Day 3 #CannabisJournalism

Today for class we visited the Sweet Grass Kitchen, a Denver based edible manufacturer specializing in medicated cookies and brownies. Sweet Grass often times uses their own in house plants to maintain quality and consistency.

After the tour, we met up with Ry Prichard, one of the most knowledgeable people about cannabis I have ever met, and an author at the Cannabist.

One thing that stood out to me from both of these experiences was the stringent rules manufacturers have to adhere to if they want to stay compliant in the state of Colorado. For example, the people at Sweet Grass have to begin to start engraving an emblem into their cookies to show that they are medicated. On the concentrates side, the concentrate must be constantly tested and only have a certain percent of solvent left in the product (depending on the method used for extraction) to stay compliant. Although I understand these rules are for the safety of the general public, I think a lot of them are only to quell hysteria generated by those un-informed about cannabis. Is a warning symbol on a cookie really going to prevent a child from eating it? Of course not, but it helps give the appearance of safety and restraint, which I believe allows the state of Colorado to continue to sell cannabis. On the world stage, appearances mean everything, and are a necessity if we wish to continue to keep cannabis legalized.