Adolescents are not afraid to discuss marijuana use on Twitter
- Colarado is one of the states in which marijuana is legal. However, the delicacies from it are packaged and manufactured to attract as many customers as possible - and, unfortunately, children.
- The new study found out what attracts the most to these sweets and what needs to be changed.
New laws in Colorado are important steps to make marijuana-containing products less attractive to children, a recent study said.
Laws - which were finalized and came into effect in 2017 - prohibit the production of edible cannabis products in the form of animals or fruit. It isvery important because playful shapes are one of the key things that make food for kids tempting, said Sam Méndez, Managing Director of Washington University, Hemp Law and Project Policies.
But Méndezs researchhe has identified other elements - such as color, smell and taste - that make food attractive. And these are the things that the new Colorado regulations do not regulate.
Méndezovo studium was commissioned by the central authority of Washinof Gton liqueurs and hemp , an organization that oversees marijuana in that state. The aim was to find out more about the problem that struggled with entrepreneurs in the field of cannabis delicacies: How do children keep marijuana consumed?
Children lácolorful covers and shapes
After legalization in Colorado, the cases of children in the outpatient clinic who accidentally consumed marijuana roughly doubled.however, the number is still small compared to ingestion of pharmaceutical products or cleaners.
Appearancethat Méndez could not carry out a study based on attracting children to real marijuana products, he studied, instead of doing what is generally attractive to young children. He found that the color, shape, smell and taste played important roles - which was to be expected.
Children attract food mosty made interesting shapes, such as stars or animals, more than food in ordinary geometric shapes. Furthermore, they prefer foods that are worm orange, yellow or green. They haveI like food that smells sweet and tastes the most and attracts them with a wrap with bright colors and cartoon characters.
New findings
Most importantly, Méndez found that removing only one attractive element would probably have no effect on the product being attractive to the child. "No factor was convincing enough," he said.
For this reason he statedthat the best approach in countries where children have access to such products is to regulate different elements in the food and to check whether the tastand is too attractive for children.
Coloadvises already such laws on marijuana in food - largely. In addition to the new laws on edible shapes, the law also prohibits the packaging and ingredients of cannabis products that are visually similar to those intended for children.
The law also explicitlyprohibits the use of the word "candy" and the like on the labels of marijuana snacks. However, the law does not control smell and color.
RePresident Jonathan Signer, a Democrat from Longmont who has adopted edible food regulation in past legislative sessions, said research shows that Colorado is on track. However, he added that the state needed more - for example, to discuss whether it would be possible to tighten the regulations even further to reduce the number of children who ended up in hospital because of cannabis sweets.