to produce the product.
16. A complete list of solvents and chemicals used in the creation of any retail marijuana concentrate that was used to produce the product.

For edibles containers the following additional information is required to be placed on the label:

1. Ingredient list of all ingredients used to manufacture the edible.
2. Whether the product is perishable and that it must be refrigerated.
3. Serving size and total THC active ingredient statement in milligrams.
4. The date the edible was produced.
5. Expiration date. This is either the date the product will “not longer be fit for consumption” or a “use by date” when the product will no longer be optimally fresh. This date cannot be altered by the Licensee.
6. Nutritional fact panel based on the number of THC servings.

Colorado has come a long way from the initial regulations promulgated to guide our cannabis industry. Our wonderful experiment is coming into its own.