Pubdate: Wed, 09 Apr 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Page: 5A
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Ivan Moreno, Associated Press

BILL TARGETS POT CONCENTRATE

The Colorado Measure Would Place Limits On The Potency Of
Edibles.

When people buy marijuana from a store in Colorado, the ounce they can
walk out the door with is fairly easy to measure. Not so when the pot
is in concentrated form, perhaps baked into a cookie or brownie.

The state could soon address that issue with a bill pending in the
House.

"An ounce of concentrate is a significant amount - it's probably close
to about 10 times the amount that you would have in an ounce of the
flowers," said Democratic Rep. Jonathan Singer, who is co-sponsoring a
bill that directs the state Department of Revenue to determine how
much concentrated pot is equal to an ounce of leafy pot.

To put the difference between flower marijuana and concentrated pot in
further context, Singer noted that "an ounce of concentrate would last
most medical marijuana patients probably pretty close to a year."

Colorado currently allows adults over 21 to possess an ounce of
marijuana for recreational use, but the legalization amendment that
voters approved in 2012 makes no distinction between leafy green pot
flowers or highly concentrated hash oil used to make pot infused edibles.

Washington state, the only other state with legal recreational pot,
already has limits of less than an ounce for hash oil, 16 ounces of
pot food and 72 fluid ounces of weed drinks.

Colorado's marijuana industry agrees there should be equivalency
standards, and sent a letter a couple of weeks ago to the revenue
department requesting as much. But Mike Elliott, executive director of
the Marijuana Industry Group, said it will be a complicated process
and that it's unclear right now what the equivalency standards should
be.

"It's kind of like asking a question that doesn't have an answer," he
said

Just last month, a Wyoming college student visiting Denver on spring
break jumped to his death after eating a marijuana cookie. There was
no indication how strong the cookie was, but the death stoked fears
that concentrated marijuana products can be used to create large
amounts of edible pot.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D