As of Oct. 1, Colorado’s ban on edibles shaped like fruits, animals, cartoons, and humans takes effect – the rules are part of comprehensive state reforms more than a year in the making, the Cannabist reports. Along with the ban on ‘child-friendly’ shapes, the terms “candy” and “candies” are barred from packaging, and edible potency is capped at 10 milligrams of THC per serving.
The new rules also require child-proof packaging, education about the delayed effects of edibles, the inclusion of testing information and a stamped THC symbol on each serving.
Andrew Freedman, the former director of the state’s cannabis coordination during the early legalization years who now serves as a cannabis industry consultant to states and localities, said the measures are “a tone [regulators] should have struck from Day One.”
“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 in the report, noting that the images of cannabis products that looked like candy – and appealed to children – “was not a good image to be in our national newspapers.”
The reforms are supported by Smart Colorado, a nonprofit focused on parental education and children’s safety in cannabis policy who had urged lawmakers to ban child-friendly shapes.
“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,” said Henny Lasley, the organization’s executive director, in the report.
Prior to the rule changes, members of the Colorado Cannabis Chamber of Commerce had already moved away from product shapes now banned in the state.
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