Marijuana Opponents Ditch Battle over Potency of THC (Psychoactive) Compound

On July 8th, marijuana opponents in Colorado abandoned a plan to ask voters about requiring less-potent pot and telling pot consumers that cannabis can cause brain damage and paranoia, saying they didn’t have enough money to advertise it.

Pot opponents had backed a measure, Initiative 139, which would have limited the amount of THC contained in products sold by several hundred legal marijuana retailers in the state. The initiative would have blocked customers from purchasing any marijuana product that contained more than 16% of the plant’s psychoactive ingredient.

Initiative supporter Ali Pruitt of the Healthy Colorado Coalition said in a statement:

“We simply couldn’t go toe-to-toe with the marijuana moguls who committed tens of millions to defeat our common-sense controls on the sale of recreational marijuana.

The marijuana industry built a wall of money between us and the November ballot that we simply couldn’t break through.”

Ron Castagno, a former Jefferson County high school principal and supporter of the abandoned initiative, added:

“The Marijuana Moguls put a pile of campaign cash on the table and won. Our kids, and our communities are in crisis, for now.”

The Colorado Health Research Council (CHRC), a pro-marijuana group, was against the measure, arguing that it would have had a devastating impact on Colorado’s citizens, as well as its economy, and would have made illegal the vast majority of products sold within the state. [1]

CHRC was 1 of 2 groups that opposed the measure, and as of June 27, it had raised $248,000 to oppose the initiative, according to the secretary of state’s campaign finance records. Most of those dollars came from Colorado marijuana-related companies. The second group had not reported raising or spending any money.

In addition to limiting the amount of THC in marijuana products, the constitutional amendment would have required pot products to be sold in child-resistant packaging; required edible marijuana products to be sold in single-serve packages; and required warnings on packages that included potency and health risks.

Under current state law, there is no limit to how potent marijuana or marijuana infused products can be. However, there exists a designated serving size of 10 milligrams of THC per serving, and 100 milligrams total for an individually-wrapped product. There is no limit on what percentage that can be of the product. [2]

Sources:

[1] The Washington Times

[2] The Gazette