Potential Danger Behind Marijuana Edibles

I’ve always been impressed with how many things THC can be infused in to. I’ve seen hard candies, chex-mix, all manner of cookie, cake, and brownie; I’ve heard of THC-infused soda, tea, cheese and oils, and even beef jerkey.

All this sounds just great, but there is a potential danger behind having so many different types of edibles. An article from ABC news touched on this and made some great points.

These innovative ways of getting THC into our systems are outpacing our ability to regulate and properly label the products. This can be a problem because improperly or unlabeled edibles could find their way into the hands of those who should not be getting any THC in their systems, such as children or people who have high-responsibility jobs.

The article makes a great point, saying that Washington and Colorado “cannot rely on either the investigative expertise of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the regulatory know-how of the Food and Drug Administration – marijuana is illegal at the federal level.”

These two government bodies, the CDC and the FDA have certain steps required for new pharmaceutical drugs in order for products to make it to store shelves. Among these are product and quality checks that insure that tablets actually contain the amount of medicine they are supposed to.

Because of the delayed effect of edibles, it can be difficult to know how much to take unless you know how much THC was used in making the product. This could lead to taking too much or too little. For this reason, good labeling practices are important.

The legal marijuana situations in Washington and Colorado are still young. The good thing is that as these new industries mature, the technical and legal nuances will mature as well.