Governing Ganja Grub

By Chris Arneson

Some new Colorado laws are making it a little trickier for you to accidentally eat too many marijuana cookies. 
 The new laws, which went into effect Feb. 1, call for stricter labeling on edible THC products, as well as more stringent childproof packaging. Just like alcohol, recreational marijuana users must be 21 to legally purchase.

Anthony Sauro, part-owner of Denver’s Sweet Leaf Marijuana Centers, says the new packaging laws essentially make them safer, to avoid mistakes users might make when partaking, such as ingesting more than intended or accidentally giving a child access.

According to a Reuters article from April 2014, Rep. Frank McNulty, a Republican from suburban Denver, said: “The packages of edibles are labeled that they contain marijuana, but once they’re out of the package, they’re indistinguishable from a brownie or lollipop bought at a grocery store.”

Edibles can include a variety of options: chocolates, gummies, mints, suckers, and even drinks. With the new laws, recreational THC content can range from as low as 5mg as high as 100mg; medical can go as high as 500mg.

Sweet Leaf has a purchase limit of 10 recreational edibles per Colorado customer but the statewide limit is 28 grams, according to Sauro. Each edible equates to one gram at Sweet Leaf.

Before the laws, a chocolate bar could simply be resealed with a zipper. Now, the packaging must also include a warning about its contents.

“If something is under one gram, it’s called a one-time use,” Sauro says. “If it’s over that, it’s called a multi-use, which means it needs to be childproofed through multiple uses.”

With edibles, you can expect to find candies packaged more like pills. EdiPure, for example, sells their treats in bottles you could find in any pharmacy, while its contents resemble everyday candy.

Sweet Leaf has also implemented their own “first-time 5” campaign, informing first-timers to take it slow with edibles and let them kick in, since most of them typically take 50 minutes to an hour to take effect, depending on your metabolism.

“That’s the biggest issue,” Sauro explains. “People wait 20 minutes and want to feel something, so they take more. An hour later, they’re in a really bad situation.”

Sauro equates the use of edibles with alcohol use. Over time, people will begin to realize their limits.

In the last few years, Sauro noted, the industry has cracked down to make sure edible companies are offering what they say they are.

“It’s a lot better a system than it was,” he says.


Jenna Moll Reyes, a budtender at Sweet Leaf’s 6th Avenue location, says a lot of their customers are travelers from out of state, since it’s the closest dispensary to the airport. This means the budtenders have to stay extra knowledgeable on their products.

“Because you can’t smoke in hotel rooms, most travelers are going for edibles,” Reyes tells us.

Sauro says Sweet Leaf’s budtenders go through a two-week training process followed by a three-page test, covering every edible and strain and their effects. The test is reissued every 60 days. This method of education isn’t common in most Denver dispensaries.

Reyes says companies have begun to take consumers’ dietary needs into consideration, offering gluten-free and agave-infused options. You can even add THC- infused granola to your lunchtime yogurt.

She says the most you’ll spend for an edible in her store is $18, which is around $25 after tax. The cheapest edibles in their selection include cookies from Sweet Grass Kitchen, containing about 9.5mg of THC for about $5, or $8 after tax.

Along with other themed daily specials, Sweet Leaf offers Munchie Mondays, where edibles are buy one, get one of equal or lesser value half-off. With the more easily interpreted packaging, you’ll be less likely to bite off more than you can chew.

For more info on where to purchase edibles in Denver, check out WeedMaps.com.