Colorado Health Officials want Premarket Approval for Edibles

ver since cannabis became recreationally legal in Colorado,
the debate about edibles has been an ongoing battle. Some claim they should be
treated just like cannabis, others feel they need to be regulated and come with
warning labels, and some claim they should not be allowed at all.

Finally, the Colorado Department of Health has reached a
consensus about how edibles should be treated. They recommend that premarket
approval should be required in order for the tasty treats to be legally
distributed and sold.

At first, the CDH was recommending that edibles be banned,
but after an angry outcry from the cannabis industry and Coloradoans at large,
they backed off. The legislation will not be decided until 2015, but the
decision they are leaning towards is to regulate items that look too much like
candy or other things children would be attracted to, and to regulate the
amounts of THC allowed in the products.

Although in some ways this is a good compromise, many
in the edibles industry feel that this is taking things too far, and taking
away the liberties granted by legalization. “We’re governed to death, and
people need to take responsibility for themselves,” Elyse Gordon, who owns an
edibles company in Denver called Better Baked, stated to the New York Times. “I don’t think anyone in
the industry is looking to make products for children, and we resent this idea
that people aren’t responsible for the products they bring into their home.”

While it is clear that edibles need to be treated a
bit differently than other cannabis products, due to their appearance and the
difficulty in regulating contents, it seems that since legalization is a fact
in Colorado, this should be something that happens in the home instead of on a legal
basis. Still, there is time to make changes to this new idea for legislation,
or at least make some provisions so as not to hurt small businesses and
producers.