Pubdate: Fri, 06 May 2016
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2016 The Boston Herald, Inc
Contact:  http://www.bostonherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Note: Prints only very short LTEs.
Author: Kimberly Atkins

LEGAL POT FOES SAY SELLERS RELY ON HIGH-THC PRODUCTS

The anti-marijuana legalization committee headed by Gov. Charlie 
Baker, Mayor Martin J. Walsh and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo is 
publicly urging legalization backers to come clean about the high 
potency of the drugs the measure would legalize - and acknowledge 
that the marijuana industry depends on these high-octane pot products 
to make a profit.

The Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts cites claims in a 
legal challenge - currently pending before the state's highest court 
- - alleging that the marijuana legalization ballot measure is based on 
misleading information about the potency of the drugs it would legalize.

The products include edibles, such as pot cupcakes and candy, and 
other highly concentrated forms of marijuana that some opponents call 
"cannabis crack" due to their high amounts of THC - the chemical 
responsible for the weed's high.

"People deserve to know that this ballot question would allow the 
industry to market and sell a drug that is much more potent than what 
existed even a generation ago," the committee said in a statement. 
"It will also unlock the door for the sale of dangerous edible 
products that are a risk for accidental use by children."

The committee is not a part of that legal challenge, though it has 
echoed the concerns cited by challengers in their lawsuit.

While your run-of-the-mill marijuana cigarettes from the 1970s had 
single-digit percentage levels of THC, most today have a content of 
13 percent or higher, the suit states. Other products, the suit says, 
can have THC levels as high as 90 percent.

The committee also cited a statement this week by the head of 
Colorado's marijuana trade association in Marijuana Business Daily 
that said outlawing products with THC levels of 16 percent or higher 
"literally would gut" the industry.

"People deserve to know what they are voting on," the committee said 
yesterday, "and the marijuana industry should acknowledge what it 
openly admits in Colorado - that its profits depend on high potency products."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom