It wasn’t long ago that you’d go to a dispensary and every edible there looked like it was made in someone’s ‘questionable’ kitchen. Without a consistent brand or potency, knowing what dosage to expect was a bit of a guessing game. One might even recall trying a batch of homemade brownies “back in the day,” feeling so much panic and anxiety that they vowed never to eat edibles ever again.
Those days are fading fast, with brand names sweeping the edibles market. States like Washington and Colorado instituted regulations requiring testing on every batch of infused edibles or topicals, and proper packaging and labeling of infused products, both medicinal and recreational. In the past, you had no idea what the difference was between grams and milligrams dosing, and if the product wasn’t labeled properly you had no idea what the edible was infused with. Let’s not forget that one person’s 2-3x dose is not the same as the next person’s dosing. Each person’s body will always metabolize THC differently. Now dosing is becoming a language the average connoisseur understands.
It used to be a brownie or rice crispy treat was all a cannabis club had to offer. Now the infusion process and technology has advanced so far beyond just baked goods that we have gourmet chocolates, caramels, honey, hard candies, gummie candies, lolli-pops, tinctures, taffy, a plethora of different beverages like sodas,coffee, teas, shots, in addition to oral solves, capsules, sprays, topicals and more. With different infusion methods becoming known and popular, like CO2 and hash oil extractions, the old days of cannabutter and canna-oil alone are over. No longer do you have to consume fat, butters, oils or lipids to medicate in a smokeless manner.
The marketplace has come so far that dispensaries will not even consider carrying an edible line without proper packaging and labeling. Even though California pioneered the medical marijuana dispensary model, the State still has some catching up to do on edible handling and regulation, San Francisco excluded. The State decided to allow the local cities to determine MMJ regulation, and SF is the only city that instated edible handling and packaging laws. While there are still proven discrepancies in testing results, Colorado and Washington certainly are leading the way in the regulation department.
BY B. LE GRAND
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF