Colorado targets edible pot products, seeks ban on calling it ‘candy’

Edible marijuana products in Colorado may soon come labeled with a red stop sign, according to a draft of new rules released by state marijuana regulators. The state may also ban the word “candy” from edible pot products, even if they’re sweets such as suckers or gummy chews. The new pot symbol — an octagon stop-sign shape with the letters “THC” to indicate marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient — would have to be on individual edible items, not just labels.

It’s time we have a tool to really let people know there is pot in something.

Diane Carlson of Smart Colorado, a parents’ group

Also banned under the proposed rules — premade edible items. The rules would ban a manufacturer from buying bulk candy and spraying it with cannabis oil, but not altering an existing product so that it’s unrecognizable, such as grinding up chocolate chip cookies to make a cheesecake crust. The proposed rules were released as the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division works on new guidelines for edible marijuana, which can be baked into cookies or brownies or added to a dizzying array of items from sodas, to pasta sauces, to granolas. Marijuana regulators in Colorado have until January to implement a 2014 law requiring edible marijuana to have a distinct look when outside its packaging.

I don’t think that items that aren’t attractive to kids like granola and salad dressing need to be held to the same high standard of marking, stamping or coloring.

Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont