Safe, stodgy — and wise
It will be a cannabis cornucopia. It will include everything from brownies and chocolate bars to beers and breath strips.
When the edibles end of Canada’s legal pot market opens this coming winter, it will quickly take over more than half the country’s cannabis sales by dollar value, enter virtually every food and beverage grouping and be — if Health Canada has its way — as unappetizing as possible.
While vague, the rules around edibles that the federal agency tasked with regulating the country’s pot industry unveiled this month strive to tamp down the products’ innate and eclectic appeals.
These include restrictions on ingredients that might make them more tempting and encourage over-consumption, limiting the levels of psychoactive THC to 10 milligrams per package, and a requirement that each offering be sold in plain, childproof wrapping.
It’s a safe and stodgy strategy, and given the potential dangers of edibles it’s the right way to go.
Because far more than the combustible products introduced to the legal market last October, cannabis edibles pose particular perils to children and neophyte pot users.
For children, the dangers are obvious. First, of course, there’s no need to roll, light and smoke any of the chocolates, candies or bottled beverages that will be flooding pot-store shelves.
It’s the confectionery nature of so many edible products, however, that makes them especially dangerous to youngsters.
Emergency physicians say they have already seen an uptick in the number of children presenting with cannabis-related ailments in hospital ERs. And they fear that will only worsen when the edibles market opens, likely in December.
To help prevent this, the new Health Canada regulations explicitly mandate unappealing, childproof packaging. The shape and nature of the tamper-resistant packages has yet to be determined. But it appears the rules will empower federal or provincial officials to determine which products are appropriate and reject those that look too much like treats.
Industry experts believe that the rule that any edible offering “must not be appealing to youth” means that items like suckers, licorice sticks and gummy bears won’t make the cut.
The most critical line of defence for children, however, will always be their parents and caregivers. And the new regulations were produced with an eye to these and other adults as well.
For example, producers will be forbidden to add nicotine and extra alcohol to their wares and will be limited in the amount of caffeine they can mix in. More importantly, the 10-milligram THC limits will help to stave off the most common crisis those new to edibles face.
Because digesting cannabis releases its THC loads more slowly than smoking it, neophyte users often believe that edibles are weak and are tempted to gobble down more.
And when the full, psychoactive content of that accumulated pot finally hits their bloodstreams and brains, many experience freak-outs that can land them in hospital.
Limiting any package of products to 10 milligrams — with each lozenge or chocolate square portion bearing even smaller loads — will help prevent such overdosing.
Producers don’t like the harsh federal restrictions on packaging and promotions, which have been imposed on their combustible products as well. But they have been generally accepting of the broader regulations.
Indeed, many say the THC content and nutritional quality levels the regulations guarantee provide them with an advantage over their competitors in the black market, where no such consistencies exist.
There’s little doubt that the edibles sector will undergo enormous changes in the number and variety of products it will offer and in the ability of producers to market them as the industry matures.
But most experts and players in the fledgling business agree that Ottawa’s plodding, careful introduction of legal cannabis in this country has been a prudent one.
We do, too.
It’s the confectionery nature of so many edible products that makes them especially dangerous to youngsters