Now that cannabis is legal, consumers need access to consistently-dosed edibles

Oct 22, 2018 | 2:19 PM

WHEN HUMANITY EXPANDS into new territory, a lot of uproar and curiosity is created. New legal cannabis regulations are a prime example.

However, a few doors have been shut. One of these, edibles, will wage a war of attrition — as new regulations often do while wrinkles are slowly worked out. Doctors have warned of an impending rise in emergency room visits from paranoid over-consumers, a spike which will be caused by inhibiting access to professionally-made, lab-tested, consistently dosed products. This is something medicinal patients had, from a select number of well managed “grey area dispensaries” currently shutting down. Newcomers especially will need these well-dosed products, as many trying recreational cannabis, without tolerance, may find smoking/vaping, oils or capsules unappealing. With no professional outlet, many will choose to turn to potentially amateur home baking until Health Canada’s approval for legal sale.

The preparation of an edible should be done with great care. Dosing is incredibly important. If homegrown is used, potency should over-estimated and conversions double-checked. Mixing each batch of edibles should be done thoroughly. Doing so incorrectly can create an impossible-to-dose batch. One cookie might be 10 mg while another could be 50 mg from the same batch. Even the illegal dispensaries with poor management were culprits of falsely dosed, misleading products.

Professional sale of accurately dosed edibles needs to remain in proper well-managed stores. Cannabis as a legal substance should be available in all forms of consumption, regardless necessary warning labels or regulations. Unfortunately a due date was pushed before all sectors were truly prepared.  Perhaps internationally, this is a lesson for agencies to begin to prepare for change now.