A Nevada bill that would make all marijuana “candy” illegal is not going down smoothly with some industry leaders.Nevada law already requires all marijuana products to be packaged in a way that is not appealing to children, but Senate Bill 344 take that mandate a step further.
The bill would make it illegal for edible marijuana products to contain sugar unless they are baked goods and to be labeled with images of cartoon characters, mascots, action figures, balloons, fruits or toys. Products also would not be able to be modeled after a brand of products primarily consumed by children, such as gummy bears or Teddy Grahams.”This bill is just the start,” said nonpartisan Sen. Patricia Farley, of Las Vegas, who has been working with industry leaders on the bill.
Farley, who is currently making amendments to the bill, wants to eliminate all products that contain sugar and also make it illegal to make such products in primary colors that might appeal to youth.”We have to draw a little bit stricter of a line in the sand,” Farley said while introducing the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.
The bill would introduce dosage limits for individual servings in an effort to prevent consumers from getting more than they bargained for out of a bite-sized portion of an edible, but not as low as some were hoping for. While different products would have different limits, most products would contain no more than 400 milligrams of THC.
“This is another way to make sure that Nevada leads the nation in its marijuana practices,” said Farley, who has looked at model laws in other states such as Oregon, Colorado and Washington.
Both Democrats and Republicans seemed to agree on the merits of the bill, some asking that it be taken a bit further.”I think that you’re setting a standard that would protect our children,” said Sen. Becky Harris, R-Las Vegas.Several senators were upset by the opposition from industry leaders, some of whom felt that the bill went too far barring companies from using cartoons and candy-like shapes.
“Some of these statements being made today are disgusting. This is about greed over child safety. You’re not helping your case with members of this body by continuing to object that you believe this bill is too broad,” said Sen. Michael Roberson, R-Las Vegas.Sen. Aaron Ford, D-Las Vegas, agreed and said that he was disappointed in the opposition to the bill from those who manufacture marijuana edibles.
“I remember when I was a kid you could go to the grocery store and buy candy cigarettes, you’d put them in your mouth and blow cigarette smoke, but it was candy. It was to get me ready to buy real cigarettes, I would hope to hear that the industry is cognizant of the fact that we want to protect our children from that type of advertisement,” Ford said.Opponents of the bill asked for a variety of changes: some wanting more regulation included, some wanting less.Wendy Stolyarov, legislative director for the Libertarian Party in Nevada, said that it was too broad and that the government should not be restricting companies from using characters, colors and the like.
credit:rgj.com
